This week’s project - A challenge to create something
for someone else and send it – a creative pay-it-forward.
Get inspired by the people you love and make something 
as a gift and send it along for any reason or no reason at all.   

Creative Prompt: When was the last time you made something -
wrote  a letter, concocted a special dish, drew or doodled, painted or 
played with clay, broke out in spontaneous song,
danced barefoot in the grass or built a snow statue?

Stepping into the design time machine to find some Retro Color Inspiration. & more View-Master fun at Vladmaster – handmade View-Master art experiences.

1) Instant is on . . . 
Search is an art form or a feat of mind reading depending on your perspective. Google Instant  gets you answers before the question is even asked.   

2) Endless Scroll . . .
Scroll on like a never ending image river. Find what you are looking for & more & more & more. Ad nauseum . . . you may experience mental motion sickness, but this is nothing new.  

3) Pageless . . . 
The web may stop pretending to be the book it never was. Multidirectional space is the final frontier . . . exploring more dimensions and taking our virtual experience into the realm of the 5 senses has us rethinking “reality”. 

4) Scanning the horizons . . . 
Our phones are talking to our magazines and our cars are talking to other cars. The trees and the rocks will soon join in the conversation.    

5) Low tech love in a high tech world . . .
Call it nostalgia, a subtle longing for the days of hook rug projects of yore. But we love to get our hands dirty/decopagie. We love to Make stuff.

6) Connection . . .
Collaboration is only a click away. Ideas flow freely on the fresh Social Media breezes. So what is that smell?   

7) More ways to Give . . .
We are realizing that we are not just spectators of the story but we can impact how the story turns out. We can report/comment/change what we see around us through words, pictures, photos, videos & actions. We can rediscover a latent talent and donate our skills. We can text money to a charity. We can connect with the need around us or on the other side of the world. There is a Way. There are more Ways everyday to give. The Will is the only thing in question.

I walked through Franklin Evans PS. 1 room of tape. Each inch a
colorfully sticky discovery. He shares his studio on New Art TV.

Vertical Bar, why do we love thee? Let us count the ways.

Well, (Parenthesis) are clingy, a little needy. The Vertical bar stands alone, stong and self assure. [Brackets] are a bit brutish and brash. They pinch like a staple. Periods . can be clunky. But the Pipe, oh the Pipe,  is a little more subtle and slimming.  We long for order and simplicity. The Pipe can do that. The Dash - seems hurried and casual. The Pipe offers calm sophistication. The Question Mark ? leaves no room for interpretation. The Pipe goes with anything. The Interpunct • though seemingly harmless and possibly friendly tends to run with the emoticon crowd. The Pipe is a zen master helping us breathe in the midst of text chaos, reaching softly for the sky. The Pipe is slightly aloof, mysterious. We want more.  

The pipe dices, it slices, it lifts and separates in all the right places. Do we risk overusing it. Of course. We always do. Designers are a fickle bunch and our crushes don’t last long. When we do eventually get tired of the ubiquitous object of our affection, we look back in disgust, wondering why we ever fell so hard in the first place. We stop returning phone calls. We quickly find a replacement. And when we do, we drool and dabble. The next ”it” type trend is only a lucky keystroke away from its 15 minutes of fame. The life-cycle of a design crush is a quick ride from discovery to abandonment. Glossy pages strewn with past regrets. 

And so as much as this is an ode to the Vertical Bar, it is also a eulogy, an inevitable fond farewell. So, Pipe. I know this is bit premature. You may be the new Helvetica. Don’t take it personally, but the day is coming when we will have to bid you adieu. And though we wish we could be more sentimental, don’t hold your breath. You will not be missed.

I recently watched a group of young children painting. Some were cautious and planned out each color and its placement carefully before they even picked up a brush. Others let the paint wander, and their minds with it, changing their creation and giving new names with every stroke. Then it was my turn. I picked up my white paper plate. I tried to remember what it was like to be a kid. To let the colors play. Enjoying discovering what happens when red mixes with yellow or green. Sometimes in order to create something new, we have to forget that we already know everything.     

Creative Prompt: What are the assumptions and expectations that we have when we begin a creative endeavor? Is there such a thing as a blank canvas? How are you making space in your life to create?   

Creative Prompt: Take a color inventory. What colors do you surround yourself with? Is this accidental or intentional? If you had to live on a monochromatic island with only one color what would it be? Do you have a favorite color? How has it changed over the years? Try giving new names to colors. Get inspiration from color names in other languages.

Gotham Writers’ Workshop is hosting a contest to see what exciting fiction, non fiction or poetry people can create with 140 characters or less. Join in and inspire us.

- Richard R. Caemmerer Jr.