Posted in Art, Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Gratitude, Memoir, Practice, Relationships, Taos, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged artists, author interviews, becoming a writer, friendships, interview with Natalie Goldberg, loneliness, mentors, Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away, teachers as mentors, the black dog, the writer's life, wild mind, Writing Down The Bones, writing memoir, writing practice, writing process, writing relationships, writing with students on May 13, 2008 | 27 Comments »
Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg, images provided by Simon & Schuster, photo of Goldberg © 2008 by Mary Feidt. All rights reserved.
On Thursday, April 10, QuoinMonkey and ybonesy interviewed Natalie Goldberg, author of the recently released Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir. The interview was especially meaningful in [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Haiku, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Skies, Structure, tagged Alexander Calder, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, spring in Minnesota, the practice of haiku, The Spinner, Walker Art Center on May 11, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Spinner, 1966, sculpture by Alexander Calder, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden near the Walker Art Center, May 2008, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
blue Midwestern spring
Calder’s spinner bobs and weaves
dancing with the wind
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, May 11th, 2008
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
Read Full Post »
Posted in Architecture, Art, Books, Great Places To Write, Haiku, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Skies, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged cities, Fifth Street Towers, libraries, Minneapolis Central Library, Minneapolis Skyline, the practice of haiku on May 7, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Refraction, downtown Minnesota Central Library, March 2008, during Talk of the Stacks. Ali Selim and Will Weaver discussed the making of Sweet Land. The moment this photograph was taken, they were sitting to the left, signing books. The curved blue lines are the Fifth Street Towers. Photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
blue light [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Photography, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Spirituality, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, tagged changing seasons, circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, mandalas, Marija Gimbutas, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, Wheel of Life on April 30, 2008 | 8 Comments »
April draws to a close in a few hours. Though it snowed last Saturday, the light of April’s last day is clear and blue. The front yard is bursting with new life: erratic shoots of thick, green grass, day lilies skyrocketing out of tender wet ground, red-stemmed dogwood buds, one purple bloom in the [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Fiction, Film / TV / Video, Growing Older, Money, Music, Photography, Politics, Reading, Writers, Writing, tagged 1970's Bestsellers, 1970's history, American bestsellers, goddess of poetry, goddess of wisdom, how literature enriches life, Jakob H. F. Fjelde, literature, Minerva, Minneapolis Central Library, the 1970's on April 24, 2008 | 22 Comments »
Minerva, 1889 - 1890, Roman goddess of poetry, music, wisdom, and warriors (Greek, Athena), bronze sculpture by Norwegian American artist, Jakob H. F. Fjelde, downtown Minneapolis Central Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
The first black hole was discovered in the same decade that Star Wars was released (and not by Columbo, [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Animals & Critters, Art, Doodling, Family, Haiku, Poetry, Seasons, Writing, tagged children's poetry, images of dogs, images of pugs, limericks, poems about dogs on April 23, 2008 | 40 Comments »
Sony Pepperoni, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2008
by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Em, my youngest daughter, has been reading and writing poetry all this month with her third-grade class. She wrote two limericks and one haiku, and she carried in her Poetry Book a poem called “My hobby” by Shel Silverstein. She read all [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Doodling, Love, Personal, Photography, Poetry, Secrets, tagged fashion, Italian shoes, odes, Pablo Neruda, pink shoes, style on April 19, 2008 | 28 Comments »
Pink Shoe, pen and ink and marker paint on graph paper,
doodle © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
It’s not the first pink shoe I’ve loved.
The first would be a pair I bought for $3 at a garage sale. Nineteen-forties, pointy toe, with a bow. Still in the original shoe box.
“Love” is too strong of a word. That’s [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Culture, Doodling, Place, Poetry, Practice, tagged images of washing machines, laundromats, Poetry, the practice of poetry on April 14, 2008 | 13 Comments »
Industrial Strength Clean, pen and ink on graph paper,
doodle © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
I went to a laundromat today
14 quarters per load
white towel with colors
it was my only white
Like the mom
and the boy
who likes to put the quarters
into the machine
They’re the only
whites in the place
Two women speaking
Spanish
sound like they’re
cussing out
the spin cycle
A black [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Bones, Doodling, Great Places To Write, Practice, Relationships, Structure, Vision, Work, Writing, tagged 1 Year Anniversary of red Ravine, blog launch, red Ravine, the work of blogging on April 7, 2008 | 37 Comments »
One Year Today, celebrating the one-year anniversary of red Ravine, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
QuoinMonkey: I can’t believe it’s been a year since we launched red Ravine!
