Janice Johnson Smith – An Artist Who Rocks

Today I had the opportunity to interview Indiana artist, Janice Johnson Smith.
Website: http://www.janicerocks.com/
Artistic Focus: Drawing and Painting

Mel: How do you feel when someone calls you an artist?
Janice: Well…um…good. It feels right. It fits me, but it isn’t like most things you do. No one calls a restaurant owner a restaurant. They say you have a business. Art is a business too.

Mel: When you create a drawing or painting how is that emotionally empowering for you?Janice: Art connects head, to heart, to hand, to paper, to eyes and back to head and heart again. Because you begin with the artist and then the work is viewed, enjoyed and interpreted.

Mel: Who in your life or what in your life encouraged you to keep going forward in your path to be a creator of your own work?
Janice: I was active in art as a young girl and a bit in college, and every now and then since. My husband all along said, “Do it.” About give years ago of friend of mine encouraged me to paint something for her. Then another friend did, and she said, “I love it!” The support has been there all along, to pushing me to create, to “I love it.”Now I get my support through a networking group. I met a house designer who installed my work in a home. It has been great.

Mel: Is it still scary for you -- ever, often, always -- to put yourself out there?
Janice: You know what? I’ve moved past some of that. There always is scrutiny when you’re showing your work to others, but it depends upon the context. It is normal to feel a little sting if someone hates your work, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t believe in it.

Mel: Can you envision yourself doing anything else with your life?
Janice: Possibly, but not full-time.

Mel: What is the best advice you have been given or can give in regards to following a creative path?
Janice: The Best Advice Given? Stay inspired. Best Advice I Can Give? Follow it to the end. Just do it, and see. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

What is coming up for Janice?
She’s helping coordinate a First Friday art event through www.SmallerIndiana.com called the Elegant Funk group art show; slated for August 1st in Indianapolis. Admission is free with complimentary food and wine tasting. A cash bar will also be present.
http://www.smallerindiana.com/events/event/show?id=1736855:Event:94524

Participate in Votre Vray Projects!

Still on the fence about participating in the sensational Votre Vray creative women project?

Not sure if you're "enough" to be included?
Don't be! Everyone has someone in the world they can connect to. Do you need to be differently-abled to appreciate that someone who is blind can paint? Must you be frustrated with depression to know that it is a terrible road travel? Of course not.

Please join us!

Below are the interview launch questions. Send your answers in the body of an e-mail (to: MelEdwardsConnect [at] Yahoo [dot] com) along with the release form below, and I'll be in touch to set a follow-up interview. Your experience can be exactly what another woman needs to hear! Don't judge yourself, let the world decide when they learn your personal story.

1. How do you feel when someone calls you an artist?
2. When you create (insert art modality of your choice) how is that emotionally empowering for you?
3. Who in your life or what in your life encouraged you to keep going forward in your path to be a creator of your own work?
4. Is it still scary for you -- ever, often, always -- to put yourself out there?
5. Can you envision yourself doing anything else with your life?
6. What is the best advice you have been given or can give in regards to following a creative path?


RELEASE for Votre Vray Interviews

DATE: ­­­­­­­­­­____________ Via: Phone or E-mail (circle or highlight one)

Name: ____________________________

Art/Business: ________________________

Address:________________________________________________________________

Phone: _______________________

E-mail: _____________________________

Phone: _______________________

Web/Blog: __________________________

E-mail with consent to participate: YES

Date of Sent (to Mel): _________________

By signing below I, ____________________________, acknowledge and agree/give consent for my interview with Mel Edwards for Votre Vray to be used to promote women in creativity. In doing so, my interview:

*May appear in part or whole in her blog or website.

*May appear in part or whole in her one woman show.

*May appear in part or whole in the book Votre Vray: Found My Truth, My Way, Volume 1 (working title).

*May be used as an example for other creative people in Mel’s related workshops, coaching or teaching.

Furthermore, I acknowledge that I will receive no remuneration for my participation but Mel will make every effort to give me full credit for all of my work, promote my art and business of creating art. This may be done by naming me in any works I am included in and/or naming my business and/or artistic medium.

I will be able to access updates to all Votre Vray projects via Mel’s blog: www.votrevray.blogspot.com or via her website: www.votrevray.com.

Additionally, when any materials are released I will receive notification to include in my press kit, and when the book is released I will be able to purchase a copy at a small discount with a personalized inscription from Mel. for my participation in the Votre Vray project, to empower women in the arts.

Signed: ________________________________ Date: ________________

(For electronic signatures, only) Time of Day: ________________________________

(highlight one) Signed via: Personal computer or Business Computer

Please save signed copy for your records.

Alive? Then, it is NEVER too late, No Acceptable Excuse

In the past 90 hours or so, I've been given more proof that there is never a time that is too late to begin a creative life, and that no excuse you can come up with can't be overcome. Women I'll be interviewing have overcome homelessness, prejudice of all kinds, physical barriers, and religious expectations to allow their creative selves to soar at all stages of life. I look forward to sharing their inspirational stories.

Until then, if you haven't read the memoir, or at least watched the film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, do so! It is the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, former editor of Elle in France. The entire memoir was dictated by Bauby blinking one eye while an assistant read off the letters of the alphabet because Bauby was unable to speak or move any other part of his body after a severe stroke.

More about Bauby's memoir can be found at: http://www.amazon.com/Diving-Bell-Butterfly-Memoir-Death/dp/0375701214 or the film version: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401383/

Until next time, keep creating!

Overwhelming Response for Creative Women

Ladies and Gentlemen, I declare that every woman I've gotten to know in the last 48 hours is a unique powerhouse of inspiration that you're going to LOVE getting to know.
As of this morning, I've had over 100 women write and say they're interested in being interviewed for inclusion in this blog, the Votre Vray play and/or the Votre Vray Vol. 1!

I have several interviews lined up this week with a variety of creatives. They all inspire me, so I'm sure at least one will speak your creative language.
Some of the fab ladies I'll be speaking with are:
Connie Logan, Impressionist painter, of www.cplogan.com
Kim Santini, painter, at www.turtledovedesigns.com
Nicole B. Schmidt, Graphic artist, at www.nicolebcreative.com
Linda Seger, Screenwiter, author and teacher at www.LindaSeger.com

I can't wait!
Until next time, keep creating!

A Celebration of African-American & Caribbean Arts

Want an excuse to go to the beach this autumn?
Attend the MOJA arts festival in Charleston, SC September 25-October 5, 2008!

Featured performances will include classic pianists, jazz musicians, dance theatre and a R & B concert. There will also a theatrical production of "We Be Gullah/Geechee Anointed People" by Carlie Towne Productions, and Author Pearl Cleage will be on hand at the Literary Corner. Don't miss the Community Tribute Luncheon at Lowndes Grove Plantation, 'cause you know southerners know good eatin'! (Luncheon requires advanced reservations.)

All events require individual admission. Tickets go on sale July 1st and may be purchased via Ticketmaster by calling 843-554-6060 or online via www.ticketmaster.com.

Additional information about the time of events and artists' offerings may be found at: www.mojafestival.com

(Information provided in this announcement was provided by the MOJA Arts Festival.)

Women ROCK!

Today I had my query for creative women interviewees go out via Peter Shankman's Help a Reporter Out service and my mailbox has already been slammed with 35 women who want to be interviewed or know someone I should interview. People are wondrously amazing at sharing their stories to inspire others.

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far. Keep 'em coming and spread the word. If you belong to an online community that might have people interested, and won't upset anyone by cross-posting, please send them my way. I'd love to have so many interviews lined up that I can do an annual edition of Votre Vray: Women of Creative Truth! in addition to many, many more women featured in my blog.

