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original artwork by deb saine |
By Deb Saine
Sept. 1, 2018
im2insaine@mac.com
Theme song from, "Mr. Ed,"which aired from 1961-1966
"Well, Wilbur, now what?"
That was my first thought after fiddle-farting around for who knows how long trying to remember how to navigate this blog that I've neglected for almost four years.
Then I wondered exactly how many of the people who read this post will be left scratching their head and wondering, "Wilbur? Who's Wilbur? Is he any relation to that lost Waldo fella?" Probably quite a few would be my guess. I had an epiphany the other day that reminded me that the majority of my points of reference will be lost on the many generations that have followed my own generation of Baby Boomers.
So, I'd tell those clueless young people, "Wilbur was Mister Ed's 'hapless owner' and Mister Ed was Wilbur's talking horse." I'd also throw in a few pop culture freebies like how the show aired in black and white, that the technique used to make the horse appear to be talking hadn't been computer generation and tv viewers actually had to manually change channels because tv remotes didn't exist. Oh, and the number of channels to choose from? There had been just three networks available in the states: NBC, CBS and ABC.
"Mister Ed" had been one of my favorite television shows when I was a kid growing up in the '60s. Not only do I remember the words to the simple theme song almost 60 years later (watch the youtube video provided above), I also remember — and still use — the catch-phrase, "Well, Wilbur ..."
I've been thinking about doing some kind of writing again for quite some time while procrastinating as always. But now, now I have a reason to pull up this ancient blog and do some updating because I've been issued — and have accepted — a challenge.
I recently joined a closed group on Facebook called, "Kick In The Creatives" (KITC) via https://kickinthecreatives.com. The site itself is designed for all types of creatives who can jump right in at any time to begin participating. There are a variety of challenges to choose from that are changed on a monthly basis and designed to help a person develop a habit of creating something on a daily basis. And the Facebook group is a place where folks can post their work and be encouraged by its members along with co-creators and page administrators Tara Roskell and Sandra Busby.
One of September's challenges is, "September Blogfest." This challenge is for people who: a. always have wanted to create a blog but never gotten around to it; or b. have created a blog that's either been neglected or become stagnant. The goal is to create a new post on a daily basis throughout the calendar year's ninth month.
A firm believer that life often provides me with what I need when I need it but don't always know that I need it until I find it, Kick In The Creatives is a good example. And I have artist Tommy Kane (http://tommykaneillustration.com/) to thank.
I had been unfamiliar with the artist whose work I had stumbled across shortly after his recent book, "An Excuse to Draw," had been published. I'm always on the lookout for my next read and there was a review of the book on one of the sites I frequent that review and preview recent publications.
Kane's drawing style reminded me of Danny Gregory, another author illustrator who, as it turns out, happens to be a friend of Gregory's. Inspired by Kane's work, I had decided to invest in his second book and add it to a collection that already includes books by Gregory. I also did some "investigoogling" (thank you, author-extraordinaire Karin Slaughter!) and immediately created a Pinterest board for Kane's illustrations.
The book ended up being a triple bonus for me.
The first bonus comes in Kane's introduction. He writes about watching the documentary, "Tyson," which begins with a close-up of the former boxer's face as Tyson describes being bullied as a child. "The words coming out of (Tyson's) mouth were really that of (Tyson) as a scared six-year-old boy's," Kane writes. "Watching (Tyson) like this, I began to shake myself. I had suddenly recognized that face on the TV screen choking to get the words out. It was not the face of Mike I was seeing, it was my own."
Kane explains that like Tyson, fear has been a driving force throughout his life, a life that he says has been saved by art. I can relate to Kane because, like him, I struggle with mental illness — bipolar disorder ii, which means I tend to gravitate toward the depressive side of the spectrum.
And, most importantly, like Kane, my life has been saved, in part, by art.
Kane later describes in the book's introduction his"debilitating, panic attack, social anxiety fear."
"The kind of fear," he explains, "that creates depression and ruins people's lives. As I get older, it affects me in a million ways. It prevents me from having relationships, losing friendships, concerns my family ... The way that boxing saves Mike Tyson's life, art saves my life."
I couldn't have written that paragraph any better than Kane.
