My books are now available at Joy & Company in Grand Marais.

I keep returning to C.S. Lewis, as I have since I was a child. George MacDonald, Hans Christian Anderson, The Brothers Grim, and more recently Ben Loory and Italo Calvino.

Music inspires me, but I can’t listen to it and write at the same time. I do listen to music sometimes when I paint.

I’ve never really had a writing mentor. I share what I write with friends. I read about writing, and I have taken classes and joined writing groups.

My favorite writers are my mentors, I guess. I don’t have the opportunity to talk with them, but they inspire and influence me.

Getting “stuck” has not been a big problem for me. I just start writing to get it flowing.

I think about things, or notice things, and whatever is in me comes out again in creative ways. I don’t do anything to be creative. I just document the thoughts in various ways.

The biggest surprise for me in The Adventures Of Flash Meridian is that it happened at all. I didn’t plan to write a book, and I didn’t realize, for 19 years, that I was writing a book.

At first, I was writing captions for pictures. Then I was writing “episodes”. I did that for a long time. Somewhere along the way, I noticed that the episodes fit together … dovetailed into one continuous story.

Writing a novel is too big of a job for me, so I had to “unlearn” or let go of the expectation of it being anything. I wrote the book because I loved writing it. I love the surprises that I, myself, found in it. That is enough for me. Others may enjoy reading it, but I don’t need anyone to validate it. Of course I love it when someone reads it, and discusses it with me, or asks questions about it.

“Unlearning”, is a key to my writing. Through writing, I am able to focus on long held beliefs about myself and let them go. I can pack away the gifts that were given in love, and with gratitude, slip into something that fits better.

The best piece of advice I’ve gotten this week is to keep it simple. Keep the writing about the story, and not about impressing someone with my vocabulary or ability.

A piece of long term advice was to describe things, rather than just saying something was “beautiful” … what made it beautiful? Don’t ask your reader to do your work as a writer.

The next thing I’m working on is a collection of short stories.

My next book tour date will be Saturday, March 16, 3 pm at the Cook County Senior Center in Grand Marais. I’ll be reading from all three books, and will have books available for sale.

I believe every human is creative. Maybe you haven’t shown a painting in an art gallery or danced on a stage, but I believe you are creative. Navigating the pushes and pulls of life requires some ingenuity, and just being here proves that you are a survivor. You are creative.

You might think you have a plan for your life. We have to have some idea of what we will do tomorrow. But if you write your future in indelible ink, you may find yourself frustrated or disappointed. All we can do is try. We move from one day to the next with an idea, but if we are flexible, we can shift and cope with the reality tomorrow brings.

In the same way, I cannot plan the end results of my creative impulses. I listen to my spirit, and let my hands follow the leads of my heart. Each impulse informs the next one. I’m not following a recipe that someone else has worked out in a test kitchen.

And yet I do have a roadmap. Humans have been drawing and painting for many thousands of years. But I can choose the route I take, which may lead me to unexpected discoveries on that map.

Others may have followed the path I choose, but my carry on bag is different from theirs.

I bring all that I am on my journey. This makes my experience unique.

Each one of us comes upon the designated photo opportunity with a particular history that is unlike anyone else’s.

The meaning or interpretation that is obvious to you, may never occur to me. What I surmise may surprise you. And that is the gift.

This is what I hope to achieve. To encourage you to trust your gut. To follow your heart and express whatever it is that you feel.

The more you ponder, the more you will discover. You have all you need already.

Often, the thing I am most reluctant to acknowledge or express, is the thing that will be the most enlightening for me, and beneficial to others.

My weaknesses become my strengths when I embrace them.

The thing I am ashamed of can be the thing that enables you to say me too! I thought I was the only one.

I charge my creativity by reflecting. Meditating. By making sense of what I have felt. When I calm my mind, memories bubble up … I don’t know how else to describe it … from yesterday or my distant past.

I used to think it was too late. Too late to grieve whatever I thought I lost as a child. Too late to change long held beliefs.

Now I see I am still me. I am the child I was. I am the one who has allowed me to persevere, and not to quit.

