What's happening to Ukraine breaks my heart

[ORIGINALLY FROM THE TWITTERVERSE - now expanded]

I feel sick to my stomach about what's happening: Put!n attacking Ukraine, and how he's using Belarus as I write a story with diasporic characters from those nations. 

Then there's my 2021 tweet about the need for more visibility of these Eastern-European nations' folks in English-language Romance.

I've known about Belarus' dictator for some time, thanks to Japanese English-language news, my interest in their poet, Valzyna Mort, who's here in the USA for years, and the Belarusian peoples' literary culture. 

I can only imagine how those countries and their people in diaspora must be heartbroken now.💔

Nothing Is New But It Is All Unique

Sick and tired of hearing from fellow creatives that they must avoid creative media in order not to be influenced. We are ALL influenced by *something*.

Vincent Van Gogh collected over 400 Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) and even copied some of its elements into his work.

Art can't happen in a vacuum. It's just not possible. Even those not formally art-trained and may live in the most isolated insular and homogenous community will still create art that shows influence from many elements. 

Take for instance the profound artwork of an incredibly talented individual I saw on a Facebook art group page: his work reminded me of early protest art of 70s vinyl record covers. I pointed this out and he said explained he lived out in the bayous, hadn't gone to art school, and never received any formal training, but he immediately got what I meant of what his work reminded me.

Something inspired him. *Influenced* him to create the way he did and how he did. Though he was in a sense of the modern idea that he was isolated, he was still influenced and inspired by what was around him. By his environment, his experiences, his life. And it became something that reminded me, a total stranger, of something else entirely. Yet, he GOT what I meant.

I'm not saying we are being hacks. What I'm saying is it's okay to acknowledge and not feel ashamed to own up to one's influences. And even if one doesn't know what the influences are, do know that they are still there.

Whenever I create something: whether an illustration, a scribble, a cartoon, comic strip, short story, word list, essay, or this blog post, I like to play a game to try and recognize what inspired me or influenced that particular piece. I'm not saying to do this. I'm just weird.

It is essential to know that while there's "nothing new under the sun", what makes an art 'original' is how it's filtered and distilled by its bearer, its creator. Because we are all different, because each one of us is unique, and because we are all affected by outside and inner forces, the art will be singular, authentic, and genuine.

For My Own Good...

There is an online chat I attend every Sunday at 7:00 PM EST.

Tonight's topic was junior high and I decided, for the betterment of my mental health, to bow out of it as I have many painful memories from that time in my life.

Experiences I'm still processing as a middle-age adult and mining its fodder for my stories and my illustrations.

So, while I won't discuss such matters with people I've chatted with for probably seven years (ancient in social media time!), I would prefer to regurgitate in writing and in art.

This is my life

When people tell me I would make a good fit for other jobs, I stop cold. Despite how I appear and how I carry myself, I wouldn't get involved in a lot of corporate culture or career ladders...

Peers and colleagues assume I would deal well in some management or any kind of 'authority position' but I'm simply an artist at heart.

I've never been the type to show much interests in what I consider other strenuous 'occupational positions'. No matter what, I am happiest when drawing and writing, I don't have the impetus or the drive to do much else. I know in societal terms, this makes me sound incredibly lazy, but, what can I do? This is all I have the strength, the fortitude, and the aptitude to do for the rest of my life.

Though I have the knowledge and skills to do many other things, possibly what may bring me more financial security, I've got to do what I need to in order to succeed in my own way. After all, I'm an artist and a writer.

2016 was tough...

Right now, I'm at my hairdresser's house, typing this. The hair dryer just finished. 2016 has been a rough year and I look forward to 2017 with anticipation and trepidation.

I'm concerned, frustrated, and angered by the political climate in this country. As a creative person working in the profession, there is a real concern that the present administration will cut funding for the arts. It's what many in political circles do when they lean more towards conservatism and are not moderate or progressive.

This angers me because it will directly affect me and many other creatives (aspiring/intermediate/professional) while ricocheting to other industries tied in.

What I can do is continue my art, become more civically aware, educate others, and turn away from those who are narrow-minded, obstructionistic, and who actually believe that because they have the same rights as I, can try to take away mine because I am NOT in their group. I hate being political but when I know there are fellow citizens out there threatening my way of life (healthcare, reproductive, education, government funding, etc.) and the lives of others, I'm going to FIGHT. And FIGHT as an artist/writer/creative I will.

Art imitates story imitates life imitates art...

I will continue to explain about the novel-in-progress (still whittling away) and discuss my various inspirations.

When my classmate and fellow alum published my short story, "Diner Chat", I did not understand the impact of how deep others would scrutinize its implications. Renamed "Night Sounds", I was told by my classmate/editor that she felt it reminded her of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks", and that struck me as extraordinary in that his iconic paintings were one of countless artistic inspirations for me over the years.