Until later, keep creating!

Women, Wymyn, Womoon Artists Sought for Interviews

Hear ye, hear ye! Wanted: Women, Wymyn, Womoon to share stories of how you've found your mode of artistic expression and use it in your daily life or work.

Some of the questions I'll be asking:

1. How do you feel when someone calls you an artist?
2. When you create (insert art modality of your choice) how is that emotionally empowering for you?
3. Who in your life or what in your life encouraged you to keep going forward in your path to be a creator of your own work?
4. Is it still scary for you -- ever, often, always -- to put yourself out there?
5. Can you envision yourself doing anything else with your life?
6. What is the best advice you have been given or can give in regards to following a creative path?

Naturally, you will be encouraged and invited to share where you're headed in your work, promote anything you've done and give any additional information you think readers/listeners may want to know about you or your art.

It is my intention to share interviews via a one woman show, much like Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues, through this blog, and one day, in a book.

Not a female artist? That's okay. Share how your support women in their art, creative expression in general and your hopes for equal recognition for all in artistic arenas. Or recommend an artist I should be speaking with!

Anyone willing to be interviewed should e-mail me at Mel Edwards Connect [at] Yahoo [dot] com.

Until next time, keep creating!

Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution

Just before school was out, a female colleague and I had a chat about how women often feel like we don’t fit in. We’re the only ones who…(insert life factor of difference here). The truth is, we’re not the only ones, just a decent percentage of those who have been fed a concoction of what we should look like, want to do with our lives, and how to behave. Sure, men get the same bill of goods, but in this country, under Anglo-law, white men have always been in charge of nearly every political-social-cultural-religious-economic institution we can name and no one else has been able to catch up.

As a teacher and creativity coach, I’ve seen black boys dress like TV thugs, and music stars as they try to find an identity they can connect with. I’ve watched girls starve themselves, and do a variety of things (many harmful and irreversible) to get attention for their appearance (and that school up north that is surprised girls made a pact to get pregnant better wake up, ‘cause that’s not news to any teacher who takes time to know their students). I have listened to adult women tell me countless times they’re not “right” for me to profile in my creative work because they’re not good/smart/talented/young/wise/established enough in their art or otherwise.

What’s a person to do? How does one constructively change the way people view each other, treat themselves and strangers, and learn to find their truth without apology?

If you like slam and performance poetry, are a feminist, are pro-LBGT rights, or just anti-oppression in general (and who besides an oppressor would not be?), Word Warriors: 35 Women leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, edited by Alix Olson, will certainly open your horizons and perhaps give you some answers to these questions that you can live with.

Will you be surprised by what you read? Find caustic venom within? Or finally feel normal because of what you have read within these pages? Only you can answer that.

You may recognize some of the names on the cover including Michelle Tea and Patricia Smith. However, to overlook the others, and miss the words of the trans-gender, intersex, queer, lesbian, and male authors, would be to miss the whole point of their work. These people have voices and they’re ready to be heard.

In the end, I learned a bit about walking in someone else’s skin and found several new poets I find fabulous. Check it out.

Have you read Word Warriors? Share your insight by placing comments here!

[Word Warriors is published by Seal Press. Edited by Alix Olson. Forward by Eve Enlser (creator of The Vagina Monologues and V-Day).]

Gail Blanke, LifeDesigns CEO - Dealing with Change

Gail Blanke's first book In My Wildest Dreams: Living the Life You Longed For has competition!
It is entitled Between Trapezes, also written by Gail, CEO and President of LifeDesigns. It includes six steps for thriving on change.

I don't know what you think of when you jump into a new project, but I get excited for days. Then, reality hits. What if I fail? What if I stink at this? What if I lose my friends, end up in debtors prison and the IRS wants me to tax evasion? Okay, most of that isn't likely, but the rabbit hole has a spiral that leads the way, and all it takes is one negative mental step and into the hole I go!

I haven't read Gail's latest book, but after completing In My Wildest Dreams, you can betcha it is on my "must read" list. Gail's also on my dream list of creative women to interview.

So...
What do you do to handle the challenges of launching your dreams?
Where do you go to ground yourself and keep from slipping into that rabbit hole?
Let me know.

Laughing Rembrant worth $40 million

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080619/ap_on_en_ot/art_rembrandt_laughing

Above the the URL to an AP story of a Rembrant self-portrait that went up for auction. The purchaser paid a over $4million for it, but since experts have verified that Rembrant really did paint the portrait of himself, it is worth at least 9 times that.

Which brings me to a fun creative question. What are your artistic wildest dreams? Do you want to have a self-portrait worth millions of dollars (while you're still alive)? Perform at Lincoln Center?

I'll admit I want to make my Votre Vray play of women's creative lives into an HBO special, with Eve Ensler as my MC. I'll perform in front of a sold out crowd, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, NOW and...and....
Okay. I'll breathe. This is pretty heady stuff.

So? Share already! I would love to know where your creative vibes are headed.

One Great Deal and One Raw Deal...

If you're like most people, you're on the lookout for deals to help you enjoy your creative lifestyle. Recently, I came across two "deals" but only one worked for me.

1. The first deal was for a local brewery. They ran a full page ad in a local publication stating you can get a 22oz. "Ugly Mug" which they'll fill for you and you'll have one great story to bring home with you.

2. A colleague sent us all this link (at work...which I think was probably a no-no): http://www.SlickNewLaptops.com/get.cgi?sid=230159&cid=163674&e=w&k=1&mid=134108972
She then went on to explain you'll have to spend some time signing up for offers and it would cost you about $100 out of pocket and you might decide to cancel some (if not most) of the offers you sign up for, but in the long-run, you get the laptop you wanted. (She's gotten TWO Macs this way in the past two years.

Now, at first glance, offer #1 sounded like the best deal. I like hand-thrown pottery and "ugly" jugs and mugs are part of South Carolina art history. Even if I didn't love the beer, I thought I'd get the mug and have it to savor the memory of the night my sweetie and I went there.

The second offer sounded like a spam-filter nightmare, but since the notification came from a colleague who was upfront enough to let us know what work it would take to earn the laptop, and that two other people would also have to go through the process for it to ship, I thought I'd look at it as well.

The Raw Deal: Offer #1
Why? The advertisement for the brewery never said a few key facts: a. the price for a mug ($75!); b. that you can't pick up a mug there, but you must design it yourself, then wait for someone to make it; c. that all the mugs in the place, belonged to customers who had designed them for themselves (and that the mugs were supposed to remain at the pub). I was crushed. So much for making memories. The only good news for the night is the pint I did have was pretty good, as was the burger with homemade ketchup and pickle.

The Great Deal:
http://www.SlickNewLaptops.com/get.cgi?sid=230159&cid=163674&e=w&k=1&mid=134108972
Why? Because everything is spelled out up front. I know how much work it will take me to earn my laptop of choice and I know if I can't get two others to do this whole set of offers that I'll lose out...but there is no false advertisement, no omission of relevant facts, and I know where I stand up front. Maybe when I get my laptop I'll go to a potter who won't charge $75 for a cool mug, bring it to the public bench outside that pub, and drink sweet tea as I write my heart out on my new 'puter.

Until next time, keep being creative!
(And if you're looking for a laptop...my colleague was right about the investment, offers, etc. but I know $100 and some effort is a lot cheaper than a new Mac!)

Money, Money, Money!!!