My Hand Paints, 2018

My Hand Paints (122 pages) is a collection of writings from 2018, mostly on the subjects of creativity and self esteem. Like everything I write, it’s an autobiography. Not a linear account of my life, but memories that bubble up from deep inside me when my hands are busy. Though it was not intended to be a picture book, it does contain some color plates of my paintings… examples to support the written words.

The Adventures of Flash Meridian, 2019

The Adventures of Flash Meridian (308 pages) is my sci-fi autobiography. If I can say this about my own work, I love this book! It took me 19 years to finish this, and I am so happy to have it available.

I removed a section, so the book chapters do not coincide with the episodes on the blog.

The first stop on my Grand Marais book tour! MY HAND PAINTS: Reading and book signing Tuesday, January 15, 2019… 7 pm at Wunderbar!

My definition of creativity is doing things in a new or unexpected way, to achieve the result you wanted. This could end up in a cure for HIV or cancer, to address an affordable housing crisis, or to tell your story through the written word or a visual medium.

We are all creative, whether we realize it or not. Every life is unique, so navigating that life takes some ingenuity, or creativity. Within this sea of creative beings, some consciously practice, or work at novelty with a purpose.

That purpose can be telling their story through art.

When I was young, I enjoyed drawing. It was one of the very few things I was told I was good at. Back then, I never could have imagined where my creative impulses would take me. Even when I was in my 20’s in art school, I hadn’t found my artistic voice. I had no confidence in myself. I was bogged down with expectation. There was no freedom to my expression. I lived in fear of doing it wrong. And so it was all wrong.

As far as my ambition, I suppose you could say that what I’m doing now is what I wished for in terms of expression back then.

I couldn’t know the specifics beforehand. That’s what I was developing.

There is an element of preplanning that goes into a work of art. You have to have something to say. You have to select your medium and tools. But art, like life, is improv.

It’s the inspiration that allows my brain and hand to transform the colors on the shelf into the finished canvas.

The paint holds surprises.

I’ve never worried about conforming to mainstream society. That might be a nice excursion for me. But I don’t see it happening. What is mainstream society? If I tried that, I would do it as a joke. I think that’s a good enough reason to try it.

I want to communicate through my visual art. And I want to inspire others to communicate their stories, as well.

If you have an urge to create something, my advice is to do it!

For the past 26 years, I have been a mentor to high school students. Some of these relationships came about through established organizations such as the Grand Marais Art Colony and Kinship Mentor North. Parents who homeschool their kids have also asked me to provide art education that they did not feel confident teaching.

I’ve mentored young musicians, artists and photographers… international students, kids in foster care… kids from all different backgrounds.

It is a wonderful feeling when I see these kids go on to pursue art degrees, or success in music careers.

They say I inspired them to become artists. Little did they know that I was inspired by them the whole time.

You do not need to go to art school to be an inspiration. Just tell your story however you choose to tell it. Your passion will make you stand out. Once you achieve a level of confidence, you will be a leader. You will not need validation from others, because you will only need approval from one person. Yourself.

I think the majority of people lack confidence. Not in their skill, but in themselves. Your confidence will draw others to you. They will want what you have, or want to spend time with you.

When I was in my 20’s, I wanted to paint dark, disturbing images. They were usually self portraits in black and white, often with blood red dripping from them. I thought I was being deep. They carried titles of resentment like Umbrage and Imbroglio. Those morphed into oil pastels like Screaming In Your Sky and The Great Train Robbery Of My Soul when I was in my early 30’s.

When I was 36, my daughter was born. When I picked up the paintbrush again, the paintings came out in bright colors.

That is when I began to have success as an artist. When I say success, I mean personal satisfaction and sales.

Not all of my paintings are happy or colorful, but they are about more than just scaring my mother.

My paintings are moments. They’re like visual journal entries that tell my reality. My intention is twofold. I want to tell my story, and I want to do it in a way that is compelling enough to make others want to tell their story, too.

As I have said, my daughter’s birth marked a significant change in my art. But the simplest life events find their way onto my canvas. When my hat fell off into the river, and I went under the overpass to retrieve it. Driving along highway 61 at dusk.

Whatever my brain is processing, will eventually come out one way or another.