Seward Johnson Retrospective at Grounds for Sculpture

June 5, 2014September 29, 2014 / still a dreamer

This piece is titled “Were You Invited?” and was inspired by Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party”

This brilliant sculptor is now having a major retrospective at the Grounds for Sculpture museum. Seward Johnson founded the non-profit museum whose doors opened in 1992. Johnson is known for his likenesses of famous figures as well as characters in well-known paintings from different eras, some of which are life-sized and some of which are truly of monumental size. He is also known for his sculptures representing people of all ages from all walks of life, including the boy bicycling in front of the post office in town to the couple looking up at the towering version of “American Gothic” by Grant Wood near the highway exit.

You may have stopped by and viewed some of his amazing sculptures in previous posts on my blog – you can start with Grounds for Sculpture III; the others are all linked. When my friends and I went to visit this 42 acre outdoor sculpture museum, there were so many examples of his work, and so many other wonderful sculptures as well, that I went into a picture-taking frenzy, and never found the time to get them all up. When we go again over the summer, I plan on just focusing on Johnson’s sculptures that I haven’t yet seen or photographed, including the 26′ tall Marilyn Monroe, titled “Forever Marilyn.”

The retrospective will be on view from May 4, 2014 through September 21, and if you are anywhere within traveling distance and can make it to the Grounds for Sculpture, I promise you will not be disappointed in Johnson’s amazing work or the collection of sculpture on the whole. Read more here about the exhibit, and more here on his own website. I can’t wait to go!

UPDATE: By popular demand, the Seward Johnson Retrospective‘s stay has been extended and will be available through July 2015!

Live Eagle Cam

June 3, 2014 / still a dreamer

My apologies – I have been remiss! As in years previous, there has been a live eagle cam at the Duke Farms in Hillsborough, New Jersey, and I have lost track and not gotten it up in a blog post til now!

This year, the bonded pair hatched 3 eggs and have 3 growing chicks. Please check them out here! The first egg was laid on February 17, and the third egg hatched on April 1 – so they are growing!

And to apologize for my negligence, nature lovers, here is a second live stream cam – on the top of a skyscraper in Jersey City, NJ – a nesting box of the endangered species, the peregrine falcon. The young falcon nestling is 23 days old today, June 3rd. Check out the baby on the Jersey City Falcon Cam.

Learning from Others’ Writing

May 29, 2014 / still a dreamer / 3 Comments

I hate giving up on a book. When I’ve chosen one to read, I really want it to be terrific, so when it continues to disappoint, well, even I give up the ghost. But I realized, much as we can learn from fabulous writers, we can also learn from those who still have more to learn, (myself certainly included.)

A book I picked up recently at the library sale lured me in – great title, fabulous cover art, subject matter strongly appealing to me, and what seemed like an intriguing storyline. But each time I picked it up, I just couldn’t get into it. I finally gave up about 1/5 through. I wondered, what wasn’t working and how could it help me be a better writer?

First, voice. The novel was supposedly told by a 12 year old girl, but the voice was clearly that of an adult woman saying she was a 12 year old girl. Never once did I feel like I was reading a story written by a 12 year-old, so it just didn’t ring true. As children’s book writers, we know how tricky voice can be and the importance of feeling that we’re reading the age group targeted.

Next, character development – I wanted to like this kid, but I just couldn’t really connect with her emotionally. The same went for the other characters; they weren’t able to pull me into their worlds. The characters seemed flat, and sometimes stereotypical, whether adults or tweens. Is it possible that the author wasn’t able to deeply feel her own characters? Or just had difficulty expressing what they felt? She was very capable of describing emotions quite well. This is a huge challenge in writing – to have our readers feel what our characters feel, but when it’s not there, we just feel left out.

Focus – I think there were too many characters and story lines and not enough space to write in depth why things were happening with them, the reasons that would make me care. I felt a little pulled all over the place. As we know, a really good author can juggle multiple story lines and then weave them all together for an astounding ending – we’ve all read these books – but I didn’t see that happening here.

So I write this post certainly not to bash another author, who I leave nameless, but to share the difficulties in making our writing ring true and in writing the stories that have readers coming back for more, looking forward to the moment when we can get back to our book. I want to be aware when I write, not only what I need to do, but of the pitfalls I want to avoid.

So then I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. One might say there is far too much detail to remember, family names to keep track of, and yet … I can’t put it down. How did Stieg Larsson do it? I’m keeping my eye on that, too!

I’ll tell you one thing. He knows how to end a chapter and make you want to turn that page!

Your Coffee Changing Your World

May 20, 2014 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Once vilified as being a troublemaker to your health, coffee has been getting a whole new appraisal as of late. Its health benefits are now being recognized. An article in Prevention magazine wrote up how coffee can help lower your risk for Type-2 diabetes.

