My Life as a Lab: Living Creativity-Year 1

A year ago I began a project I'd thought about a long time. I'd wanted to spend a year seeing what it would be like to consciously consider all 365 days as creative choices. New Year's week is typically the time I take stock of how plans like the past year panned out, but like many other things last year--New Year's week was a choice to do something different.

Some of you began following the project with me last January. That seems long ago. Since you started it with me, it seems only fair that you are included in a little retrospective from this year's vantage point.

2009--The Year of Living Dangerously Creative

I began the year creating a whole brained curriculum for the Ag Business Communication Short Course I was invited to teach at UW and began conversations with NIOSH thanks to an outdated job posting Kathy Krusiec sent me. Between February and June, I created a relationship with HOPES, the suicide prevention organization, and developed an idea for a safety web portal project whose development committee I chaired for Safe Communities. In April I began creating a journal article about ideas driving the prostate cancer website for which I headed development at the UW. NIOSH invited me to come out to do a seminar and a "look see" for both of us in May. I purposely pushed the envelope with my "non-traditional" seminar for NIOSH explaining my research background and integrating my brand of humor.

The week after, I went to San Antonio to lead my client's team in learning creative problem solving techniques.

June was occupied with creating Safe Communities' tai chi video project for their falls prevention program. Since it was a modest budget, I assisted in script development and then produced it virtually as a one-person team. It only made me more appreciative of the talented people who have done make up, teleprompter, shooting, gripping, and editing for my productions in the past. To make sure there was enough pressure, I learned Final Cut Pro, my new editing program, as I edited. Nevertheless it turned out well and was done in time for me to go to California for a week of Camp Donna with my three young nieces and nephew (youngest sister, Laura, and brother-in-law, Dan's troop) Somewhere I found time to develop a Creativity Journal for each of them and program an ambitious schedule of tentative activities before I left. Once there, they seemed to enjoy the t-shirt drawing, watercolor excursions, and storytelling activities. We also made cardboard fairy wings and drew dragons. Best of all, I started painting again and came back to begin the first oil painting I've done in 15 years.

When I returned to Wisconsin, I began creating new client relationships and, then the job offer came from NIOSH. From there, the ultimate creativity came from imagining a new life in Cincinnati and making it happen in 8 weeks.

The fall was about creating new friendships, a new strategy for the department I lead at NIOSH, and envisioning how what I know about communication can be used to help an aging institute move into a new era and communication paradigm.

Looking back now, I'm exhausted. Like so many other major goals and transitions in my life, I have a difficult time comprehending once it is over how I got it done in the first place. But that has to be my Belgian genes, head down and push through. Sheer stubborn determination.

Was it a creative year? In a conventional sense, some might argue that it was moderately creative. By my standards, it was a succession of highly diverse creative events, opportunities, challenges, and solutions. And I got to sing, too.

My Life as a Lab: Year 2

This year is about getting back to personal expression in creativity and creating a personal life. That includes building new relationships and musical connections, finishing some literary projects, and making the time to draw, sew, sculp or visually create each day.

Happily, the year began with a little painting up in Iron River. Since coming back, I have connected with a rehearsal big band who has invited me to sit in and some possible opportunities at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. I've also joined Mariemont Players. Yesterday, the Thomases (next door) invited me to watch Super Bowl with them and Tuesday I will go to my first outing with the movie group . . . hopefully, the Cincinnati version of Reel Friends.

New Adventures of the Old Farm Girl

Over the long Martin Luther King holiday weekend, I had a sense of the old me on an outing to find fabric to make a straight or "pencil" skirt for work. Why in god's name am I thinking of spending my free time sewing? Because I can. Actually, it was part frugal Lithuanian and outrageous iconoclast that pushed me to JoAnn Fabrics two week ago yesterday. Did you know it is nearly impossible to FIND a skirt in clothing stores? There are pants everywhere and I've never looked good in pants. To find a decent business appropriate skirt, you need to pay approximately $150 at Ann Taylor or the like. Give me a break. It's $1-5 worth of fabric at best, another $1-4 in notions, and two hours of work (probably less if you're sewing area is set up like mine isn't). Besides, all you can find is black or black 'n something. Watch my lips, "I'm dog tired of black."

My intent was only to buy fabric for a pencil skirt or two in some radical color like (oooh) forest green or brick or khaki (that was sarcasm). When I looked through the current suiting fabrics, I nearly fell asleep. Where were the interesting tweeds or microchecks, etc.? There were solids and then one grey herringbone. Disappointed, I went to the close out bolts. Eureka! There were fabulous embossed cottons with spandex, faux shantungs in chartreuse and grey weaves, duplex upholstery light enough for dresses and dusters. Prices were from $2-7/yard. Cheap by today's standards. After a good hour of packing bolt ends into a cart and imagining what I'd make from them, I went to the patterns. I was working my way through Vogue vintage when a clerk came by, spied my cart of bootie, and asked me if I knew that all this would be 50% off the next day. Well color me Coco! I had no shame about asking if she could bury the cart of my treasure in the back room overnight and she knowingly agreed. I went back Sunday and bought nearly 50 yards of fabric for $120. And, no, I haven't sewed anything yet. I figure I will get to it after strategic planning is done and singing in Wisconsin this weekend.

Burnt Cookies and Creativity

I've been going to hear the choir sing at St. Pete in Chains Cathedral on some free Sundays. No, I'm not going back to Catholicism, but I do love the music and a little meditation time.