ybonesy: Me neither. It’s felt more like ten. (laughs) Just kidding. But I am amazed at how much energy it [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, Family, Fotoblog, Laughing, Nature, Personal, Photography, Place, Seasons, Skies, Structure, Vision, Weather, tagged Art Shanty Projects, David Pittman, Medicine Lake, Peter Haakon Thompson, The Art Of Ice, winter in Minnesota on April 6, 2008 | 10 Comments »
The Face Of Winter, Medicine Lake, Minnesota, February 2008, photo
© 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
When photographer Peter Haakon Thompson came up with the Art Shanty Projects in 2003, he never meant for it to become a huge event. The original plan was to take a break from work, build his own ice shack, and [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Body, Death, Growing Older, Life, Quotes, Vision, Writing Topics, tagged aging, centenarians, longevity, writing about growing older on April 3, 2008 | 11 Comments »
Sarah (Book of Genesis), gouache on wooden board retablo,
painting © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
You can’t stop it. The tick-tock of the clock.
Once I heard someone say that time doesn’t pass (as if we’re standing still and time flows on by); instead, we pass through time.
Perhaps you don’t want to stop the passage of time. [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Dreams, Personal, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged art supplies, the practice of writing, writing about tools of the trade, writing supplies on April 1, 2008 | 22 Comments »
I always wanted to work with my hands. Maybe that’s why I buy so many art supplies. I have a Pentel paint set I once bought in the Tokyo airport. The paints are like pastel sticks that you use to draw on paper. Also in the set are brushes on the ends of plastic tubes. You put [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Culture, Labyrinths, Maps, Photography, Place, Practice, Relationships, Spirituality, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, tagged circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, Labyrinths, mandalas, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, walking the labyrinth, Wheel of Life on March 31, 2008 | 12 Comments »
I’m cutting it close on the March mandalas! In a few hours, it will be April. Though you would not know it by the 9 inches of blizzard outside the window. The Great Round: Stage Three mandalas follow one of my favorite forms — the labyrinth.
These have been the most fun for [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Work, Writing, Writing Topics, tagged BIC, Flair, fountain pens, history of writing utensils, Main Street, pens, Sharpie, Sinclair Lewis, the practice of writing, using lists to capture details, what's in front of me, writing about tools of the trade on March 26, 2008 | 29 Comments »
El Rancho Cafe, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Writers love pens. And paper products. Those are our tools of the trade. When I was younger, there weren’t that many choices: Sharpies (1964), BICs (1950), and Flairs (1966). I used them all. My current pen of choice for Writing Practice [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Authors, Creative Nonfiction, Essay, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Life, Memoir, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Relationships, Structure, Topic Writing, Vision, Writers, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged giving back, gratitude for community, red Ravine Guests, thank you, writing community on March 23, 2008 | 17 Comments »
Piglet Bearing Gifts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2007, photo © 2007 by SkyWire Alley. All rights reserved.
I’m afraid the photograph of Piglet gives me away — I’m a little late posting this piece. I had wanted to get it out in January. You know what they say about the best laid plans.
Still, it wouldn’t be right [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Death, Life, Place, Practice, Structure, Vehicles, Work, tagged Marvin Franklin, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA, New York Transit Museum, subway deaths, train deaths on March 7, 2008 | 37 Comments »
Self Portrait, by Marvin Franklin,
image from The New York Times slide show
An article in this week’s The New York Observer caught my eye, about Marvin Franklin’s first art show, at the New York Transit Museum.
Franklin was a Metropolitan Transportation Authority track worker who was killed by a train on April 29, 2007, at age 55 and [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Art of Rebellion, Body, Culture, Maps, Photography, Practice, Relationships, Writing Topics, tagged body art, history of tattoos, Otzi the IceMan, Tattoo You, tattoos, writing about tattoos on March 3, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Do you have a tattoo? Otzi the IceMan has 57 of them. His 5000-year-old body was discovered in 1991, on a mountain between Austria and Italy, by German tourists trekking the Oetz Valley. The IceMan is one of the best preserved Neolithic corpses ever found.