The second bonus had been finding Kane on Instagram and seeing Danny Gregory listed as one of the account's Kane follows. And it was Gregory's Instagram account that directed me to Kick In The Creatives, that third bonus I mentioned earlier in the post.
And so, with today's flip of the calendar, my first full month with KITC comes to an end. To give you an idea of how productive those 31 days were, I've created a slide show to share some of my work. The link can be found here: https://youtu.be/mgXz62A9hW4 ...
If you got this far, thanks for reading! I look forward to posting not only this month but in the months to come after this one!
"Mister Ed" had been one of my favorite television shows when I was a kid growing up in the '60s. Not only do I remember the words to the simple theme song almost 60 years later (watch the youtube video provided above), I also remember — and still use — the catch-phrase, "Well, Wilbur ..."
I've been thinking about doing some kind of writing again for quite some time while procrastinating as always. But now, now I have a reason to pull up this ancient blog and do some updating because I've been issued — and have accepted — a challenge.
I recently joined a closed group on Facebook called, "Kick In The Creatives" (KITC) via https://kickinthecreatives.com. The site itself is designed for all types of creatives who can jump right in at any time to begin participating. There are a variety of challenges to choose from that are changed on a monthly basis and designed to help a person develop a habit of creating something on a daily basis. And the Facebook group is a place where folks can post their work and be encouraged by its members along with co-creators and page administrators Tara Roskell and Sandra Busby.
One of September's challenges is, "September Blogfest." This challenge is for people who: a. always have wanted to create a blog but never gotten around to it; or b. have created a blog that's either been neglected or become stagnant. The goal is to create a new post on a daily basis throughout the calendar year's ninth month.
A firm believer that life often provides me with what I need when I need it but don't always know that I need it until I find it, Kick In The Creatives is a good example. And I have artist Tommy Kane (http://tommykaneillustration.com/) to thank.
I had been unfamiliar with the artist whose work I had stumbled across shortly after his recent book, "An Excuse to Draw," had been published. I'm always on the lookout for my next read and there was a review of the book on one of the sites I frequent that review and preview recent publications.
Kane's drawing style reminded me of Danny Gregory, another author illustrator who, as it turns out, happens to be a friend of Gregory's. Inspired by Kane's work, I had decided to invest in his second book and add it to a collection that already includes books by Gregory. I also did some "investigoogling" (thank you, author-extraordinaire Karin Slaughter!) and immediately created a Pinterest board for Kane's illustrations.
The book ended up being a triple bonus for me.
The first bonus comes in Kane's introduction. He writes about watching the documentary, "Tyson," which begins with a close-up of the former boxer's face as Tyson describes being bullied as a child. "The words coming out of (Tyson's) mouth were really that of (Tyson) as a scared six-year-old boy's," Kane writes. "Watching (Tyson) like this, I began to shake myself. I had suddenly recognized that face on the TV screen choking to get the words out. It was not the face of Mike I was seeing, it was my own."
Kane explains that like Tyson, fear has been a driving force throughout his life, a life that he says has been saved by art. I can relate to Kane because, like him, I struggle with mental illness — bipolar disorder ii, which means I tend to gravitate toward the depressive side of the spectrum.
And, most importantly, like Kane, my life has been saved, in part, by art.
Kane later describes in the book's introduction his"debilitating, panic attack, social anxiety fear."
"The kind of fear," he explains, "that creates depression and ruins people's lives. As I get older, it affects me in a million ways. It prevents me from having relationships, losing friendships, concerns my family ... The way that boxing saves Mike Tyson's life, art saves my life."
I couldn't have written that paragraph any better than Kane.
The second bonus had been finding Kane on Instagram and seeing Danny Gregory listed as one of the account's Kane follows. And it was Gregory's Instagram account that directed me to Kick In The Creatives, that third bonus I mentioned earlier in the post.
And so, with today's flip of the calendar, my first full month with KITC comes to an end. To give you an idea of how productive those 31 days were, I've created a slide show to share some of my work. The link can be found here: https://youtu.be/mgXz62A9hW4 ...
If you got this far, thanks for reading! I look forward to posting not only this month but in the months to come after this one!
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