What Do Artists Do All Day? Katie Paterson is Creating The Future Library

By Kate Phillips

          Recently, artist Katie Paterson was highlighted on the BBC America show What Do Artists Do All Day? She was working on a sculpture created from wood from 10,000 trees—every species in the world including the oldest tree (over 4,000 years old) and the tallest tree in England. The samples are all polished rectangles of various sizes. In the art piece, the wood “grows” from ground level to a canopy high above so people will be able to walk into the sculpture like walking into a forest.

          While this was an interesting project, Paterson explained she had another wood project she was working on called The Future Library. To complete this project, she has planted a forest outside of Oslo. In 100 years, these trees are to be felled, pulped, and made into paper for books.

          In the meantime, 100 authors are being chosen now, one each year, to write books that will be printed on this paper. The first author is Margaret Atwood. The second is David Mitchell. Their books are only to be read as part of this project.

          Will paper books still be prevalent in 100 years? Will people know how to pulp wood and make paper then? I guess instructions will be included with the 100 manuscripts just in case. It’s difficult to believe that things we take for granted today may be faint memories a century from now.

          Of course, this happens all the time. I just read an earlier book (1989) written by a current author. In it, a woman couldn’t call for help from her bedroom because a receiver was off the hook in her kitchen. This was a minor shock to me as cell phones have made this problem inconsequential. How much more of our everyday lives will be inconsequential 100 years from now?

          I keep considering that someday our culture will be considered primitive. How is this possible with computers, tablets, wi-fi, etc.? We’ve sent a Rover to Mars! Except 100 years ago imagine how modern people felt with indoor plumbing, electricity, and now ordinary household appliances.

As a writer, I’m interested mostly in the authors writing books that won’t be read for up to 100 years. They are writing through time. Knowing the audience will have different sensibilities, will that change their work? Or will they just stay true to themselves and write it as just their next book to give the future audience a feel for life as it is now?

          A book takes a lot of time and effort to finish. Imagine, after all that work, getting no appreciation or feedback from your audience. Of course, if the project is completed as planned, the authors will have whole new audiences.

          I hope Katie Paterson’s Future Library is a success. I’d like to think book readers continue on long after most everything else is obsolete.

UPDATE: Reported on BBC the next day: Sony’s new digital books bringing characters to life by swiping the illustrations from the page on to any table top where they danced around were highlighted at a Tech Expo in Germany. It’s getting harder to believe books on paper will be available 10 years from now let alone 100.

April is Poetry Month so Read Mary Oliver

By Kate Phillips 

April is poetry month so I’m continuing to discuss Mary Oliver’s entrancing books.

      

Ray Bradbury makes this recommendation to writers on page 36 of Zen in the Art of Writing:

Read poetry every day of your life…it flexes muscles you don’t use often enough…it expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition.

          Mary Oliver, who publishes both poems and prose, discussed writing poetry in Blue Pastures. On page 59, she wrote:

                  

It takes about

seventy hours to drag

a poem into

the light.

         

          Oliver’s poems range from four to thirty-six lines with occasionally longer pieces. To find out it takes about seventy hours per poem is amazing, daunting—and unsurprising.

          If you have read Mary Oliver’s poems, you know she transports her readers whether to the edge of a pond (“The Notebook” page 44 of House of Light), the midst of the human condition (“Halleluiah” page 19 of Evidence), or inside a painting (“Franz Marc’s Blue Horses” page 43 of Blue Horses: Poems). She does this simply with word choices—the craft of all writers yet she hones them to the stratosphere.

          Oliver reaches these heights by writing and rewriting, reading and rereading. At age 80, she’s been doing this for decades. Her talent shines due to the tens of thousands of hours she has spent writing using the 70-hours-per-published-poem math plus the untold hours spent on her prose. Add on the hours she wrote as a child, student, and unpublished writer until age 28 and it isn’t surprising she is among the best writers in the world.

