Creative Energy
site preparation
grabbing this and that,
inviting my muse—staging
possibility
—dotty seiter
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3 x 3″; ink, watercolor, and watercolor pencil on paper
mood-mini
2026
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Notes about poem and art:
• “site preparation” contains elements of classic haiku with its syllable pattern of 5-7-5, its present tense and immediacy, and its use of kireji, i.e. a cutting word or pause, to pivot from a concrete action to a deeper realization, connecting the two. It’s been contemporized by inclusion of a title and a turning of the lens to look inward rather than outward to nature; in classic haiku a kigo, or season word, is used whereas in this haiku the kigo isn’t a season of the earth but a season of preparation related to the climate of an artist.
• As part of the site preparation for Before, I first penned onto my sketchbook page a journal entry that captured my feelings of the moment. I then went on to add some neurographic linework that, because it didn’t please my eye, took me into layers and layers of scribble, color, and veiling. In the end, I stopped when I felt a happy balance of tangle and depth that captured my mood. I can imagine this “pattern” printed on fabric that I might use somewhere in a quilt project or to sew a sleeveless sheath dress.
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6 responses to “Creative Energy”
Carol, you’ve gone into your studio to start something times beyond counting over a lifetime—have you always drawn and painted since your earliest scribbles? or was there some bit of a pause for a few years before you consciously chose your art path?
Thanks for referring to this piece as an ‘allover composition’—great term for it. I was aware of its having no focal point, but still felt pulled to the ‘allover’ I was creating.
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You had me chuckling.
Love the simplicity…and relatability of this poem. It captures so beautifully what so many of us artists do. Then I chuckled when I read your poet note on it…and got totally lost. A poet, I am not.
The art piece is a delight and feels like such a fun finished piece. Then I chuckled when I read the process of how you got there! It probably couldn’t have happened any other way. It WOULD make beautiful fabric!
MaryAnn, happy that my haiku’s simplicity was relatable to the artist you are, and LOL that I ‘lost’ you when I got technical about the behind-the-scenes inner-workings of a traditional haiku! I’m learning right along with you. Until recently, going with 5-7-5 syllables was plenty enough to go on for me!
Thanks for the feedback that Before the First Bell Rang felt like such a fun finished piece to you, as it did to me, despite the seemingly contradictory way I ended up in that fun place : )
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Lola, THANK YOU for your deceptive-in-its-simplicity feedback. You know I can go on and on given half a chance (or w/o invitation at all, for that matter!), but I do love to take on the challenge of seeing how much I can pack into a little haiku and how well.
And way fun to have you see little lichen forests briefly captured in dappled sunlight. LOVE that!
xoxo
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