texxnorman

Creativity: Goal-setting Concepts Part 3

1. Spend some quiet time thinking about goals. Abraham Lincoln, once said, “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” If goals focus your life then choosing your goals carefully, and properly is an essential step toward a successful future as an artist. Remember that it is impossible to achieve a goal you don’t have. That sounds like an obvious, self-evident aphorism, but more often... (posted by texxnorman 6 years 41 days ago.)

Polymer Clay: Tools

The tools. I have a long history of trying to use the wrong tool for the job. I’ve driven nails with the handle of a screwdriver. I’ve used band aids when I ran out of electrical tape ( something I don’t recommend, but believe me, if you’re going to try it, peel the gauze off before wrapping the wires). This works just often enough to tempt me to try stuff from time to time. Maybe I’m too lazy to go back in the house for a... (posted by texxnorman 6 years 49 days ago.)

Polymer Clay: A brief history

Polymer clay is a manmade material that remains pliable for long periods, but when baked (or "cured") in your home oven, or a toaster oven, at a fairly low temperature the stuff will harden. You can sculpt it, carve it, stamp it, texture it, sand it, buff it, paint it, and build with it to create sculpture, accessories, figurines, dolls, or jewelry, or use it to embellish other surfaces. The scrap-book artists have... (posted by texxnorman 6 years 49 days ago.)

How To Write A Sestina

There are those who write sestinas just to show how god-awfully clever they are. And indeed, writing poems whose lines repeat last words in a bizarre, extended pattern over six, six-line stanzas (plus a short, specialized 3-line “tag” stanza) does take cleverness. However, so d (posted by texxnorman 6 years 54 days ago.)

Free Verse

The Birth of Free Verse The scholars cannot agree on when free verse began, or who might serve as the father/mother of free verse. Walt Whitman is often called the first free verse poet to write in English, but, as you might imagine, that is not true. Free verse in English has a long history. It is likely that the influence that inspired Whitman to write free verse came from the King James Bible. Not merely the Psalms, but also the Books of... (posted by texxnorman 6 years 54 days ago.)

Bead Loving: A Human Trait

Beads I started out as a painter. All I did is draw and paint for years. It was the only art I did and the only art I cared about. I even got a tattoo that read: Cogito Ergo Pingo , which I'm told is Latin for: I think therefore I paint . (A sort of pun that spins off of the old I think therefore I am thing in philosophy.) Then I was asked to make a sculpture. I had never tried it and never thought I could do it, but this... (posted by texxnorman 6 years 59 days ago.)