Welcome To Mabel’s, entrance to Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico, February 2007, photo © 2007-2019 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
There were two of us and we met under the ghost of Mabel Dodge at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico. We had come in the summer to practice, write, and revel in silence. And now there is red Ravine.
What Is red Ravine?
red Ravine is creativity.
We share how we write and what we say, to teach and learn. We may write about the banana we peeled at breakfast, the color of our coffee vessels, the memory of a lover’s hair. You can follow our writing process.
Our writing structure is grounded in the rules of Writing Practice. This practice breeds other practices. You will find finished essays, bits of memoir. Some mornings the urge is to write in verse. Afternoon might bring a page of haiku. There are doodles and drawings, photographs.
We share tidbits from other writers and their perceptive gems about the writing life. We nibble at the heels of writers, we munch books and we leave no flesh, play wild favorites and share our comments and quips.
We share what we don’t know as we write to figure out what we do know. We share so others can read, learn, pound their keys and write, too.
Who Are We?
We began as QuoinMonkey and ybonesy. Years flew by and ybonesy moved on. QuoinMonkey carries on the tradition and practice of red Ravine. Over time we have revealed a lot about ourselves, and maybe it’s because we have written details about our lives and our loves that we have gained comfort, even freedom, in using these personae.
We’ve inhabited different time zones and geographies across the American continent. The difference in hours is matched by variations in avocation, ethnicity, gender, birth sign, hair color, domestic arrangement, accent. There have been children, spouses, partners. There are dogs and there are cats.
We have committed our hands to write. In Taos, we studied with Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones. Our writing flows from minds that are grounded in the teachings of Ms. Goldberg’s Writing Practice. For several years since the August we met in Taos, we have shared our practices on a daily basis. We are asked why we write and there are as many answers as the day will allow.
We write because we are fascinated with words dancing on the page.
We write because we love the taste, touch, and scent of good books and the people who write them. We want to express ourselves as part of that legacy, the lineage of writers.
Writing allows us to speak without shouting. We write to live, to vent, to rest, to light our fires, to tell stories. Writing opens us. Words let us capture the past and let go of memory.
We write to give something to someone. We write so we can fall in and out of love with ourselves.
For us writing is a spiritual practice. Writing keeps us holy and alive. We can not not write.
Writing is wonderful and the life of a writer is often more than pleasant.
How red Ravine Can Work For You
Every month on red Ravine there is a Topic. We write on that topic as we are moved. Other pieces are spontaneous, coming from a moment when our thoughts have to become words. There are responses, pulling an idea or a line from another’s piece and writing from that.
A big part of what gets posted is labeled as Practice. Writing Practice is the core of our writing. And with Practice comes Recall. You can read more about this under the Writing Practice tab.
You can do your own practice. Take one of our topics or grab a phrase that tickles you. Give yourself a time limit, honor the rules and go. Write, rant, pick up your paintbrush.
On occasion we will ask you to show your practices. Don’t forget that one of the big rules is “no good, no bad.”
red Ravine is a place to share the process. Watch our writing and watch your own. Pull out phrases that caught you. Ask us questions. Use the comments area to ask us about our writing, the piece, the process, our selves. Or send us a note at info@redRavine.com.
A few gentle rules: We will do our best to keep the blog free from profanity. This includes rude writing, vulgarity, personal or political attacks. We do not want to censor thinking and remind you that while everyone is free to write anything, there is a boundary between what is public and what you need to keep to yourself. And of course we ask that you respect the integrity of all writers. Don’t steal. Don’t plagiarize. Writing seeks and exposes truth.
red Ravine Graphics & Design
Our heartfelt thanks to the graphic and web designers who make red Ravine sing. Designers and web architects are artists whose hard, behind-the-scenes work showcases our own.
The red Ravine masthead and logotype were created by Wallinga Design in Minneapolis. Working with a wide range of clients, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, Wallinga Design has over 23 years of exemplary graphic design experience in marketing, communications, and web design.
The red Ravine logotype uses an Emigre typeface called Dead History. The design of Dead History was started by former MCAD student and designer P. Scott Makela while studying in the graduate design program at Cranbrook. In 1994, it was licensed to Emigre Fonts where it was redrawn and completed by Zuzana Licko.
According to the designer, Dead History signals the end of an era of traditionally produced fonts and personifies a new attitude in type creation marked by the computer design of hybrid typefaces. Dead History, a blend of sans serif and serif, fits perfectly with the mixed typefaces in the MistyLook template designed for WordPress by Sadish.
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