He was still wearing goatskin leggings and a grass [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Bones, Dreams, Everyday Art, Gratitude, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Random, Relationships, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged accountability, actions speak louder than words, commitment, giving back, living the questions, Rilke, the value of the Arts, walking your talk, writing community on March 2, 2008 | 34 Comments »
Burning, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
How do you walk your talk? I’ve been thinking about what that means. I can write, paint, draw until I’m blue in the face. How does it change anything? How is it making a difference in the way I live my life?
A wise person once told me, [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Family, Maps, Practice, Silence, Skies, Spirituality, Structure, tagged Bliss, circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, mandalas, Marija Gimbutas. Goddess energy, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, Wheel of Life on February 28, 2008 | 17 Comments »
These are our February mandalas for The Great Round: Stage Two - Bliss. Again, we used Crayola markers and colored pencils. The feel of coloring the Stage 2 mandalas was very different than The Void mandalas of January. I pay attention to the colors I am drawn to when I sit down with the circles. My [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Body, Haiku, Poetry, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing, tagged Mano Poderosa, Omnipotent Hand, writing about risk on February 26, 2008 | 22 Comments »
Mano Poderosa (Omnipotent Hand), gouache painting and etching
on wood, retablo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
heart to head to hand:
what am i willing to bleed?
the risk of writing
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
-related to post, WRITING TOPIC - TAKE A RISK
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Haiku, Holding My Breath, Nature, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, Secrets, Things That Fly, Wake Up, tagged Audio Art, Nature's secrets, recording nature, sound technology, the practice of haiku, the sound of snow and ice, winter in Minnesota on February 24, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Snow Flying On Ice, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
thick lumbering lake
bristles at the crackling sound
snow flying on ice
Lake Ice Booming - 1min
Recorded by Audio Producer/Editor/Mixer, Curt Olson at Track Seventeen
More sounds of Winter at: The Sound of Snow and Ice - Various Artists at Gruenrekorder
-posted on red Ravine, [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Art of Rebellion, Doodling, Jugular, Writers, Writing, Writing Topics, tagged Alma Lopez, controversy in art, Go for the jugular, Madonna in a Bikini, Natalie Goldberg, taking a risk through writing on February 19, 2008 | 31 Comments »
For anyone who lived in New Mexico in 2001, you will remember the “Madonna in a Bikini” controversy. Artist Alma Lopez depicted the Virgen de Guadalupe as a real woman wearing a bikini of flowers.
Many Catholics were offended, and even the Catholic Church protested, claiming that Lopez had turned the Holy Mother into “a tart.” [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Animals & Critters, Art, Bones, Culture, Nature, Photography, Practice, Things That Fly, Wake Up, Writing, Writing Topics, tagged feathers as symbols, feathers throughout history, light as a feather, Shield of Courage, writing about feathers on February 11, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Let’s talk feathers. Light as a feather, feather in your cap, feathered pillows, feathered hair. I’ve been collecting bird feathers since 1984. I find them on long walks through the woods; I find them in the sidewalk cracks along city roads.
Feathers have been used in every culture since the beginning of time. In South American [...]
Read Full Post »
Hair, pen and pencil doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Maybe it’s the wind today. It’s a hair-raising wind. The kind of wind that would blow off a toupee or at the very least make the curly-headed among us look like we’ve been electrocuted.
Maybe it’s all the sickness around these days. Days spent in [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Body, Family, Maps, Practice, Silence, Spirituality, Structure, tagged circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, mandalas, playing with color, quality time, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, The Void, Wheel of Life on January 27, 2008 | 25 Comments »
We finished up our January mandalas for The Great Round: Stage One - The Void. We used Crayola markers and colored pencils with names like Tomato Red, Inchworm Green, Pinky Pink, Little Boy Blue, Small Potatoes, Sunwave Yellow, Green Sprout, Coral Orange, Gnarly Purple, Pipeline Green, Black Shades, Chocolate Chip, Blueberry, and Hang Ten Purple. [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Family, Labyrinths, Maps, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Spirituality, Structure, Wake Up, tagged circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, mandalas, mandalas for kids, Ouroboros, Sacred Circles, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, Wheel of Life on January 26, 2008 | 47 Comments »
Coloring Mandalas, A Few Snapshots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2008, all photos © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Relaxing Saturday winter night. Liz and I are coloring mandalas and watching a documentary on Beat Generation poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Liz bought a book on Coloring Mandalas by Susanne F. Fincher. It contains 48 sacred circle [...]
