Posts tagged with 'art'

Contract Work

  • Posted on April 10, 2008 at 3:25 am

It is really a good feeling to get paid.

It’s not the most creative work I’ve ever done. It doesn’t express my ‘art’ and it isn’t my favorite project, but they paid me, and wish to continue paying me.

I love my art, don’t get me wrong.
I just also love food.

Current Inspirations

  • Posted on February 19, 2008 at 6:35 pm

I’m working on a series about the loss of a child. I’ve got several finished, but I’m starting to hit a wall.

I’m also working a poem about a relationship at a sudden and painful end. You’ve heard of a person with bottomless eyes? Well, what happens when you finally hit bottom?

A third currently in the works is about the temptations faced when a woman first looks into a particular set of blue eyes, using the running metaphors of gemstones and religious over tones of temptation. I’m hoping to allude to “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Personal Jesus” if possible.

The last project on my poetic list this week is tentatively titled “Touch.” Sitting across the room from a love you cannot have, all you can think of a moment’s touch.

Yes, yes. Sappy love poems and themes that have been beaten to pulp. It’s what I feel like writing today.

  • Posted on September 3, 2007 at 10:06 pm

And yet I still am half in love with pain,
With what is imperfect, with both tears and mirth,
With things that have an end, with life and earth,
And this moon that leaves me dark within the door.

from Edward Thomas’ “Liberty”

Why We Write

  • Posted on August 23, 2006 at 2:48 pm

I saw a review for a book about writing and I was led to wonder why my readers write at all. John Spivey of Blogcritics inspires me with his dilemma. How many of us give up the only lives that matter to us in order to make a living? Freelance writing, even a little, is the career that lets me hold onto myself. How can I expect my friends and colleagues to abandon their security when I am too cowardly to do it myself?

I have been flopping like a dying fish on land. I once dove along the great reef and swam through teeming life. I breathed underwater. I have to get back to writing, to my real life.

Writing is the ability to surpass ourselves; to be more than we seem. Don’t turn away from your calling, for it is a vocation as holy as priesthood,with a history nigh as long. Embrace your art & live a joyful life!

Pick a Job

  • Posted on April 12, 2006 at 5:12 pm

I’m not really a specialist writer, which is a bit of a problem. It seems that most of the non-fiction I sell is fluffy. I write about crafting, fashion, make-up and skin care. It isn’t very serious, and while it does periodically pay the bills it does little for my sense of pride in my work.

I found an opportunity to write fiction for a webzine looking for a regular writer. It is actually a fun genre, but it is one that would have me making heavy use of my pen name. Erotica. I remind myself that Anne Rice and several other mainstream novelists have dangled their toes in that particular river.

I’m still having trouble determining if I can maintain my artistic integrity while making a living. This seems unlikely. Would it be better if I close my eyes and picked a job, any job?

Quagmire

  • Posted on April 5, 2006 at 5:14 pm

I’m writing a few articles for an ezine that targets 16-24 year old girls in mainland China. The zine is actually camouflaged for a market research survey website intended to provide information about Eastern markets to Western companies.

The name of the site is an edited version of the old slang word for “cheap Asian laborer or Asian slave.” I ran across a message board post that warns that the simplistic writing style demanded by the editor is degrading to Chinese women and the subject matter is a high-handed attempt at Westernizing China.

On the other hand the editor/CEO/ father of this project is a very successful global business man. (Potential patron?) He did address the accusations against him and seems to have a fairly solid plan for marketing this site. The material that he’s asking for is fun and easy to produce and the pay is lovely ($20-30 hourly).

Am I selling out my “art” by indulging in even more artless writing? Am I morally bankrupting myself by writing for a company accused of racism and degrading the cultural connections of Chinese women? Is my family’s need for a financial boost merely an cover up for my own greed?

*pondering*

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