New project!

Rather than keep posting about the book and how I'm working on it but not making headway on STEAL FROM THE BEST or AUDIENCE, I've decided to get started on an art project I committed to.

One of my Burner friends came up with a project called The Power of Words.  Her goal is to "bring words and images together. I want to show how one word can spark a work of art, inspire someone, and open up the realm of ideas and possibilities."

If you chose to participate, she sent you a random word and its meaning. You simply respond to the word with art.  When you finish, send her photos of the art, which she will display at the burn for the hippies' delectation.

This was back in the spring, so of course I said yes.  What jolly fun it would be, I thought.

Now, of course, I need to get to work and it's not so fun any more, is it, you poser artist fraud person!

My word is ORENDA—it's an Iroquois word, referring to a spiritual power inherent in people and their environment.  The Wikipedia article makes it sound kind of like the Force:

"Activities of nature were seen to be a 'ceaseless struggle of one orenda against another, uttered and directed by the beings or bodies' in the environment. Orenda was deemed a motive force behind miracles, soothsaying, divination, prophecy, blessing, cursing, prayer, worship, and superstitions. Orenda is not a collective power and does not have a personification. 19th and 20th century scholars compared the concept of orenda to that of mana."

So there you go: a provocative prompt for art.  I figure I'll expose my process as I go, warts and all, and demonstrate how the Precepts of Lichtenbergianism work in practice.

Have you seen anything more terrifying?

A blank page.

Cover me—I'm going in.