Let's consider the reality that artists need to make an income and that financial flow can come from a variety of resources: a "day job," selling your art/skills as an artist, wealthy benefactors, grants and stipends. The "where" often is not as difficult a concept for most of my artist friends as "how much," as in what amount is a respectable going rate for sale of artist works. Unfortunately, that depends on the skill of the artist, what the market will bear, and what other artists are earning doing the same type of work.

Where can you turn for solutions?

• Ask a peer what she believes is the normal going rate for someone with your level of expertise.
• Visit professional organizations' websites for details and related information.
• Figure out what you need to be solvent, and divide by the number of hours you can/will be willing to work.

The first option may require asking several peers and feeling out an average you believe the market will bear based upon your product.

The second option usually involves at least a web search and may require membership in professional organizations. Here's an example, Editorial Freelancers Association's website states, "Common rates reported to us by our members fall within the ranges indicated below. They should be used only as a rough guideline; rates vary considerably depending on the nature of the work, the time frame of the assignment, the degree of special expertise required, and other factors. The industry standard for a page is 250 words." Then they have a chart of the type of work a freelancer might get contracted to do.

That last option is what throws most of us for a loop because it requires self-evaluation, and as artists, we rarely trust our own opinions of our value. For example, as an educator, with a Master's plus 30 credits, but no PhD, I know what my former employer paid everyone with the same length experience. However, I also know not every state pays the same amount for the same work. Also, that income has to be adjusted for benefits that I cannot earn as a freelance storyteller, and I have to remember to take out Uncle Sam's portion of the pot. Additionally, every state requires different amounts and spectrum of duties for their teachers. It can be dizzying!

In the end, you have to decide what you value the most: doing your art not matter what income it gives you, following your creative path while living an adequate lifestyle or heading to the top of your class and earning every penny you can out of it while you can. Follow your internal comfort meter. You'll know when you're displease, happy or embarrassed by the income you hope to earn.

Sologig It!

Looking for a new creative career but don't consider yourself a master or mistress of fine arts? CareerBuilder has a division called Sologig that may just be up your tightrope! You can subscribe to e-mail notification of creative jobs in your area. I registered as freelancer, as that is one of the many hats I wear, and today's message looks like this:

"Bored? Get Creative! It is easy to get stuck in an uninspired rut by taking on projects that are similar in nature. With the help of Sologig.com, there is no need to bang your head against a wall. Following your passion is an important aspect of having an enjoyable career. For new project ideas to keep your creative juices flowing, check out some new trends.
Top 10 Creative Freelance Careers:
1. Scrapbook Design Consultant
2. Specialty Freelance Writer
3. Color Consultant for Interior Design
4. Waterscapes Design Consultant
5. Real Estate Marketing Consultant
6. Social Media Consultant
7. Event Coordinator
8. Jewelry Designer and Buying Consultant
9. Graphic Artist
10. Play Consultant"

Even though the second entry is the one I had in mind when I signed up, the other nine sounded pretty exciting as well, especially number 10, since I have been trained as an English teacher since 1991.

Check out Sologig today!

Until next time,
get creative!

Can everyone count on you?

"For most of my adult life, I'd prided myself in my competence and sense of responsibility. I was always the one people could count on to get the job done. I'd been sabotaging myself with my own sense of duty, pushing my needs aside to take care of everything else." - Diane Dreher, author of The Tau of Womanhood (p. 32).

Sound familiar? It was so familiar I not only underlined and put several asterisks next to it on my personal copy of the book, I called my mother and read it to her. My mother is a great woman in many ways, but she's very old fashioned in giving more of herself than she should and having nothing left to give others. After forty years of marriage she feels guilty if she calls dad at work and tells him to pick up dinner on the way home because she doesn't feel like cooking. Now, I'm not saying this to put down my mother, but to illustrate that we all have our limits, but when we reach them, because so many have depended upon us to do so much for them for so very long, people balk at our changes. Then, feeling guilty, we back off. That's no way to lead a creative life.

I am very lucky in that I live in a time and place that allows me to walk away from one of my vocations in order to follow my dreams. You may not have that luxury. You can still take baby steps. Diane Dreher went to a doctor who asked her three simple questions:
1. How much sleep are you getting (Not enough.)
2. How much exercise are you getting? (Not enough.)
3. How much vegetables are in your diet? (You guessed it....)
Diane's doctor prescribed two activity sessions per day of 15 minutes, and it didn't need to be some harsh butt kicking aerobic exercise that was beyond her energy level.

So, my challenge to myself, and to you is this:
Get 15 minutes of creative activity into your day.

It can be five minutes at a time, three times a day, or 15 minutes all at once. You decide. Don't make excuses. Don't start doing chores that "have to be done" and promise to get back to yourself later. It won't work and you'll keep falling into the same trap I do, my mom does, and Diane did.

If you do that for yourself, you might also have the energy to follow the three directives from Diane's doctor: 1. Get enough sleep. 2. Exercise 15 minutes at a clip, twice a day. 3. Each several serving of fresh vegetables per day. It can only help you. Why not try it?

Also, if you're looking for inspiration and fellowship, pick up a copy of Diane's book, The Tao of Womanhood, published by Quill (and imprint of HarperCollins), and read how she "combines the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching with straightforward advice." I read my copy in one day, just picking it up between other activities. It is now part of my recommended reading library for creative women!

Until later, keep striving to be your most authentic creative self!

Time to Say Good-bye, Hello

Well, the magic day has arrived. My classroom is cleared out, keys turned in, report cards placed in the mail, etc. The difficult part was not saying farewell to my peers, because we have numerous options for keeping in touch, and I plan return and do a brief residency for one colleague in the fall when she's out on maternity leave. No, what killed me was the moment one of the last students in the building walked up to me and said, "I now know what I wanted to say to you. I know what I want to do in high school and it is because of you. You have been an inspiration." I choked out a, "Thank you, Sweetie. I needed that today. Take care of yourself and have a good summer." Then I turned away as he walked down the hall, so he wouldn't see the tears in my eyes.

You see, I coach and I teach, solely because I love people and I want people to love themselves and follow their dreams. If nothing else, I can say this year that at least one boy "got it" and believes in his future today.

Now, I said it "killed me" to live through his farewell, and I want to explain that comment. Being motivated in the moment is very different from holding onto that feeling long-term. It can be a terrible struggle to do the things in life we don't want to do while trying to keep our dreams alive. If you focus on the dream, all will be well, but if the struggle reigns supreme, you're sunk, at least temporarily. I wish I could be in that child's mind whenever he begins to feel sunk. I'd throw him a life buoy and yell, "Hang on! Help is on the way!"

So, as I say "good-bye" to my former students, I also ask them to say "hello" to their future, their hopes, their dreams. May they become close allies and may the darkness fade away.

Education vs. Experience

Our school principal gave us the following quote, from my personal favorite front porch philosopher, Pete Seeger:

"Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't."

I am living that this week, with my students (and their parents) who didn't read the fine print on their exam exemptions. It stated, "Understand that the exemption status may change if assignments are not completed during the next few days of school. Only the current average reflected exemption privileges." We also have a policy that students in the 8th grade must earn an A every quarter all year to be exempt, even if the student's yearly average is an A. That said, seven out of my 85 students did not show for their exam yesterday that they were not exempted from.

What I have learned:
Even though I posted exemptions outside the classroom, posted them on my teacher website, announced them in class, and every teacher has reminded the students of the all A's all year to be exempt rule, seven students who had yearly averages of an A, stopped listening when I said they had an A for the year.

What I would do differently in the future:
Make the students sign stating they knew they were not exempt and send a NEW notification home stating so.

