Art comes first

“Art comes first.” That was the reminder I received from an unexpected source. Yesterday, my friend Julie and her husband, Ralph were doing me a favor, turning on our furnace and teaching me how to bleed the radiators in our house so they’d work more efficiently (and hopefully more cheaply).

We had worked our way, with some mishaps such as water spurting out of the furnace because of too much pressure, through all the radiators on the first floor, and all the artwork lining the walls. Upstairs, Ralph wanted to start at the front of the house, so we walked into the art studio. I don’t remember now what the question was, but my answer was, “well, this is mostly Betty’s studio, and I have some things I work on over there if I ever get the time.” “Oh, art comes first,” Ralph said very declaratively. My answer? “Right now, money comes first.” Then we continued working on the radiators, finishing up with green tea and conversation before they left for their son’s soccer game.

But I haven’t gotten his comment out of my mind. I’m a creative person, but there are many ways to express creativity, and I do. When I work on the layout for the NADmag, choosing an elephant (who never forgets) for the background of an article called “Lest We Forget;” or when I work to “harden up” my colors to fit my client’s aesthetics, when my own colors are softer; or when I write this blog or other articles; or when I cook; or when I work on presenting Betty’s art to the world; or when I come up with a new idea to put on a t-shirt or other products for my online stores, never knowing if anyone else will ever like them, or ever buy anything. All of those are my creative endeavors.

But art is different. It’s not just creative and challenging and engaging, it’s healing. For me, art isn’t painting or drawing. It’s pulling together disparate pieces and creating a new wholeness, a new unity from them. The end result may be a card, or a piece of jewelry, or something to hang on the wall. But the end result isn’t the point for me. It’s the process of bringing these different things together visually that heals me.

But the responsibilities of life, the need to earn money, to take care of business gets in the way. Maybe I think my artwork isn’t good enough and no one will buy it. Or maybe I’m afraid they will buy it and I’ll be doomed to repeat it to earn money. Then art will stop being about creating and healing, but about earning a living.

“Fear is the mind-killer,” wrote Frank Herbert in Dune. But some fears are so ingrained in our beings that we don’t know they are there, manipulating us all the time. Art should come first, for so many reasons. Maybe soon, it will.

Nancy Creighton
@purpleswirl

 

In Celebration: $75 for 75!

Happy Birthday, Bettigee! In celebration of Betty G. Miller’s 75th birthday later this month,we’re offering $75 REBATE for any original painting by Betty (or by her father, Ralph R. Miller) purchased through our Etsy site, and FREE SHIPPING with INSURANCE.

There are nine paintings currently available on Etsy, seven by Betty: The ASL Flag; Deaf Dancers; Frazzled; Read My Lips; Dealing with the Contrast Inside Me; Mommy, I am Deaf! Broken— and two by her father, Ralph: Lipreader; The Phone Call, Seven O’Clock. Follow me on twitter for announcements of new listings of Betty’s paintings as I post more of them this month.

Screenshot of our Etsy site - purpleswirl.etsy.com

 

SAVE now on Deaf Quotations t-shirts

“As long as we have deaf people on earth, we will have signs…”

The “Deaf Guy” t-shirt

Between the time you read this, and Sunday, June 21st, you can save on T-shirts at Deaf Quotations! Cover Your Nakedness! That’s what Printfection, the store that hosts Deaf Quotations is saying. Save on “Veditz Quote” tees (one version shown below) and “Deaf Guys are…” and “Deaf Gals are…” tees (one modeled by Larry, above).

I love the Deaf Guy T-shirts. I wear them every time when I travel: long sleeves for cold weather and short sleeves for warm weather. I get a lot of attention and laughs from people who enjoy reading them. And I have about a half-dozen of them. —Larry B.

SAVE — use one of the following coupon codes at checkout:

COVERYOURNAKEDNESS – SAVE $5 on orders over $25

COVERYOURFRIENDS – SAVE $10 on orders over $50

COVERTHEWHOLEFAMILY – SAVE $20 on orders over $100

"As long as we have deaf people on earth, we will have signs..."

To SAVE, just go to: http://www.printfection.com/deafquotations

 

Color names

This was fun, and a little frustrating. I only got 27 names in this game, but I know I typed in a lot more than that! Some of the things I typed were spelled wrong, so weren’t accepted and I didn’t try again. Others just aren’t in the list. Here’s a head start for you– you can enter two words, such as “deep peach” (which would have been accepted if I’d thought of it then), and some of the words seem random — “coffee” and “mocha” and “walnut” were not accepted, but “chocolate” is on the list. Try it, just for fun. And use the comments to let us know how you do.

