Putting Me Out There

I'm starting this because: (1) most recent days I've been posting stuff I come across that gives me a creative kickstart, (2) I need to publicly commit to creating SOMETHING every day, and (3) I'm scared to be this visible.

It doesn't really matter to me whether I'm afraid of failure or of success, and I'm SICK of reading all the "inspirational" stuff written about that. In fact, reading about how to do something instead of actually DOING something is one of my favorite avoidance tricks ("I'll do it as soon as I read one more book about it ..."). This is my official, painfully public call to action. Finally!

Every day, I will post two things: (1) some item - image, blog, site, reading - I've found that gives me creative juice (I know it when I feel it), and (2) something I've created in the past 24 hours. Not stuff I've done previously, unless it inspires something new (I find that repurposing images is an art in itself, and I've accumulated a pretty good stock over the years).

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Today's creation is this blog page. I reworked an image (tweaked colors & values) from a fabric/texture shoot & made it useable as the background. The editor is kind of clunky (esp the HTML editor), but I used a template and bent it to do what I wanted. I'll continue to tweak the "look/feel" as I figure it out.

Today's posting contains a quote from Sir Ben Kingsley on "Hugo", the new Martin Scorsese film in which he stars. About 3D and its impact on the industry, Sir Ben harks back to Joseph Campbell's work ("The Power Of Myth", e.g.) on the universal archetypes.

   "There are six or seven myths around which all our literature is based. I think there is an anxiety amongst certain filmmakers that the thread that connects what we do to these ancient, life-affirming myths is going to snap. And once that disconnect happens, the film is drifting. It's just a series of noises and effects."

Read more of the interview: HERE

Me, I'm glad to hear him honor the Archetypes. Say what you will about derivation; I believe they tap into something really deep and DNA-level primal, and can make work in any medium more powerful and viewer-involving.

[Note: I found Christopher Vogler's book "The Writer's Journey" to be a fascinating and terrific book on the use of Archetypes in movies, and in literature in general. Great read!] ******************
Please keep me honest and check this blog frequently. Say what you like and what you don't. Send the link to friends. Post it on f/b or somewhere else. Tweet it. Let's see what happens.

   thanks,
       Frank