In the end, we only hear what we want to hear and bite back at anyone who goes against our deepest wishes. The experience we gain is often full of bitterness and turmoil, but we do remember. Those of us who learn, do so and let it go. Those of us who carry it around the rest of our lives poison ourselves in the process.

So, today will you read the fine print or gain experience?

Earn an Art Degree! (or not...)

So often when we're yearning to learn something new, we look to books about the topic or check into taking a course, or the ultra-motivated consider earning a degree. Then our next hurdle is to select a resource or plan that is best for our personal needs. This task can seem daunting. Where can you turn for help?

Naturally, you can ask those who have been down the same path for advice. However, know we each perceive differently and something that bores a friend to tears might keep you hopping with excitement.

Last year, when I began researching PhD programs I might want to enter, I decided to rely upon general marketing information from a university system expert: Princeton review. I joined the e-mail newsletter notification system from Princeton Review Recruiter Service. I've pasted one of their messages below so you can have an idea of what to expect from this resource. I honestly do not know anything about the program listed, nor do I endorse it over any other program. I simply want you to know what might be of interest to you as you move forward in your creative path.

If you like what appears below, sign up for a e-notifications from the Princeton Review and receive similar notifications personalized to your criterion! In the end, the decision on what step you're ready to take next is solely up to you.

Until next time!
- Mel. (p.s. Just three more days until I'm free to follow my creative path full-time! Sure hope you'll join the journey.)

********
Maine College of Art (MECA) delivers a demanding and enlivening education in visual art and design within an intimate learning community. Each student learns how to transform aspirations and values into a creative practice that serves as the foundation for a lifelong pursuit of personal and professional goals. Founded in 1882 and fully accredited, MECA offers both the Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees as well as a Post-Baccalaureate certificate in Art Education. The College gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, has been hailed as one of the finest art spaces in the Northeast for the exhibition of leading edge contemporary art
Request a brochure from Maine College of Art
MFA Program Overview
The Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts program at Maine College of Art (MECA) is a two-year low-residency program designed for emerging artists. The MFA in Studio Arts is based upon an open interdisciplinary approach that encourages students to think across boundaries and integrate studio practice with conceptual and interdisciplinary theory. With an intimate class size of 30 students, each MFA student pursues an individualized studio curriculum in their chosen area of concentration.
The MFA low-residency program is based around two eight-week summer intensives in Portland, two ten-day winter residencies in Portland and New York, a five-day May intensive in Portland for graduating students, and the 14-week fall and spring semesters in a home studio setting with supervised instruction from non-resident as well as resident faculty. An extensive roster of internationally recognized visiting artists and scholars supports the curriculum.
The summer intensives allow students to work on-site in state-of-the-art studios, (many students have multiple studios), attend seminars, discussions, and lectures by artists, critics, curators, historians, and theorists, participate in individual and group critiques, and help to develop a community through dinners, dialogues planned and unplanned, and various excursions.
Off-site during the non-residency fall and spring semesters, students in their home studios are partnered with a renowned faculty of Non-Resident Studio Instructors (NRSI) for one-on-one meetings that allow for a flexible, individualized, student-centered learning and year-round resident faculty contact.
The program travels to New York City during the winter intensives to visit artists' studios and important cultural sites. Graduating students return to Portland in the spring of the second year to hang their studio thesis exhibition and defend their written and studio theses.
The MECA Community and Campus is located in the center of Portland's Arts District, MECA's campus is comprised of five buildings all located within a four-square-block. The main studio building is a 150,000 square foot renovated department store. Cosmopolitan and comfortable, Portland offers all the advantages of a small city with close proximity to nature and recreation. It has an urban sensibility and energy that draw an eclectic population from artists to entrepreneurs.
The College gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, has been hailed as one of the finest art spaces in the Northeast for the exhibition of leading edge contemporary art.

Memoir ~ Not Solely an End of Life Inventory

Are you at point in your life path where something has to change? Are you taking mental inventory and deciding what to do next? If so, CONGRATULATIONS!

Now, you might be a bit frustrated with what to do next, but don't fret. I have recently acquired a book by a favorite writing teacher of mine, Natalie Goldberg, that just may have the tools you need. Now, I have never met Ms. Goldberg (or her friend and another writing teacher I often turn to, Julia Cameron) but because her author's voice is so personal and she shares so many of her life experiences, I believe I know her. I am also pleased that her work can help a writer unblock herself, write through her mental processes and emerge with perspective and positive energy for her next steps forward. Goldberg's Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir is just that: practice, practice, practice.

I learned long ago that there is no way around my mental processes and the only method I have found to get past anything that continually infiltrates my thoughts it to work through it via writing. This book will help any reader do just that, and perhaps, in the end you'll have a memoir you'd hope to publish. If that is not your intention, with each of these exercises you've at least worked through your blocks and have more mental and emotional energy to spend on what is dearest and most significant for you.

Best wishes and good luck!

Invigorate Your Muse!

Perhaps it is because my mother taught me to treat books like sacred objects, or maybe because I have been and English teacher, I turn to books for ideas and ways to enliven my creative process. Today I visited the main branch of the Greenville County public library and I found two books that might be of interest to you.

The first is a new title on 14 day loan:
The New Writer's Handbook: A practical Anthology of the Best Advice for Your Craft and Career, edited by Philip Martin, published by Scarletta Press, and forward by Erika Jong. I like this book because of the way the contents are laid out. I can easily navigate the parts that interest me and skip the rest. From reading this title today I have created four pages of notes about one of my latest project and discovered several new resources that I was previously unaware of. This book certainly inspired me; It is nearly 11 p.m. and I'm up blogging about it! For an early-to-bed-early-to-rise girl like me, that's saying something!

The second title is exciting because the author found a dozen women to profile who are following their artistic dreams. The hook is that all of these women are senior citizens! Aging Artfully by Amy Gorman, profiles visual and performing women artists ages 85-105! If that doesn't get you to stop moaning that you're too old to follow your dreams, nothing will nudge you into action.

If you live in the area and want to check these books out, the first one will be returned in a few days, but both will be back in circulation before their due dates. Don't forget, you can reserve the books through your local library branch as well!

What do you do to ensure your personal success in all areas of life?

This week, I have introduced Rhonda Byrne's The Secret to my students. I hoped to give them ideas about what choices they have in attracting a life they want instead of wandering around moaning about the life they have been "given." Most of the students are interested in the idea of attracting money, but others were excited to know the Law of Attraction can bring positive relationships, good grades, happiness, and all manner of emotional, mental and spiritual health and wealth. Before they leave today they will each draw and image of their life vision using the concepts shared in The Secret.

I invite you to follow along and draw your own vision for your creative future. If that doesn't appeal to you, try The Artist's Way author Julia Cameron's directive to write a creative resume -- that is a resume listing all the creative endeavors you've been a part of. Mine begins with me standing on a hassock in the middle of the living room as a toddler and belting out nonsense words at the top of my lungs as I "sung" for my mother, being in school choirs and plays, writing poetry and stories, and so on. You may be amazed about the number and variety of items you've made or endeavored to create in your lifetime. You also might be a bit shocked about how little space you've given creation in your daily get up-take a shower (with soap)- go to work existance.
If you've not happy with what you see, change it!

What will you create today that will add a little spring to your step?

On the 8th day 'til Freedom, My True Love Said to Me....

Okay, so maybe my true love didn't say anything special about freedom from my day job, but I am just so darned happy that I can barely contain myself. Granted, I'm also so exhausted it was a fight to stay awake past 6 p.m. tonight, but I'm hoping that's due to allergies and a rainy evening. It certainly isn't due to my age!