Last Sunday before heading out to the Sunday "concert," I got up early and decided to make chocolate chip cookies to send the boys. In true Donna fashion, I was reading, working on the blog, and sketching ideas for all that fabric while the cookies baked. I burned two batches.

My Dad would not be surprised. I was well-known for my lack of dedication to cooking as a seminal event. In fairness to myself, my lack of focus was not the only culprit here. Some of the problem was due to not understanding the power of my new oven. Some of it was being dense about how to set the timer on it. And, yes, some of it was just sheer oblivion as I was totally immersed in my creative activities. What's the lesson here? Learn where the controls are before you drive, clean instead of create while baking, and learn that even burnt cookies make friends. (Bambi, et al, ate them off the retaining wall in less than 24 hours.)

You CAN Go Home

As I write today, I am sitting in my OTHER bedroom at Kathy and Norb Krusiec's house in McFarland. Earlier in the week I'd wondered if I should have my head examined after planning a short weekend home to sing at the Stoughton Opera House with All That Jazz. After Christmas, I'd really had my fill of travel. The Stoughton gig had been booked since last year and, unlike many of our other gigs, this was a true concert in a very cool venue. So, I told the band I'd be back. After Christmas, however, in the midst of cold, ice, and exhaustion, I really wondered if I'd been sane in making the promise. The week at NIOSH was intense with long, long hours and the longer they went, the more I looked forward to some breathing room. But, I missed the band and singing and I haven't had a gig since leaving for Ohio--the longest stretch without a band job that I can remember. So--off to Wisconsin.

Things started off tenuously. I barely got out of Cincinnati. Turned out employee reviews were also due this week and a last minute budget request. I headed to the airport at 10:15 for an 11:40 flight. From there, the weekend has been bliss. Mike Esch picked me up at the airport, so I came in to someone waiting for me. We got in a couple of hours of laughing before meeting Jim Larson for dinner at Toby's. Here's a piece of news. You don't see Friday Fish Fry's in Cinci and they don't know how to make Brandy Old Fashioned Sweets. I never ate a meal so good. Yes, I had fried cod and hash browns with cheese AND onions, and cole slaw, and 2 old fashions. (Sigh and sigh again.) It was divine. At Krusiec's I found out that Norb and Kathy had gotten a group of six together to attend the concert and then planned impromptu wine and appetizers at their house after.

Saturday morning I had breakfast with Thomas at the Green Lantern. Bob Weber from the band picked me up for sound check at 12:15. Can't tell you how wonderful it was to see the band! They were all a sight for sore eyes and it felt like nothing had changed. The band sounded great. I slid back into my fronting duties with delight and caught up with the guys. There's a new young guitarist with us now and sax man, Sam Robinson's lovely wife and new friend, Diane, was there to sing a few numbers. She's been filling in during my "sabbatical." The venue was charming, memorable, and had terrific acoustics.

There is something indescribable about doing that one thing that connects you with the passions deep, deep inside. Singing is like that for me. There is not only the meditative sense of flow that comes with being creative--there is a sense of being home, being absolutely comfortable--the exhileration of pushing yourself to potential -- and doing what you were meant to do. Singing has always been that way for me. And after the hiatus from performing , well, it made the experience all the more sublime.

Of course, there was the irreplaceable warmth of friends who had taken the time to come and participate in the event. Not to mention the unexpected thrill of seeing people I did not know were coming. It was divine. My band buddies filled my heart with comments, calls, and emails letting me know I'd been missed, that I had been appreciated, and that there was always room for me.

Like Minds and Impromptu Parties

What is it about spontaneous get togethers? The post-concert appetizers at Krusiecs was one of the most fun parties I've been to in recent memory. It didn't have nearly as much to do with the good food and abundant wine, as it did with the collection of personalities. Many opinions, voluptuous laughter, and interesting points of view. Two new friends broke the new news of their impending wedding and everyone imbibed in the wanton banter of people who like and trust each other. One of the best parts was getting extended time with "baby" sister, Ellen Bernards, who is thriving in her own life and career changes. The end of evening glow was due to more than the Iron River raspberry mead, it was the "rightness" of those few special times when everything lines up perfectly and on its own.

A week later...

What I came home to after Christmas...

Breaking the Jinx

Several people asked me if coming back to Wisconsin made me nervous given my recent history of cataclysmic events while away. As someone who does not dismiss the power of signs, I was surprised to say that "no" I did not spend my time away wondering what calamity awaited my return. You see, I believe my luck has changed. And, true to my intuition, I came back to a warm house, running water (in the pipes, not my yard), and all trees standing. I think I've turned the corner on the jinx thing. (As I cross my fingers and turn around three times saying, "I do believe. I do believe. I do believe.")

Though everything looks right and normal, I've had the feeling all week that something big has changed. Maybe it is just having milestones under my belt and being reminded that there are people who miss me. Like learning to laugh after big bad events, being able to relax and enjoy without effort is a sign to me that things are beginning to normalize . . . or as much as that happens in my life.

Another sign that I am relaxing into this new life is really seeing what's around--I mean the little things. For instance before my trip to Wisconsin, I started shooting faces I was seeing around my house. I don't remember the commercial that is running that captures all these mundane suggestions of facial images, but it made me laugh when I caught myself recognizing them. Don't worry about my mental health. This is a good sign!

Saturday in the Snow

The much lauded Ohio Snowstorm yielded about 2" max and everything is closed down. It's lovely. You know, that wet snow that flocks the trees in bright white? I've included my lone pine before and after the "storm."

So, adieu from Chez Bogie and much more when it happens.