          Consider a work week is 40 hours. Oliver spends an average of 8.75 work days on a single poem. That’s dedication. That’s commitment. That’s why her poems are compelling, as well as why she is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

          Oliver’s favorite topic is nature. In her poem “Good Morning,” she ponders the vastly different life forms on earth remarking:

                   “It must be a great disappointment

to God if we are not dazzled at least ten

times a day.”

                   (pp. 21-23, stanza 5, in the book Blue Horses: Poems)

          Oliver is often dazzled and shares this in her poems and observations. She knows nature isn’t cute so she writes of death as well as life. Many of her poems like “You Are Standing at the Edge of the Woods” on page 21 of What Do We Know and “Mindful” on pp. 58-59 of Why I Wake Early transform my vision of the world.

          I recommend all writers read Blue Pastures which includes more luminous writings about nature as well as her story of becoming a poet and writer. Here’s how she views her calling:

“Poetry, after all, is not a miracle. It is an effort to formalize (ritualize) individual moments and the transcending effects of these moments into a music that all can use. It is the song of our species.” (page 59)

          Oliver’s advice for all writers which cannot be repeated often enough: give your writing power and time—look for verbs of muscle and adjectives of exactitude. It’s just as simple and difficult as that.

          It’s also what makes Mary Oliver’s poetry dazzling.

Shakespeare: The Illustrated and Updated Edition by Bill Bryson

By Kate Phillips

 

As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide masterclasses within their books.

Masterclasses take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don’t generally have this option, but I have found some books to be masterclasses for characters, backstories, plots, settings, voice, and/or creativity.

 

          I love books—hardcover or paperback—but some books are more physically beautiful than others. Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The Illustrated and Updated Edition is one of the beautiful books.

          The glossy, heavy stock paper pages are filled with full color photographs, paintings including the Cobbe portrait of Shakespeare identified in 2009 but not without controversy, documents, woodcuts, drawings, and sketches not to mention Bryson’s entrancing prose and entertaining facts like:

Shakespeare produced roughly one tenth of all the most quotable utterances written or spoken in English since its inception. (page 151)

He coined—or, to be more carefully precise, made the first recorded use of—2,035 words, and interestingly he indulged the practice from the very outset of his career. (page 148)

                    and

Although he left nearly a million words of text, we have just fourteen words in his own hand—his name signed six times and the words ‘by me’ on his will. (page 24)

That juxtaposition just adds to the mystery of Shakespeare’s life.

While organized chronologically, Bill Bryson’s well-researched book is written as a captivating guided tour of Shakespeare’s life, historic London, and the rise and fall of the theatres. Shakespeare’s companions and competitors all have roles as well. Who would the man be without his time, place, and contemporaries? Not to mention his published works. Given all the facts, it’s difficult to imagine where the English language would be without Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s plays might have been lost…had it not been for his close friends and colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell, who seven years after Shakespeare’s death, produced a folio edition of his complete works…Heminges and Condell were the last of the original Chamberlain’s Men. (page 202)

          No one knows exactly how many First Folios were printed…but all or part of three hundred survive. (page 211-212) Shakespeare never entirely dropped out of esteem—as the publication of Second, Third and Fourth Folios clearly attests—but nor was he reverenced as he is today. After his death, some of his plays weren’t performed again for a very long time. (page 217)

          For any writer, being recognized and read nearly 400 years after death is astonishing—and deserving of celebration in such a gorgeous and engaging book.

What Really Matters by Tony Schwartz and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

By Kate Phillips

 

As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide masterclasses within their books.

          Masterclasses take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don’t generally have this option, but I have found some books to be masterclasses for characters, backstories, plots, settings, voice, and/or creativity.

           I love to read and write, but I have always longed to draw well, too. My great aunt illustrated dozens of children’s books. Her artwork also included a huge cathedral drawn in charcoal and a mixed media Christmas scene both of which grace the walls of my parent’s home. My favorite painting by her is a three foot by three foot depiction of Noah’s Ark with the most adorable monkeys, giraffes, elephants, ponies, camels, penguins, zebras, deer, owls, hippos, bears, lambs, ostriches, cattle, and doves walking and flying to the Ark that she painted for my father’s nursery and was hung in the hallway outside my room when I was growing up. However, I did not inherit her talent.