Today my students performed their end-of-the year puppet plays and I was amazed how many gifted me with their puppets when they were done. I just mentioned that if they didn't want the puppets any longer they could either toss them out (as they were created from "junk" items anyway) or I'd be happy to take them. I now have nearly two dozen new puppets to share my life with. Some are humanoid, some are odd creatures from boxes, I've got a handful of paper sack pals and sock sweeties to speak to. No, not crazy, but I can't help but talk to puppets. Having grown up with a myriad of Jim Henson (and company's) characters in my daily life via Sesame St. and The Muppet Show, accompanied by Shari's Lamb Chop, and I see puppets as living breathing friends. In fact, one of my dozens of future business ideas has to do with puppets because I'm so drawn to them. That's what being passionate about your art is all about: finding excitement and fun where others are willing to say, "Here, I don't want it, but if it makes you happy, it is all yours!"

Anyway, I'm delighted to know one week from today my students will be starting summer vacation and I'll be gearing up for my last day of school administrivia. My sincerest respect goes to those who are thrilled to be part of education in the public sector for a career. I've done it off and on for nine years now (seven of those teaching in middle grades and high schools) and I just keep re-learning that I love to teach, but hate all the rest of the work that goes with it: grades, upset people due to grades, meetings because of grades, paperwork about those grades. Life doesn't come with a grade book, folks, and some day we'll be smart and capable enough to figure out an easier, more authentic system of discovering if we learned what we should. Until then, I'll be in the private sector, cheering on creativity at every turn!

Inspiration and Personal Questions

It continually inspires me to see the work of other female artists, no matter the medium or message,
because I tell myself, "If she can find her true path and calling in life, so can I,"
....and furthermore, so can you!

Below are links to the work of five women who have all been Guggenheim fellows
(just as Erika Blumenfeld, the light photographer featured yesterday).
Visit their sites, look at what incredible contributions women are making in the arts, then ask yourself,
"What am I passionate about? If there were no obstacles, what would I create?"
Then, begin believing in your dreams.

1. Meena Alexander <http://www.meenaalexander.com/%3E , Poet, New York City. Distinguished Professor of English, Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center: Poetry.
   
   
2. Phoebe Gloeckner <http://www.ravenblond.com/pgloeckner/index.html%3E , Artist, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Assistant Professor, University of Michigan School of Art and Design <http://www.art-design.umich.edu/faculty.php?aud=e&menucat=pe&id=phoebeg%3E : A graphic narrative.
   
   
3. Anne Makepeace <http://www.makepeaceproductions.com/%3E , Filmmaker, Lakeville, Connecticut; Director, Writer, and Producer, Anne Makepeace Productions, Inc: Filmmaking.
   
   
4. Myrna Packer/Art Bridgman <http://www.bridgmanpacker.org/%3E , Choreographers, Valley Cottage, New York; Codirectors, Bridgman/Packer Dance: Choreography.
   
   
5. Pamela Yates <http://www.skylightpictures.com/%3E , Filmmaker, New York City; President and Cofounder, Skylight Pictures, Inc: Filmmaking.

So...what do you dream of creating today?

Votre Vray Awaits ~ Nine days 'til launch!

That's correct! In just over a week I'll be able to dedicate myself fully to gathering all the information I can share via interviews from women in a variety of artistic professions. If you are a creative woman, please, don't hesitate to share your story! You may be featured in the Votre Vray book or play.

Until then, to keep your creative juices flowing, here are some sites and a contest you might be interested in:

1. Do you love the sun? Are you amazed by the power of natural light? Is photography your niche? If so, check out Erika Blumenfeld at: http://www.erikablumenfeld.com/

2. Looking for motivation to write a first person narrative? Go to: http://www.narrativemagazine.com/shared/contest.php and be mindful that the deadline for submissions is July 31st! (Still plenty of time to knock their socks off!)

3. Are you a wife? A mother? A poet? Finding it hard to live three lives in one? If so, you're not alone. Meet a woman who is all three incarnations in one. Visit Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, commercial poetry author, wife and mother, at: www.jaynejaudonferrer.com

Until tomorrow, keep creating dreams so your realities will slide into place as you always imagined.

Countdown to end of school year -- and last day as public school teacher

Tuesday, tomorrow, is the first of the last four full school days left in the 2007-08 school year in South Carolina!!!!! Wooo hooo!!!!

The last day teachers must work is Thursday, June 5th...and silly me, I elected to take the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards exam on Friday the 6th. Anyway, I'll be a full-time freelance creativity coach and artist from that date forward. (Although one of my dearest colleagues has asked me to to some long-term subbing for her in the fall and so far I've agreed...)


Join me in our statewide countdown to freedom!
10 days 'til FREEDOM! (I can almost hear Mel Gibson yelling now.....)

Ms. Mel joins FeedBurner

Watch out, world! Here I come!

Ms Mel Joins Technorati

Technorati Profile

The Poetry Society of Virginia: 2008 Contest Awards

Mel Edwards (C'es moi) is a WINNER!

POETRY SOCIETY OF VIRGINIA
2008 Annual Adult Contest
Awards Program
April 19, 2008

Category 14. Laura Day Boggs Bolling Memorial,, Marguerite Watkins, Judge. First Place: “My New Neighbor”, Dr. M. Lee Alexander, Williamsburg, VA. Second Place: “Hats”, James Garrett, Richmond, VA. Third Place: “Teachers”, Mel Edwards, Simpsonville, SC. 1st HM ”My Secret”, Laura Bobrow, Leesburg, VA. 2nd HM “Colder Light”, S. Nagarajan, Mason, OH. 3rd HM “Upon Visiting the National Zoo in Winter”, David Essex, Alexandria, VA. (55 entries)

Category 20. Come Out Swinging Prize, Henry Hart, Judge. First Place: “Breakfast at Sea”, Lynn Veach Sadler, Sanford, NC. Second Place: ” Song Written for Sophia”, David Essex, Alexandria, VA. Third Place: “Pro Se Blues”, Peter H. Desmond, Cambridge, MA. 1st HM “Apiary Act”, Mel Edwards, Simpsonville, SC. 2nd HM “Simple Simon’s Song”, Richard Raymond, Roanoke, VA. 3rd HM “o daddy long legs”, Trilla Ramage, Hampton, VA. (60 entries)

Mel's winning entries follow:

"Teachers"

by Mel Edwards

There are short ones,
tall ones,
skinny ones, too.

Watchin’ what you’re doin’.
Watchin’ what you do.

Some they crawl out in the night.
Others stand in broad day light.

Who are the easy ones?
Who be the bad?
Who are the worst ones that you’ve ever had?

Their paychecks may be nothin’ but I will tell you true.
Their benefits are somethin’ – maybe one of them was you.

There are round ones,
wide ones,
average ones too.

Showin’ how to do it.
Showin’ what to do.


Who were the great ones?

Who weren’t that bad?

Who was the best one you ever had?

**************************

"Apiary Act"

by Mel. Edwards

You flew right in and snubbed my worker bees
Saying, “Hey Queenie, mama, take a look at me.”
I spun around. I had no fear.
I knew Big Daddy, where you’d be in a year.

I said, “Yeah?”
You said, “Yeah.”

You walked right up and said with a smile,
“Come one Queenie, baby, let’s play for a while.”
I said, “A drone of mine will be put to the test.
If you know what you’re doin’ you’ll get no rest.”

You said, “Yeah?”
I said, “Yeah.”