Read Full Post »
Untitled, old watercolor doodle of spoon and ball, © 2007
by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
QuoinMonkey’s photo earlier this week of Spoonbridge and Cherry, 1985-1988, which came out in red Ravine post “White Elephants on Art,” reminded me of a fascination I once had with spoons. Their shape and size, the way they have a roundish end [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Body, Gratitude, Haiku, Photography, Place, Poetry, Random, Seasons, tagged darkness, snow goddess, the return of light, time, winter on January 10, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Snow Goddess, Minneapolis, Minnesota, taken Christmas Day, December 2007, photo © 2007 by SkyWire Alley. All rights reserved.
Dark when I left work,
then closing my eyes for sleep
the weatherman chimed,
“In the great Midwest
we’ve gained 8 minutes of light
since Winter Solstice.”
Read Full Post »
Posted in Animals & Critters, Art, Body, Bones, Laughing, Photography, Quotes, tagged Deborah Butterfield, horses, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, sculpture, The Horse Colors, Woodrow on January 6, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Woodrow, Deborah Butterfield sculpture, bronze, 1988, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2008, all photos © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I was thinking of Novelty Pets when photographing this Deborah Butterfield sculpture at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden yesterday. When she created the sculpture in 1988, she named the horse, Woodrow.
The inscription on the plaque [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Culture, Everyday Art, Food, Home, Memoir, Personal, Photography, Place, Things That Fly, Vision, tagged Basilica of St. Mary, Claes Oldenburg, Coosje Van Bruggen, Frida Kahlo, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Southern cooking, Spoonbridge and Cherry, Walker Art Center, ways to start the New Year, White Elephant Cafe, white elephants on January 5, 2008 | 44 Comments »
White Elephant Cafe, Augusta, Georgia, June 2007, photo © 2007-2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I don’t have much energy for writing. Liz and I spent the day at the Frida Kahlo Exhibit at the Walker Art Center. Then romped around the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and Conservatory, snapping photographs of:
That’s our idea of a FUN day. [...]
Read Full Post »
A art, all things Art and Artist, absolute passion for Art, artsy-fartsy
B billies, that’s what I call the Boys in my life: Jim, Otis, Rafael
C children, my girls, chattering sitting in the same chair
D daylight growing, Dad
E evenings, eating dinner with my family more often than not
F friends, family, fields (of dreams, of birds, of grass)
G [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Holidays, Labyrinths, Life, Love, Maps, Personal, Photography, Place, Practice, Silence, Spirituality, Structure, Topic Writing, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged community as witness, end of the year rituals, Labyrinths, making a Gratitude List, New Year's resolutions, prosperity, reflecting on the past, the ABC's of Gratitude, The Places I've Walked, the power of Gratitude on December 31, 2007 | 30 Comments »
The Places I’ve Walked, walking a brick labyrinth, Martinez, Georgia, June 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved
It’s New Year’s Eve (almost a whole New Year, ybonesy!). I’m working on the black-eyed peas and rice post. And I’ve got to say the orangutan’s butt is a pretty hard act to follow! But I’m [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Family, Holidays, Home, Personal, Random, tagged meme, post Christmas, pre New Year's on December 27, 2007 | 36 Comments »
Christmas Letdown. Yesterday my youngest had a meltdown when her sister left with a friend to Santa Fe. That’s when it dawned on her that Christmas was over. I know that feeling. It’s memorized in my bones.
After Christmas Sales. I always say, “Let’s wait til after Christmas to buy the pants, shoes, coat, etc., you wanted [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Gratitude, Holidays, Love, Seasons, Spirituality, Vision, tagged Christmas card art, Christmas tree image, hopes for the New Year, linocut print on December 25, 2007 | 10 Comments »
peace ∞ hope ∞ love ∞ alegría
∞ joy ∞ reflection ∞ solitude ∞
persistence ∞ paz ∞ awareness
Read Full Post »
Posted in Art, Culture, Gratitude, Holidays, Home, Life, Love, Personal, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Spirituality, tagged community, darkness, filling the well, hibernation, light, linocut, Santa Claus, Solstice & Equinox time chart, winter celebrations, Winter Solstice, Yule on December 22, 2007 | 23 Comments »
Winter Solstice, cropped linocut © 1991 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Midnight is Winter Solstice. I sit in the coming darkness alone, watching the sky. Snow melted and dripped off the roof. Puddles formed in the driveway. A storm will skirt the Twin Cities by morning. I am hoping for a wallop of snow. The more the merrier, [...]
Read Full Post »
