* Howard & Rex at John Barleycorn have now posted Part II of their "Around the Table" chat with illustrator & film designer Alan Lee -- discussing landscape, art mediums, the storytelling aspects of tango, and more. It's a great conversation...and I'd like to ask your help in spreading the word to let people know about it. There are a lot of Alan Lee fans out there who might never stumble across it otherwise.
The drawing above is by Alan, created for We Are All Born Free: the universal declaration of human rights, illustrated for children, published by Frances Lincoln & Amnesty International.
* Speaking of art and politics, I recommend OccupyWriters.com, featuring writers in support of the Occupy movements world-wide (of which I am one); Matthew Battles' short article, "Tactical Utopia," on the role of books and libraries in social revolution; and a video of Elif Shafak (the Turkish author of such amazing novels as The Mystic, Mirrors of the City, and The Flea Palace) discussing The Politics of Fiction. Also, The Guardian has a YouTube channel in which people from all around the world answer the question "Why occupy?"
* At RavenWood Forest, Valerianna Claff continues the "Moveable Feast' conversation on creative burn-out and nature's cycles: "As people around me speak their dread of the coming cold and the growing dark," she says, "I sink into my roots, release summer's fire through my fingertips, and begin the composting of the year. Dreaming into the dark, I tap the ancient well of blood-wisdom. In the spring, dreams will rise up through my veins like the sweet sap of a sugar maple."
And at Amused Grace, Thalia Took picks up the thread of the conversation: "My daimon, my Muse, has disappeared," she writes. "Now, understand, I mean that perhaps rather more literally than most artists do when they speak of their Muse. I mean that friend of mine, that spirit guide or whatever he is, the one I could See clear as day, who was always there, has become absent. I do not believe for a minute that he is actually gone, mind you, but on my end I can't see him at all. I don't miss him. That disturbs me, very much. It is like I am forgetting to remember something very important, but my brain is carrying on as if nothing at all is wrong, as if this surface world is the real world and that life is just fine when it lacks richness and depth."
Previous posts on this topic: Erzebet YellowBoy Carr, me, Deborah Biancotti, Christina Cairns, and Joel Le Blanc. (If I've missed any others, please let me know in the Comments.) Related to this issue, I hope by now you've all seen Elizabeth Gilbert's inspiring talk on "Nurturing Creativity," posted on the TED site in 2009.
Other "Moveable Feast" topics and links can be found here.
* While looking for something else entirely, I happened to come across a fascinating interview with Robertson Davies, discussing his life, fiction, and creative process (from The Paris Review, 1986): "I do know the story when I begin," says Davies, "but I don’t know how it’s going to end. I know about two-thirds of it, and then the end emerges as I go on. I shrink from saying this, but I’ve agreed to come here and talk about it, and it’s true: I hear the story, I am told the story, I record the story. I don’t pretend that some remarkable person somewere else is whispering in my ear, or that a beautiful lady in a diaphanous garment is telling me what I should write. It is just a part of my own creative process that I am not immediately in touch with and certainly not in full control of. And so the story emerges."
And speaking of stories, don't forget the Stephen Fry program on stories that I mentioned a couple of days ago, which is only up on the BBC site until November Ist. It's terrific. (You'll see some of Alan Lee's illustrations on the program -- in the section where Fry talks to Peter Jackson about Tolkien's tales.)
* At the excellent UK children's book blog, An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, Ellen Renner (author of Castle of Shadows) discusses where ideas come from, and Linda Strachan (author of Dead Boy Talking) has an interesting post on creative collaboration. Anne Rooney (author of Off the Rails) wonders who reads writers' blogs (is it just other writers?) and pleas for comments from silent readers. That's a sentiment that many bloggers can sympathize with -- so if you follow any of the links here today, please consider leaving comments (even short ones) to let blog writers know that their efforts are appreciated. (And I admit it, I'm usually guilty of being a silent reader too.)
* Katherine Langrish (author of West of the Moon) continues her discussion of mystical journeys in myth and legend at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles.
* Neil Gaiman discusses his new audio book line, "Neil Gaiman Presents," in his online Journal. I'm pleased about this, as it will bring new attention to some very worthy books. Good going, Neil!
* Stephanie Piña discusses the color green in Pre-Raphaelite paintings at the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood blog. The post was inpired by Piña's reading of Elizabeth Hand's brilliant novel Mortal Love. (If you're a Pre-Raph fan and you haven't read Liz's book, I have just three words for you: order it immediately.)
* Theodora Goss displays the gorgeous Pre-Raphaelite-inspired design of her new book, The Thorn and the Blossom, and discusses how the book was written, on her writing blog.
* David Wyatt demonstrates the process of creating his cover to The Ballad of Old Goat and Heron, from sketches to finished art, on his illustration blog Posterous.
* MJ Létourneau discusses her tumblr, printed-ink, in a post on the End of March blog -- featuring the printed word presented as art. (I was tickled to find my own words included in the post.) Alas, I can't seem to load printed-ink itself on my computer (perhaps you'll have better luck than me), but the examples displayed on End of March are intriguing.
* And a few last, random lovely things: Donna Q.'s fairy tale poem,"The Way the Wolf Woos," at Enchanted Spirit: Lens and Pen; the re-birth of Jen Parrish's studio (hooray!) at Parrish Relics; the magical little bowls Julianna Swaney has created in collaboration with Paloma's Nest, displayed at Oh my Cavalier...as well as her Weekend Deer paintings, one of which is pictured below.
Have a good weekend.