I should have known then that you knew your scam
You claimed, “I was made for dancin’ the old wham-bam.”
You looked into my eyes, then lightnin’ struck.
In a heartbeat you were my broncin’ buck.

I said, “Yeah!”
You said, “Yeah.”

Well, months have passed. The hive is full.
Your life is done. Honey, that’s not bull.
“Mother Nature said it’s time for me to fly.
It’s been fun, Daddy, and that’s no lie.”

You said, “Yeah?”
I said, “Yeah.”

You took a step back and tripped on the rug.
Lying on the floor you sighed and shrugged.
“If that’s how it goes, I’m not sorry, ma’am.
There are worse ways of livin’, like the ol’ flim flam.”

I said, “Yeah.”
You said, “Yeah.”

Evernow

It began with a seashell
so delicate...

The words flowed
with adolsecent angst.
They continue through
life's surprises and goals
I never hoped to realize.

It will continue:
as long as my fingers move
even if the letters wobble
like Anna's did...

All the while my eyes see
even if those visions
exist only in my head...

As my ears receive waves
even if no one else hears
the voice within....

Beyond the everlasting day my spirit
enters eternal rest
past the hours that will flow
evermore in the distance...

Evernow,
I am
and
I will be
a poet.

Hub City Writing Conference

Hi, folks! If you are looking for an intimate writing conference to attend this summer, check out Hub City's 2008 Writing in Place conference, which will be held Aug. 1-3 at Wofford College. They only allow 72 people to register and I'll be there focusing upon poetry.
I signed up after I found out Hub City published Marjory Wentworth's first book, and one of the presenters is the ever-intelligent poet Vera Gomez, who I met at TRAM last Saturday.
I love that when I follow my passions (storytelling, writing, teaching) I meet more and more fabulous people. Jayne Jaudon Ferrer is rumored to be attending this conference as well...so if you're looking for more fantastic folks to share your love of word wrangling with, Hub City is the place to be in August!
For more details visit:
http://www.hubcity.org/
(And, no, I do not benefit financially or otherwise from speaking about this conference or any of the women mentioned above. I'm just so excited that I wanted to invite you to join us!)
Hope to see you at Wofford!
-Mel.

TRAM: Marjory Wentworth workshop

Call it luck, synergy or Divine Intervention, but on Friday night I attended a poetry reading at a cafe in Traveler's Rest given by Marjory Wentworth, our state poet laureate. While I was there, it was announced she was giving a FREE workshop on Saturday for two hours. So, I cancelled my plans for Saturday and signed up. What a gas!

The main thrust of the workshop was writing about stories you find in magazines, newspapers, etc. that just catch your mind in a spin. Marjory brought her file and we looked. I found in the pile our local library's ad for a teen event -- not related to reading or libraries at all, but toward environmentally-related crafts: making floor mats out of plastic shopping sacks. It struck me funny that no reading was promoted in the advertisement. I then brainstormed and thought of all the times people have been hushed in the library. I combined that silence with all the things we as adults don't talk to teens about even when all the information is right there under our noses. Below is the poem I came up with:

Trash Bag Floor Mats
by Mel. Edwards

Conformityville Library:Calling All Teens!
Create kitschy quirky foundation
to combat global strangulation!

Sssshhh!

Shop on
and drop
crunchy carpet for
park pavers and
football field.

Fashionable obfuscation found.

Poohie.
So sad.
Sam Walton’s shop
switched those sea-tone sacks.
Cement County seeks coastal view.



Free use with author credit given. MelEdwardsConnect@yahoo.com
© 2008. Mel Edwards

Farewell Teaching

Well, this week I turned in my resignation effective the end of the school year. What does that mean to the rest of the world? Ready or not, here I come!!!!
I have a list of 18 things I want to be working on this year. I won't post the entire list here, but some of the basics include:

1. Votre Vray - Finding Your Truth workshops
2. Storytelling, poetry crafting and other literary support and entertaining in schools
3. Writing boatloads more poetry
4. Writing a book with a colleague
5. Many, many poetry readings and other related festival events

Somewhere along the line I hope to see more of my husband and bunnies and meet YOU!

I'm OPEN FOR BOOKINGS most days and nights beginning June 14th. (Before that I have a summer camp, National Boards of Professional Teaching Standards assessment test, and, naturally, the end of the school year.

I look foward to meeting you soon!

-Mel.

Poem wins contest

I just heard the inside scoop that one of my poems for young people has won third place in a nationally advertised contest. I'm thrilled. Once the information goes public I'll publish it here and give a link to the contest website. Until then, keep on writing!

Story Quarterly Sponsors Love Story Contest

StoryQuarterly Contest Guidelines:
The StoryQuarterly Love Story Contest is open to all writers. We’re looking for the heart of the story presented in fiction or nonfiction in the following categories: short stories, short short stories, novel excerpts, essays, memoirs, and excerpts from book-length nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 8,000 words, and must not have previously been chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest.

TOPIC: The subject is love in any and all of its varieties and incarnations — familial, filial, romantic, platonic, the love of place, nature, animals, possessions, beauty, or truth, love that is intellectual, erotic, patriotic, real or imagined, fulfilled or denied, tragic or comedic.
Tell us the truth about love!

Awards: First Prize is $2,500, Second Prize is $1,500, and Third Prize is $750. The prize winners will be announced in SQ online and will be eligible for inclusion in the 2008 StoryQuarterly Annual. Additionally, ten finalists will receive $100 each. We’ll announce finalists in the magazine as well.

There is a $20 fee for each entry. And with your entry, you’ll receive six months complimentary access to Narrative Backstage.

Entries will be accepted between between January 1 and March 31, 2008. The contest will be judged by the editors of the magazine.

Winners and finalists will be announced to the public by by April 30, 2008.
All writers who enter will be notified by email of the judges’ decisions.

We accept online entries only. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but if your entry is accepted elsewhere, please let us know as soon as possible (and accept our congratulations!). Entries should be formatted as follows: Double-spaced, with 12-point type, at least one-inch margins, and sequentially numbered pages. Please give the author’s name, address, telephone number, and email address at the top of the first page.

https://narrativemagazine.com/SQ/shared/contest.php

Call for Letters

Votre Vray – Living Your Truth, Your Way.

Call for Letters
Tell Votre Vray about your experiences in finding your “place” in the world.

• Was it easy and natural to follow your life path?
  
• Did someone dictate who you were to be?
  
• Did you make several choices before you settled on where you are now?
  
• How does who you are link to what you surround yourself with and your roles – such as your choice of living quarters, geographic location, job, race, faith, relationships with friends and family, sexual orientation, decisions about parenthood, etc.
  
• If you could change anything about your past, would you? Why or why not?
  
• Have your found your true self or are you still searching?
  
  All letters must include:
• Author’s legal name, mailing address, e-mail (if available) and phone number for verification purposes.
• Author’s signature and date written.
• Acknowledgement form (attached below).
  
• NOTE: All Letters MUST be received by February 28, 2008 via snail mail (no e-mailed letters will be read or accepted for consideration) to: 404 Capewood Rd., Simpsonville, SC, 29680
  
  Author Acknowledgement
  
  ________ (initial) I have not received, nor shall I receive, any remuneration (pay, favors, gifts, etc.) for my decision to write a letter for Votre Vray or its publication A Year to Save My Life (working title, which may be changed by publisher).
  
  ________ (initial) I understand my name, city and state, and letter (in part or whole) may appear in print in Votre Vray publications, including http://www.votrevray.blogspot.com/, or in A Year to Save My Life (working title, which may be changed by publisher).
  
