i am at times, serious that is.

Seriously folks

    Maybe I don’t take my writing serious enough at times and let myself go off on tangents too often, and lack substance. Well I am having fun anyhow. It doesn’t pay me anything and requires time on my behalf to write daily and I feel a little less than myself when I don’t write. Don’t suppose every day is a quotable day or if anyone has ever quoted me. Still I persist in something I always considered a second choice in my labor of loves. Art is and will always be my first.

     Although writing itself is an art form I am still more attached to what I can create when I am drawing or imagining a sculpture as it is liberating in letting yourself pour out into a piece of wood, or appear as an image on a piece of paper.  In a way I guess I kind of do that when I write and I am imagining a place and using adjectives such as: The overhang of leafy shade offered comfort and relief from the high summer sun and humid heat to the weary travelers. They sat on the crude wooden bench and the man pulled a worn white handkerchief from his suit pocket and wiped his damp brow, and asked.

     In actuality it was cold as hell again last night. As dad would say you could freeze the balls off a brass monkey out there. Yeah that’s about right. Hard to imagine steamy when your fingers are so damn cold just sitting here typing. But something allows me to mind trip and imagine and I let myself stand out there by the bench under a tree, and reminisce about a time and a place from the past and create a vision sometimes, but at others just imagine what it would be like in a place I never have been before or have ever seen complete with characters and nuances each person has, a personality with which you the reader can relate. . In some ways it’s the same process I use to create sculptures as Imagine what I am looking for in a piece of wood and just keep cutting away everything else narrowing down your vision and mine  to add in the details that you will recognize as I have.

     Imagining brass balls on a monkey isn’t that hard, but when you add in the freezing part, some people need help imagining that. But if you were in my Physics class at Stark Tech and the instructor dipped a green pepper into a vat of liquid nitrogen and pulled it out and holding it above the  table as you watch the steam roll off of it in a matter of seconds , then lets it drop and impact on the surface shattering the green pepper into several pieces as the white frozen veggie hits the table, then you could easily imagine as cold as it is now, a brass monkeys balls , when hit really hard shattering to pieces  quite easily. Makes me cringe brass monkey or not, it’s that other part that bothers me. Just a hazard of being male I guess. But I’m shivering at the thought. In this case experience tells me if I dip my privates in nitrogen and bounce them off the table. My life will soon be hell. At doing this I could easily describe how it would affect my life. But I am sure the visuals of all this has left you with a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach, as it does mine so will forego all that misery , and spare you and me and just assume it will not be a good thing. Experience is good and easy to share, but coupled with an imagination can be a dangerous but exciting tool if you watch where you stick it.  I try to keep mind out of the nitrogen baths.

    Two of my favorite writers were Steinbeck and Mark Twain, both outstanding authors but makers of images and dreams of mine as I was always taken in with their descriptions as they wrote. They could make paintings in my mind as I was instantly conveyed to the place they were describing. I only wish someday I could write half as well. Maybe someday. It starts just as it does when trying to become a master of anything. In fact that describes me the jack of all trades master of none.

    To become a master, one must practice your craft till you have the vision to lead others, I am not there yet, and strive to be there sometime in my life if I am not lead astray. In the meantime I will practice, practice, and practice. Bear with me.