my class, getting into the collage style of art
—
not me, but very similar to how my house l0oks
when i’m happily immersed in my favorite way to create art,
collage.
—
“collage is more than just an art style.
collage is all about bringing different elements together.
once you form a sensibility about connection,
how different elements relate to each other,
you deepen your understanding of yourself and others.”
-bryan collier, american writer and illustrator
artist: graham gillmore, ploy.
now this is a holiday made for me! i love words of all kinds and am a proud word nerd.
We celebrate National Word Nerd Day on January 9, (missed it by one day), by enthusing about our favorite words and the importance of language in our culture. Whether you always know what to say, or you often end up with your foot in your mouth, words are essential to our success and progress. National Word Nerd Day gives us the chance to learn some new words, use some old ones, and maybe even borrow them from someone else!
Humans have communicated since we first walked on Earth, though our early language was nowhere near as complex as the systems of words we use today. Once, our basic vocabulary range was no different from that of great apes, but as we advanced, so did our language.
With developments in our lifestyle, we needed to be able to name things, communicate ideas, and express ourselves to aid our advancement. Words and language became increasingly important, yet it took many centuries until they were considered important enough to document.
During the medieval period, the written word was considered a luxury, with only the rich or the anointed able to read and write in a sophisticated way. As such, the majority was only able to enjoy words through oral storytelling. Shakespeare and other great wordsmiths used their love of words to delight audiences in the theatres, even inventing words for use in their work.
But by the mid-18th century, reading and writing were more widely taught and accessible to a greater range of people. It became necessary to produce a comprehensive list of words and their meanings in the English language, a task embarked upon by Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was paid the sum of 1,500 guineas (approximately $325,000 in today’s money) for its completion. After seven years of toil, his dictionary was published in 1755 and is still widely regarded as one of the most influential texts of the English language.
Today, we celebrate National Word Nerd Day to mark the importance of words in our history and civilization, giving us an excuse to geek out on our favorites!
Photo by ERIC BRONSON / University of Michigan Photography
photo by university of michigan alumni association
—
“if you’re a champion, you have to have it in your heart.”
*-chris evert
*Christine Marie Evert known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987,
is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest …
seven year-old ernest hemingway, fishing at horton’s creek in michigan, 1906
—
“the thing is to become a master
and in your old age
to acquire the courage to do
what children did when they knew nothing.”
-ernest hemingway
treat yourself to something beautiful
watch this all the way through and feel the beauty of her voice move the audience to tears
-15 year old emma kok sings ‘voila’ – with andre rieu, maastrict 2023
—
“after silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
-aldous huxley
during the wake
we all gathered inside
close together
to talk, eat, laugh, cry, listen to music, tell stories, remember
celebrate a life
the children from 4-10
all played together
went outside
chalk in hand
wrote a beautiful welcome to all who would come
and loving tributes to the one who had left.
“tears are words that need to be written.”
-paul coelho
“It is easy to mourn the lives we aren’t living. Easy to wish we’d developed other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we’d worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga.
It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn’t make and the work we didn’t do the people we didn’t do and the people we didn’t marry and the children we didn’t have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the lens of other people, and to wish you were all the different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, ad infinitum, until our time runs out.
But it is not lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It’s the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people’s worst enemy.
We can’t tell if any of those other versions would have been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.”
—
in memoriam of r.s. – you will be greatly missed and thanks for the music
—
credits:
text: Matt Haig – The Midnight Library, 2020.
art: Grant Haffner – Into the night, 1978
ten years ago
this surprise postcard
appeared in my mailbox
from a former student
now far away
addressed to peaches
my affectionate nickname
sent to me
when she was seven not yet eight
her only message
a beautiful poem
summed up
life
in three lines
love is love
life is life
there is nothing else to it.
i knew way back when
she was just four not yet five
learning
how to hold a pencil to write
she was a beat poet and roller derby queen of adventure.
—
“one should write because one loves the shape of stories and sentences
and the creation of different words on a page.”
-annie proulx
my favorite shirt
lived in
worn to softness
tissue paper thin
color gone
shapeless and frayed
always feels like home.
—
“there is a special blessing in old clothes;
that aside from their comfort,
for which especially they are to be cherished.
they confer a certain kind of anonymity on one who wears them gladly;
all their bright places rubbed in a uniform dullness,
they achieve an appearance so nearly nondescript
that only a close scrutiny could learn that ever they held shape at all.’
-maude meagher
when you’ve recently climbed way back up onto the healthy wagon
you have to choose between
the warm fudgy chocolate cake and creamy vanilla ice cream with a dark chocolate drizzle
or
the healthy fresh green juice
you make a deal with yourself
indulge in a bit of chocolate wonder right now
drink the magic green elixir
for your next meal
(which should offset all you’ve just eaten, call it even)
but somehow
the juice never makes it home
so the universe
has made the the decision for you.
—
“food for the body is not enough. there must be food for the soul.”
– dorothy day
I didn't have my glasses on.... 