Even though I write this blog, I hardly ever read blogs on a regular basis. I started this blog on the suggestion of a friend while I lived in Europe. It was a way of keeping contact with my friends, who enjoyed looking in on how and what I was doing. I'm very pleased to have learned that what I post gives some pleasure and information even to some people I don't know.
Frankly, though, once I started, the process of blogging became functionally autonomous, even rather addictive. Even if no one is reading this, there's always the 'imaginary audience' to speak to. Writing it keeps me grounded and aware that much of my creative life (ideas, paintings) is solitary but still wants to connect.
Like many of you (and even more people who are not even reading this), I don't have much time or inclination to read blogs. There are sOOO many out there. I know I'm probably missing some really beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, and eye-opening blogs.... but who has the time to to plod through all the stuff that keeps coming at us? The public news is bad enough to wade through, as is the terrible and misnamed 'reality show' trash that keeps getting thrown at us as "entertainment." Sometimes the information highway just seems like a huge and honking traffic jam.
But, now and again, there are little islands of sanity, solace, and beauty.
Let me recommend a blog that a Finnish-Canadian artist acquaintance of mine has written for a long time. It is a beautiful, thoughtful presentation of a life being lived fully. Marja-leena Rathje is an award-winning original printmaker with an eye for extraordinary design, and she writes so coherently too.
A very different blog is written by my free-lance journalist and writer friend, Ruth Ellen Gruber, who lives in Italy. Ruth is the one who instigated my own blog-writing ... if you ever feel like blaming someone for it. She has several blogs, as you can see if you type in her name at this blogspot location. But the one I want to recommend is eccentrically interesting, focusing on one of her main interests: country and bluegrass music in Eastern Europe. It's entitled Sauerkrautcowboys Sturm, Twang and the Imaginary Wild West in Europe.
Mike Royko, American Journalist (1932-1997)
Frankly, though, once I started, the process of blogging became functionally autonomous, even rather addictive. Even if no one is reading this, there's always the 'imaginary audience' to speak to. Writing it keeps me grounded and aware that much of my creative life (ideas, paintings) is solitary but still wants to connect.
Like many of you (and even more people who are not even reading this), I don't have much time or inclination to read blogs. There are sOOO many out there. I know I'm probably missing some really beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, and eye-opening blogs.... but who has the time to to plod through all the stuff that keeps coming at us? The public news is bad enough to wade through, as is the terrible and misnamed 'reality show' trash that keeps getting thrown at us as "entertainment." Sometimes the information highway just seems like a huge and honking traffic jam.
But, now and again, there are little islands of sanity, solace, and beauty.
Let me recommend a blog that a Finnish-Canadian artist acquaintance of mine has written for a long time. It is a beautiful, thoughtful presentation of a life being lived fully. Marja-leena Rathje is an award-winning original printmaker with an eye for extraordinary design, and she writes so coherently too.
A very different blog is written by my free-lance journalist and writer friend, Ruth Ellen Gruber, who lives in Italy. Ruth is the one who instigated my own blog-writing ... if you ever feel like blaming someone for it. She has several blogs, as you can see if you type in her name at this blogspot location. But the one I want to recommend is eccentrically interesting, focusing on one of her main interests: country and bluegrass music in Eastern Europe. It's entitled Sauerkrautcowboys Sturm, Twang and the Imaginary Wild West in Europe.
Today's Thought
It's
been my policy to view the Internet not as an 'information highway,'
but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies.Mike Royko, American Journalist (1932-1997)
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Thanks so much for the kind words and mention, Janet! I have been admiring your wonderful way with words so it pleases me to know that you think mine are coherent, for words are a struggle for me.
ReplyDeleteAs for blogging, I'm sure you can tell that I'm quite hooked on it and love all the connections that I've made through reading other blogs. I hope you will keep on writing and showing your beautiful work.