Moving the Action Figures

Davy has reached the storytelling age.

Mix and match scripts from Zelda and Room on the Broom and Daniel Tiger.

John Hodgman reminding fiction writers that we're just playing make believe.

And that's where the magic is. 💫

"Then suddenly, when you're writing, a character will say something that you didn't think of.

Of course you did think of it, unconsciously. It's from your brain.

But only from a part of your brain that would never have been activated until you sat there and moved the action figures around enough."

John Hodgeman, This is a Secret Society

Leap Before You Look

When I started my deep dive on Black Mountain College I came across this book, Leap Before You Look by Helen Molesworth.

I haven’t bought a book that cost this much since university, but it is a beauty.

(If you’re interested in reading I’d suggest checking out an interlibrary loan or trying library at your nearest art museum.)

But compared to going back to school for a Ph.D., which I briefly considered this Spring, this book is basically a steal. 😉

Here are my notes from my first reading session.

There are a lot of threads to pull on here.

The first is a useful guidepost whilst considering the mission and direction of Neurokind.

“the aspirations of Black Mountain College: namely to inspire us in an expansive notion of the arts and creativity through close observation, physical engagement, service, and play…” Jill Medvedow

Keeping an expansive view of art and what it can do and be. It also feels important that creativity can both be of service and play which so often seem at odds with one another.

This quote took me back to my conversation with Morgan Harper Nichols and this idea that art is a form of communication.

It feels very relevant to Neurokind as platform to share experiences that may transcend or defy language.

Organisms as Mentors & Everyday Mystery

The On Being podcast is BACK and I am loving it!

These two episodes were amazing.

Janine Benyus Biomimicry, an Operating Manual for Earthlings on natural organisms as mentors and peers… learning from them rather than about them.

And Rick Rubin Magic, Everyday Mystery, and Getting Creative. I have SO MANY quotes from this one because I listened while parked in the car while Davy napped:

  • “The real practice of the artist is a way of being in the world.”

  • “It’s hard for me to finish projects because I always see the possibilities of what else we could try and I want to try everything…”

  • “What I came to realize is that there is a time for this open play. And it’s in those first two parts of the process, the seed phase… and experimenting.”

  • “By working with sensitive artists, we resonate together in that we’re feeling things that not everybody else is feeling.”

  • “There is no connection between the amount of time invested and how good something is.”

  • “The sustainable part of the practice is: start with things that are easy to do.”