  ________ (initial) I also certify that everything that appears in my letter is true and my own original thoughts, ideas and writing.
  
  Author’s Name (print) ___________________________________
  
  Street Address: _________________________________________
  
  City _________________ State _____ Zip/Postal Code ____________
  
  Daytime Phone ( ) _____ - __________
  
  E-mail: _______________________
  
  Author’s Signature: ____________________________
  
  Date: ___________________

A Year to Save My Life

Votre Vray – Your Truth, Your Way.

A Year to Save My Life

A Year to Save My Life is the working title for a memoir-in-progress by Mel. Edwards

The Good News:
Mel. Edwards, to the best of her knowledge, is not dying anytime soon.

The Reality:
She is, however, at a crossroads where she is trying to take back control of her physical and fiscal health, her mental and emotional strength and to allow her spiritual side to guide her life choices over her temperament.

About Mel:
Mel was born in Glens Falls, NY and has lived and worked in

New York, Arizona, Montana, Tennessee, and, currently, in Greenville County, SC.
She is a happily married bunny mama (to Poppet and Foofer)

and is also a writer, professional storyteller, educator and has several creative hobbies.

PLEASE HELP !!!

Tell Votre Vray about your experiences in finding your “place” in the world!

Why you?

Why not!?!
Mel. is an average, everyday American. She is the first person in her family history to go to college and to hold a professional certification. She owes a mortgage, credit card debt and student loans like many Americans. Although she’s a trained yoga teacher and has a strong personal spiritual faith, she’s still overweight, out of shape, unmotivated to exercise when she’s already worked a ten hour day (or more) and the girl just needs a hand up! Mel. knows for certain that she is not alone and she wants this memoir to be available to women who are in the same emotional, mental, spiritual and physical place.

Please see the Call for Letters for details and submit your 2¢ today! Who knows, you may get to see your name in print! Remember, every opinion counts and Mel can’t do it alone.

Thank you!
-Ms. Mel. Edwards

Mel Enters Contest

Well, I just put together my envelope for another poetry contest. These entries will go to the Poetry Society of Virginia's Annual Adult Contest. ( No...not adult material, just written by adults, ladies and gentlemen.)
I won't know until April if any of my entries have won, but I'm excited to say I specifically created four new poems because of this contest, and revised/reworked three others. I have one other entry I didn't tinker with at all, but it is one of my favorites and I'm too love-struck to see any wrong in a work I love. Ah, the parenthood of poetry!
Unfortunately, contest rules prevent me from publishing any of the entries until the contest is over. I did sneak in one stanza from my villanelle, and hope that my choice to do so doesn't disqualify my entry.
Wish me luck --
and to all my readers, I hope you've have had a safe, healthy and happy holiday today.
-Ms. Mel.

Poetry Villanelle

Students often do not know the forms and rules of poetry. This villanelle keeps to the rules of the form while also offering some instruction, a look into the life of a poet, and a heaping dose of fun.
A villanelle is nineteen lines long, 5 stanzas of three lines and the final with four lines. The rhyme is aba throughout and the first line of the first stanza and third line of the same stanza are repeated in set locations, as appears here.
I began this one last night and got up at 5 a.m. today to complete it. Believe it or not, for those of us who love to write, it is delightful to stay up late and then get up early to do our craft. (I'm sure my students would cry out that I'm a nut job for getting out of bed so early on our first day of holiday break just to write!)
I hope you enjoy the first stanza.

Poetry Villanelle

Upside down, dangling – me – hanging from the poet tree.
Hands do flit, grasp at sound. Toes? They tap the beat around.
I live cadence, lyric, free. Verse has meter? Joyous be.

[Remainder of Villanelle will appear after April, 2008, because it is in a contest and cannot be published until winners have been announced.]

Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

Today is the last day of classes before students and teachers get a two week break from each other. All I can see in that unending little filmstrim in my head is the office supply commercial when the father is happily filling a large cart with back-to-school supplies and his son and daughter are standing there dumbfounded and disgusted. In the background is the song "Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!" as dad whizzes by riding the back of the cart with a grin on his face. That is the way all teachers and students feel today...and I bet there are more than a few parents feel like the kids in that commercial.

I wish all my students and colleagues a safe, peaceful and blessed holiday season. I look forward to seeing you all in the new year with renewed virve to get the job we must do, done.

The Changeling

I often get my students to write their journal entries based upon pictures I've taped all over the walls of my classroom. One picture was of a cute baby but the florescent lighting of the room made her eyes look dark and sinister. As a result, I though we needed and "evil baby" story. So, I began this in class and shared it with my students. I promise I'll complete it one day and enter it in a short story contest. (When I get the time. Really.)

Kenzie, albeit with new teeth and the ability to walk and talk like a child way beyond her years, was normal as can be for the rest of the day and every day after that for a full week. The problem happened at night. Somehow, between the hours of ten p.m. and 5 a.m. she transformed or adapted to her surroundings in a way that any normal human child would not. The second day yielded another leg ringed like the a ‘coon’s tail. The third morning she woke with points to the top of her ears like an elf. On fourth she could jump up on the roof in a single bound. By the fifth, much to her parents’ dismay, she looked like a kindergarten aged child. On the sixth, she could run a three minute mile.
Her parents didn’t want the seventh day to come. But come it did, and on that day, miraculously, nothing changed.

“Even the Lord took the seventh day off,” Angelo joked.

Keisha didn’t bother to snap back. Tears welled up and she just shook her head. This was not the family they’d planned for.

Late on the seventh day, a stranger came to the door. She was a round little woman who spoke with a Celtic lilt. “Good day, dear ones. It has come to my attention that perhaps you may need my assistance.”

Angelo didn’t know what the woman was speaking of.

“You do have a changeling for a bairn, don’t you?” the lady inquired.

Angelo didn’t ask how she knew. At this point, he figured Jesus, Mary and Joseph were bound to knock on the door next. He just nodded and stepped back from the door letting the woman enter.

“Ms?”

“Slainte.”

“Ms. Slainte, we are at odds.”

“As any normal family would be. Donna fash yourself, lad. I will tell you how to catch the Good Fellows behind this mischief and all will be well.”

“Good Fellows?”

“Aye. The faeirefolk is what you’d be callin’ ‘em. They’ve snatched your wee one and put a changeling in her spot.”

Keisha had entered the room just in time to hear the visitor’s explanation for her daughter’s myseterious transformation. “What? Where is our baby? We must save her!”

“Aye. If you follow my instructions you will. Don’t get your knickers in a knot just yet, Missus. If you do as you must, your girlie will be jus’ fine. More likely than not, she’s sleeping peacefully in the hall of the Elfin king. When she wakes, she’ll be in her own bed, none the wiser.”

“We’ll do whatever you say,” answered Keisha.

Angelo nodded but remained mum.

“Good. Then let us be started.”

END OF CHAPTER ONE

Soldier's Wife

Not to long ago, I had a beau who was into medieval reinactments and the SCA. He had a lovely hand-made suit of armor and was going to an event where he and his friends were going to spar in a tavern. He asked me to go along to take pictures for their SCA website. When his time came to spar he got hit hard in the shoulder, and it dislocated, unexpectedly and painfully. Now, imagine us -- he at 6'2" tall, and I'm only 5' tall. I drove a Geo Metro at and had to gingerly get him into my car and take him to the ER while his armor was still on. This is a song/poem that I created after the event. (If you're wondering, he and I had already broken up when this happened, but remained friends, and he does enjoy the song.)

Soldier’s Wife

I was a lonely maiden
sitting by a lily pad
hoping and a prayin’
that I’d find a lad.

