Reigniting that Creative Spark

Recently, our neighborhood held an “art walk” where local artists and crafters could open up their homes, let people see their studios and maybe sell their work. It didn’t matter if the studio was an extra bedroom or a den, a converted garage or a tiny laundry room, wonderful work came out of them - jewelry, sea glass crafts, mosaics and art quilts, to name a few. But my favorite part of the experience was getting to chat with some of the artists and crafters.  

From the person who created fun and funky mosaic tables and tiles to the person who incorporated found objects, like ripped screen from a hurricane, into her work, the excitement and passion held by everyone was inspiring. Being around people like that never fails to reignite that spark in me. 

 

WRITING

A pretty decent draft of a longer short story is done and resting quietly. A couple of ideas are in the starting stages, which means lots of scribbled scraps of paper all over the house and messy thoughts typed up in a way that only makes sense to me.

 

Last month, I mentioned that my short story, Bad Candy, will be out in Inanimate Things Volume 2 on April 18th. The anthology is getting positive reviews over on Goodreads. 

READING

Lisa Genova’s More or Less Maddy is definitely one of my favorite books of 2025. The blurb says - “A breathless, riveting novel about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally “normal” life for a career in stand-up comedy.” I will absolutely attest to the breathless and riveting part of that statement! 

 

WATCHING

TV - We finished our re-watch of The West Wing. Once again, another show with some clunky seasons in the middle, but it finished pretty strong and we enjoyed it overall. We also re-watched the first season of The Night Agent, and it was just as good as we remembered. The second season? Not so much. I’m not sure what happened there.  

 

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What reignites that creative spark for you? Are there people in your life who are excited and passionate about something? Are YOU that person for others? What are you reading or watching lately? 

My Kind of Art

I'd like more art in my life. More color. More texture. More . . . LEGO?

Yes, you read that right. LEGO. 

My husband and I recently attended The Art of the Brick exhibit by LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya, and we were totally blown away. Who knew you could do all of the following - and much, much more! - with LEGO?

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Made up of almost 4,000 pieces, this is Sawaya's Lego version of Munch's The Scream. (Hmm, this looks a lot like me on a bad writing day.) 

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Speaking of writing, this next one is called Writer and is made up of about 3,000 pieces.

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At 80,000 pieces, Dinosaur Skeleton is, according to Sawaya, "...one of the largest sculptures I have ever made...After seeing so many kids flock to my first solo exhibition, I wanted to give something back and create a sculpture that children would enjoy. What is better than a dinosaur?"

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Grasp, made up of about 17,000 pieces, totally creeped me out. So, of course, I loved it.

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And because I live in Florida . . . Flip Flops (about 700 pieces.)

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As a reminder, this magnet now hangs on the refrigerator -

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Do you enjoy going to museums, exhibits, shows? Are you drawn to any particular style or medium? Are you artistic? Do you dabble, like I do, by taking an occasional art class, picking up one of those crafty, creative magazines? 

The Movies in My Mind

I am prone to weird dreams. Not necessarily nightmares - although, I have those, too - but dreams that seem somewhat normal but leave me utterly exhausted. Although I can sometimes tell they originated from a book or from other media, I've never tried to actually interpret them. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know....

Here's a recent weird one:

I'm attending some sort of conference and sharing a huge hotel room with three other people. One of them is a fellow blogger. (Someone who is familiar in the dream but has no name or face I can place when I wake up.)

Huge heavy drapes are pulled across the windows, and I don't know if it's day or night. Suddenly, a group of men come in, my Dad among them. (My Dad passed away last year, but in the dream he's alive, not a ghost or anything.) He tells me we need to go, there's some sort of alert and we have to leave Pasadena. (This tidbit comes from either a horror novel about a spider invasion that partly takes place in California or from an old episode of The Big Bang Theory.)

I shove things into bags - for some reason, I have lots of stuff for this conference. Whatever is happening is bad because my Dad - a very organized packer - would never let me just throw stuff in bags. He picks up a backpack that's obviously too heavy for him - he's wearing a green sweatshirt and sweat stains form between his chest and stomach. I scold him, and he tells me he's fine. (By the way, that part would've totally happened in the real world.) We head out into a morning that looks normal but has a weird yellow cast to it.

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Do you have weird dreams, too? Do you use them as inspiration for stories, for art? Do your characters dream or have nightmares? Do you like to interpret dreams? Any thoughts on mine? Hmm, maybe it's a post apocalyptic story waiting to be written....