Researchers at Harvard University looked at 28 studies with more than a million combined participants and found that people who drank six 8-ounce cups of coffee daily had a 33% lower risk of diabetes. The good news is that each cup lowered your risk by 9%, so you don’t have to go crazy with coffee consumption, but just be aware of the possibilities.

What’s even more exciting is that it’s not the caffeine responsible for the effect, so if you drink decaf, this still applies to you. Researchers suspect that it’s a naturally occurring chemical in coffee called chlorogenic acid that reduces the rate at which the intestines absorb glucose.

So that’s how you can change your personal world, but how about expanding your vision and changing the world at large?

The coffee you drink can make an actual difference to the rainforest and to saving the lives of migratory and resident birds. With the advent of agri-technology, sun-grown coffee became the new big thing, but is not without a goodly number of drawbacks. Here are a few differences between your typical coffees and shade-grown coffees in their benefits to wildlife and the environment.

* Migratory birds and many resident birds, (such as Poco, a rescued macaw, right), find sanctuary in the forest canopy of traditional coffee plantations, while in sun-grown coffee areas, there are 90% fewer bird species.

* Shade trees protect the coffee plants from rain and sun, help maintain soil quality, and aid in natural pest control, thanks to the birds. These traditional coffee plantations also help to conserve watersheds, leading to higher water quality and quantity for local populations. Sun grown coffee requires chemical fertilizers and pesticides and year-round labor, placing financial demands on the growers. It also leads to greater soil erosion and higher amounts of toxic runoff endangering both wildlife and people.

* Shade coffee plants can produce crops of beans for up to 50 years, while sun grown plants produce for only 10 – 15.

* The higher quality beans produced by shade grown methods produce a better tasting coffee!

Where do you find shade-grown coffee? Most coffees marked “Organic Fair Trade” will also be shade-grown. Read the labels and check out the producers’ literature and/or web sites for details. Smaller merchants, health-oriented food stores, and, increasingly, your local supermarket now carry shade grown coffee. There is one more bonus – when you see the “Fair Trade” logo on your bag of coffee, or elsewhere, it assures you that the farmers and their families who grow the coffee are being paid a sustainable living wage for their work.

While it may be a bit more expensive than sun grown coffee, it preserves the biodiversity of our planet, the rainforest, and a multitude of bird species, plus it helps humanity. A pretty good deal all in one cup of coffee.

So you can change your personal world, and spread your wings and change a whole lot more of it.

Children’s Books and Fused Glass

May 17, 2014May 18, 2014 / still a dreamer / 6 Comments

The journey of writing and illustrating children’s books, as in any serious endeavor, has been packed with a wide variety of experiences. The learning curve has been tremendous between a writer’s critique group, caring support from fellow writers and artists, and the many opportunities to grow offered through the SCBWI, (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.)

Conferences, workshops, individual critiques and sometimes just time to sit down and talk with professionals in our field have given us all hope and sustained us on the road to being published and beyond. I consider myself very fortunate that, in the time I have belonged to the SCBWI, my New Jersey chapter has been extremely pro-active in providing so many ways to become involved in the world of children’s books.

Our current NJ SCBWI Regional Advisor recently put together a really fun workshop at the Fire Me Up glass studio. It was a chance to create something new and to also sit down and brunch with the Executive Editor of Children’s Books at Sterling Publishing of NYC, Meredith Mundy. And getting there early gave my friend and I the opportunity to sit right opposite her and talk about all manner of things. It was a friendly gathering of about 20 writers and artists in the children’s book field, some published, some not yet, trying our hand at a glass project while talking about our favorite subject.

After brunch and getting instructions about our projects, Meredith chatted with us, talked about changes in the industry, what Sterling was looking for as well as what she, in particular, was looking for in terms of stories and subjects. And when our afternoon was done, we were each given our individual critiques of whatever manuscript we had submitted ahead of time.

Meredith’s critique was very helpful and included wonderful insights and detailed suggestions for improvement, really challenging me to expand the ideas I was already working on, while acknowledging what I’d already accomplished. What a treat! I have since been working hard on my MS, getting ready to make a pacing dummy, and sketching my main characters for still new insights.

And what about the fused glass project? We had a variety of options to choose from, and I took a fairly simple one so I could focus on the conversation around me. (You don’t want to lose attention when you’ve got such a talented Executive Editor sitting across the table!) One of the options was a glass votive holder, and as a candle lover, this seemed perfect. So with an 8″ square piece of clear glass and a variety of jewel-colored glass in the form of spaghetti, linguine, flat marbles, small chunks and other possibilities, I made what you see here. TaDa!

If you are an aspiring author or illustrator in the area of children’s books, I encourage you to look into and join the SCBWI, take a look at what’s going on in your own state, get involved and amp up your learning curve and grow!