          Over the years, I have tried to draw many times. I created two pieces that aren’t terrible, but I really want to be able to sketch quickly and accurately.

          I discovered Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence by Betty Edwards while reading What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America by Tony Schwartz. He included a photo of a self-portrait he completed after finishing Edwards’ course which amazed and inspired me.

I love to learn new things so both of these books appeal to me. In fact, I recommend you read Chapter 4 “Seeing the Big Picture” in What Really Matters before you start Edwards’ book as Schwartz gives a  fascinating look into Betty Edwards, her ideas and research, and her beliefs as well as a detailed view of learning to draw from his own beginner’s perspective. He compares writing and drawing on page 178.

          Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was originally published in 1979. I did not discover it until decades later, but the instructions still work. If you want to be inspired, look at pages 11-13 to see before and after drawings by six people. The improvements are astounding.

I have completed the first six chapters and have drawn two pictures I am proud to sign: one of my hand holding my mascara and the other of my bare foot. If you want to learn to draw, start now with this book.

Drawing is an excellent complement to writing. It teaches you a new perspective. It gives you another way to get thoughts and details down on the page about people/characters and settings when you are out and about. Having this artistic skill gives you confidence and another outlet for your creativity.

I’m recommending Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain now as winter weather (or heat waves if you are in the southern hemisphere) keeps many of us inside so we have time to spend on a new pursuit. We can always use a new perspective.

Happy creating!

Our Home, Too by Schim Schimmel

By Kate Phillips

 

        Some writers have writing spaces without windows so they aren't distracted when they work. I cannot write under those conditions.

        My desk does face a wall, but it's next to a window overlooking the lawn and a few trees. I also have a birdfeeder next to an evergreen tree so I can see not only the birds darting to and from the feeder, but those waiting their turns sitting on nearby branches. In a snow storm, the cardinals and chickadees decorate the tree beautifully for the holiday season.

        On the remaining wall space, I have lots of artwork. Mostly framed photos of nature cut from coffee table books or drawings from books I love. I buy second copies of these books, usually used, to cut up so I can enjoy the artwork every day instead of only when I open the books.

I discovered one of my favorite artists, Schim Schimmel, years ago when I stumbled across his notecards in a gift store. They were astonishing nature paintings that juxtaposed water and outer space so you got the feeling that everything is a part of everything else. (Copyrighted artwork so I cannot include pictures with this post.)

My favorite notecard is titled "Arctic Dreams." Three baby seals are lying in the foreground on the ice that seems endless around them. The one in the middle is on its back, flipper in the air almost waving while two adult seals swim in the nearby ragged-edged slash of open water that is painted outer space black complete with the Earth, moon, Saturn, a comet, and a thousand stars. It is, to me, the picture of infinity. When I look at it, I'm transfixed, transported, and entranced.

        While the original costs more than I will be able to afford until I write a best seller, I wanted a larger copy of it. I searched for and found a partially battered used copy of Our Home, Too by Schimmel which includes many of his paintings including my favorite four times larger than the notecard. The original painting is 36" x 54". I think if I owned it, I would fall into it like Alice into Wonderland.

Among many others that I feel drawn to are "Conception" which has a large shaft of sunlight illuminating the water/outer space where nine dolphins are swimming surrounded by stars and "Between Two Worlds" with elephants, giraffes, and a rhino roaming the plains of Africa next to a coral reef complete with Clown fish as whales and dolphins swim above them all.

In the introduction to the book, Schimmel writes: "…I found myself wanting to say something about what we were doing to the planet, show people what we were losing. I began to see that everything on this planet is interrelated, that every action we take has far reaching consequences. The concept of planetary interdependency became the central theme permeating my work."

Schimmel's central theme inspires me. I see things differently—twisted, but in a good way.

 

What art inspires you?