If the graphic doesn’t show below, just use this site URL:

http://www.oneplusyou.com/bb/view2/colors

27

Created by OnePlusYou – Free Dating Site

 

ECONOMY (cheap) shipping ends today at Cafepress

Got email that today’s the last day for cheap shipping of your order to arrive in time for Christmas. I’m working on some new products, so keep an out out this afternoon and evening.

http://www.cafepress.com/purpleswirlarts

 

Twitter musings

Maybe it’s because Twitter isn’t in my pocket on a pager; or maybe it’s because I’m basically an introvert and while I love the people I love, being with them can drain my energy rather than give me energy; but I don’t (yet) get the community aspect of Twitter.

I’ve read up on it, and I know I have to follow people and have them follow me to develop a community and to meet people online. But I’m not feeling it yet. I did read an interesting article today, though, that I learned about through one of the people I follow on Twitter, purplecar. This article is by spiral-scratch and reinforces the experience of twitter as a community chat room. http://spiral-scratch.blogspot.com/2008/07/those-who-dont-create-critique-those.html.

Maybe it’s because I’m following DeafRead on twitter and that’s basically a lot of links to deaf people’s blogs and vlogs and isn’t in and of itself personal. DeafRead uses twitter as promotion, and since it’s a group of editors, there’s no one personality that emerges on twitter. Or perhaps it’s because when I follow someone, or check their page when they follow me, I feel like I’m only catching snatches of conversation– kinda like when I was the only hard of hearing person in the room and would try to follow the talk, but could only lipread one person and was basically left out of the conversation as a whole. Not a good feeling.

The community aspect of twitter is something I do want to understand, but don’t want to give the time to it right now. In fact, I need to get back to work. My current tweet says I’m working on deadline, so gonna get back to it now.

P.S. I’ve more to share about De’VIA at the NAD Conference — Chuck Baird wrote up a story. But I need to finish the database I’m working on today so will get back later with more info on De’VIA.

 

Viva De’VIA group on Facebook

Last week, on June 13th, I set up a group on Facebook for fans of De’VIA. The name came from Patti Durr– Viva De’VIA is what she used as a title for the poster explaining De’VIA for the NAD Conference’s De’VIA Creative Space. I invited 50 people, and just now, I saw that there are 91 members and 114 invitees haven’t replied yet. That is a hands-on lesson for me in the “viral” properties of Facebook. Wow. Maybe we’ll reach 100 before today ends.

 

Technology breeds paranoia?

I recently saw a conversational thread on Twitter where someone said, basically, that if they were lost in a strange city, they would ask their Twitter network how to get around, instead of asking people walking by on the street.

I was kind of amazed. And I’m an introvert– people drain my energy rather than give me energy, so I’m really comfortable dealing with people at a technological distance, over the ‘net. I’d understand it more if they were deaf, like me. But these are hearing people. 

Most of the people who use Twitter are probably younger than I am, at 55, I’m probably their parents’ generation (and not having kids myself it amazes me that I could have kids in their 30s). They grew up with more access to computers and phones and technology than I did. But I’m wondering if their easy access to technology– dealing with people at a distance– has made them paranoid, or at least distrustful of people in the street. They trust their Twitter network, strangers at the other end of the phone or computer or pager, more than the strangers looking them in the eyes.

Or maybe it’s the violence on TV and in the movies? I love a good mystery or action film, but I don’t believe it. That is, I suspend disbelief only for the duration of the show, knowing that real life isn’t that dramatic for most people. 

I’m friendly to folks on the street, especially if I’ve seen them more than a couple of times. Since I’m deaf, I usually can’t talk with them easily, I just say hi, or something. And, for some reason, if people are lost and there are 20 other folks on the street, it’s me they come up to and ask for directions– probably because I actually look into their faces. I don’t assume that people are out to get me or take advantage of me, but I’m also not naive and don’t automatically think I’m safe. I balance friendliness with caution, trusting my instincts.

Maybe that’s it, perhaps those who’d rather twitter for directions, instead of ask people who are there, haven’t learned to trust their instincts because they haven’t been interacting with the people in front of them enough. I don’t know. But when I see video of a city street nowadays, an awful lot of those folks are walking with phones to their ears, focusing on the interactions with those at a distance, and not looking in the eyes of the folks around them.