Hopper often conveyed soft and hard lines within his paintings, and he portrayed many scenes from a New York of the 30s-40s. Whether he used actual locales or his scenes were figments of imaginary whimsy, Hopper's techniques of structure, color, and dimension made the painting FEEL real to the viewer. We may never know if much of the painter's locations and scenes were ONCE real, but, that isn't the point is it? Just like writers, artists want to pull the viewer, temporarily into their world. And if it feels real long after one has left it, than the impact has been successful.

For some fun at the official online site for the "Mental Floss" magazine, here is a link about Hopper's "Nighthawks". I hope you will enjoy and happy reading!

15 Things You Might Not Know About 'Nighthawks'

http://mentalfloss.com/article/63967/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-nighthawks

IMAGE CREDIT:
EDWARD HOPPER. NIGHTHAWKS, 1942. THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, FRIENDS OF AMERICAN ART COLLECTION.

An Artist in the World

Though it's a start, it's not enough, but it IS a start and it took them long enough, to see more interracial couples on commercials and advertising.

It's also fair to say that, though there could be more, I'm seeing more diversity and multiculturalism on TV and in media. And because such topics are near and dear to me, I present diverse and multicultural characters within my own stories. Within my art.

To those who think this is a trend... This is no agenda. Neither political or religious or a pet for the corporate world which I loathe.

It is life and what I see in my world. And the more I live, it's the more I want to see in my chosen media.

We admit that we are still figuring it out

Even after the publications, after the blogging, after you've figured out your platform and branding, what does it all mean when you still can't get your act together?

I cautioned a classmate not to try categorizing herself. "Leave that to the presses and publishers."

As we work on this journey, and submit, and write, and submit, and write some more, there comes a point when you have to admit: What the heck am I doing?

I don't mean, the 'meaning of life' type questions, or how many writers ask themselves their reason, their plan, or their passion.

I mean, how best to tell the stories one wants to tell in the best possible media?

I ran up against this idea when I asked some classmates to review and critique a possible submission.

One reviewer gave me positive but crucial feedback. My classmate told me I should make the story visual.
This was not the first time I've been told this, yet, it made me really ponder.

What new directions could I take a story in? How far can this story go?

Now in a new chapter of life, I also came to another self-truth: I will have to work on what story wants working on, and not what I can DECIDE to work on this time.

In other words: "I need to work on the sequel to this published short story" versus "This old story of mine is giving me new ideas on how to write it".
I should take the latter, but, unfortunately, our brains aren't that pat, or, even that structured.

My challenge for 2014 is to work IMMEDIATELY on the story that wants working on now.
If I stick with the sequel, I will be stuck, and when I am stuck on a project, is when I mentally feel stuck.

As a writer, or any creative type, I really don't need a new obstacle to prevent me from completing and/or journeying through a new idea or new perspective.

Storytelling involves the quest we talk about to audiences.

Character as a spotlight on society

As an artist, I'm a product of my society.

In the December 2011 post, I uploaded the latest picture on my female protagonist, Stacey Hankin.  As far back as this story goes, I always thought of a hound as her breed. I had already determined which kind back in elementary school.

"Stacey Hankin" (c)

When I posted this image, the response I received was, to paraphrase a close friend, "A hound! Why, out of all the dogs to choose, did you have to pick such an unattractive dog?" Later, the same friend told me the character was actually cuter than she expected.
I had, in early years, received similar responses, and therein lies the crux...

I've often admired the hound, for its hardiness, its stamina, and through a breeder's eyes, its history. The hound is one of the oldest dog breeds in the world.
There is a hound on almost every continent. The hound, oftentimes, without, or, with little human interference, has occurred naturally in many parts of human culture.

Now I come to the next point: in my story, though it is furry fiction, I still try to retain the elements of human society and construct. This means that while my story's cast consists entirely of dogs, they still try to represent the different races and ethnicities.

Stacey Hankin is my Black American woman, and if she were human, she would be very dark. Because of her darkness, she is ridiculed, not just from whites, but more so by blacks.

This theme features predominately in my story: this obsession in society to determine a person's worth and attractiveness by how light and dark they are. This plays out moreso in our so-called 'enlightened' or 'educated' society.

"Beatrice and her sisters" (c)

Many of us know about segregation, but by reading much history, one learns that laws once used race by determining how much mixture in an individual.
Amount of blood determined who one could marry, who one COULDN'T marry, to gain inheritance, to lose inheritance, and that laws were made to even decide who could or could not vote...

To witness archaic rules in motion nowadays, that to be of mix-raced in order to determine attractiveness, sickens me.

In the 21st Century, to still hear people asked if they are mixed to later be told they are beautiful is a clarion call to a change in society's attitudes.

We are responsible for our actions, we each make up the decisions that will fulfill our society's framework.
I'm hoping with this story, the stories I've published, and the stories yet to come, I will, in small part, make an impact to change these destructive ideas that continue to plague our society.

As a writer, as an artist, I have a responsibility to envision the world I wish to see, futures I may hope for.

We are the motes, the cogs, the molecules that make up society's cellular body.

What is your call to action? What will you do? What is your part?