Along came a fella
in a suit of green
saying, “I promise you if you kiss me dear,
I’ll treat you like the queen.”

I didn’t stop to ponder,
for I found it grand,
to be living as a wealthy lass,
ruling my own land.

But it didn’t take Culloden,
or the Foggy Dew
to have me trompin’ through the field
pickin’ up after you.

On the morn you met your foe
you raised your mighty sword
your shoulder jumped its faulty ship
and then you cursed, “Dear Lord!”
The surgeon pumped you full of juice
and popped that bugger in,
but to care for you for a month or two,
that would do me in.

Aye, to care for you for a month or two,
THAT would do me in.

As a lowly soldier’s wife,
things may turn out so.
I’ve packed me bags and to the hills
tomorrow I must go.

Advice to all young lassies,
before I hit the road:
Sometimes a man may be a prince
but a frog is still a toad.

Aye, sometimes a man may be a prince,
but a frog is still a toad.

Remember

One of my long-time friends was my Dine neighbor in Flagstaff, Arizona. I helped her with her three sons when I could as we were both single and I love children. Her middle child was always very bright and advanced in school. Unfortunately, he crossed over unexpectedly this year. This haiku was written in rememberance of this young man, who would have been eighteen this year.

Remember

Snow in the desert.
Unexpected enigma.
Gone from sight – not heart.

Fortune Teller

I have a long-time friend who is able to see things that most of us cannot. For years I went to her for a reading -- mostly because I wanted to know if whomever I was dating was "the one" so this poem is actually a song I wrote for Peggy. I sing this in storytelling events and will have it for sale on iTales.com very soon.

Fortune Teller

“Peggy, oh Peggy, please take this ring.
Tell of my future and what it may bring,
For I am still searchin’ for one love so true;
He’s not come. What shall I do?”

Liam, my fair lad, with curls all in gold.
Will you be my son, before I am old?
Babe, I dreamed of you somehow.
Go fetch your father. Find him now.

Guardian angels and loved ones dear,
Whisper the answer so I may hear.
Come to me in dark of night.
Tell me the secret. Make it right.

Johnny – or Willy – whoever you are,
Wishin’ for me on this mornin’s star,
I’m spinning my wool, here in my home –
As a good wife I shall not roam.

Peggy, oh Peggy, please take this ring
Tell of my future and what it may bring.
I am beggin’ ye Peggy and G-d above,
Fortune be mine with blessings of love.

Divine Light

This poem was truly written when I was going out for Sunday breakfast. I do a great deal of writing in my head as I drive. Luckily I've never been in a collision. I just say the words aloud to myself over and over until I have a rhythm and a few phrases I can remember. Then, whenever and wherever I stop, I write like made to get the basics down. I carry a journal in my purse that has a cover like an old pulp novel and have more notebooks and journals at home than I can count. A version of this poem is being entered in a sacred poetry contest this month. Wish me luck!

Divine Light

As I crested a hill
the morning sun filled my mirrors
and momentarily blinded me
from looking back
or even forward.
Awash in warm light
I felt
Divine
acknowledgement
and acceptance
for my journey.

My shadow
could not reach me.
Fear was
vanquished.

Oh, if all journeys were so blessed!

Too bad…
I was only driving
for Sunday morning
donuts.

The Vow

Before you make those New Year's resolutions and promises...perhaps you might want to reflect upon how you did this year.


"The Vow"

gulls on december fifteenth
skim the opaque sky of
suburban shopping centers
and cry their banshee death knell:
this year…
this year…
this…
year.

another sacred vow broken
to yourself, by your self
of your
self.

three hundred fifty days
intentions failed to save.
on thanksgiving a tinge of
guilt visited
and overstayed its welcome.

next year.
next year…
next…
year.

To Do List

Ariel Gore says that a woman never finishes her to-do list. Therefore, I've decided to rearrange my list a bit. The last item will always be the same: to die. That way, I'll live forever, or at least as long as I want to and rearrange my list. Here's hoping the Master of the Universe agrees!

To Do in the Next 6 months:
1. Survive the last three days of school before winter break with finesse.
2. Over break I will: a. Finish knitting at least one item in my UFO cradle (yes, my knitting is in a doll cradle that I've had since I was a kid); b. Type of my dozen or so poems I've written this month; c. Work on finishing the half bath in the basement.
3. Take a bubble bath
4. Watch a movie or read a book for the fun of it -- not for what it will teach me.
5. Send off a poem to a contest.
6. Do at least one other thing on my home-improvement list on my fridge.
7. Record some of my stories and songs.
8. Put our house on the market (Approx. 1100 sq ft, 3 BR, 1 1/2 BA, bonus room, new paint, new carpet, new fridge, new stove, used washer/new dryer and tons of little remodeling extras, .33 acres in quiet neighborhood close to I-385 and shopping, little ones can walk to elementary school all for $104,700).
9. Pay off our credit card debit
10. Finish (and pass with flying colors) my National Board certification portfolio and test.
11. Take the Principals of Learning test for middle grades (because some government yahoo says this test will prove I know the same stuff I needed to know to be certified to teach grades 7-12 but that certification will be obsolete very soon)
12. Get a body like Angelina Jolie
13. Write a best seller and get a big fat advance.
14. Write my will -- just in case.
15. Die.

See? It is that simple, I am very UNlikely to do #12 mostly due to lack of effort, and partially linked to genetics. #13 isn't very likely either since I teach all day and #10 and #11 will consume most of my non-teaching hours through the end of the school year. #14, if I get that done, I certainly can live for a very long time because the Reaper only visits those who are sick, old, and not prepared. Ha! I've got it sussed! I am immortal!!! (At least for the next six months...)

Our World and Balance

Alliteration, consonance and assonance are often new concepts to writers. Here are two pieces from 20+ years ago that I share to get students thinking about telling their opinion about an event or object using some of these literary devices. (Yes, I was a typical teen who thought the world would go to hell in a handbasket before I ever reached 21 if the adults kept running things as they had been...so this work shows that sentiment.)

Our World

Ticking Time, Changing Children;
People are purposefully paranoid through
Wild war. Stealing Secrets.
Painfully persecuted people
clicking clocks. Terrified Teens
spinning in Circular Synchronicity.
Looking lifeless, Feeling Frightened –
searching for a silent sanity.
Prostitutes prosecuting possible
plagiaristic paralegals!
And SUDDENLY a scream is
Squealing through their simple minds,
then….
THEN….


nothing.
********************

Balance

Tossing, turning, twisting, twirling –
My mind spins a bit more each day.

Problems, people politics ---
Never go away.

Singing, dancing, smiling --
Learning to play.

Ability to do so is a gift,
Some they say.

Being able to cope is a feat
of present and past.

No matter,
In this world,
If you are first ---


Or last.

(Written as Melissa A. Bentley, 1986.)

Nursery Rhyme

Students often do not know where to begin when writing. I show them this piece, written over 20 years ago, that began with a nursery rhyme. Then, encourage students to begin with a song or phrase from somewhere else as their jumping off point for whatever comment they're focusing upon that day.

Nursery Rhyme

Sing a song of no pence.
Pocket full of lint.
Nine-to-five on weekdays.
Glasses? Rosey tint.

When the lenses were broken,
the weens began to cry,
feeling they were born to
Earth,
only to slowly die.

(Written by Melissa A. Bentley 1986)

Allow Me to Introduce Myself...

When I first appear on stage, in front of a new class, at a workshop or anywhere people don't know me very well, I begin with my no-nonsense introduction. It usually makes a few people laugh and then the joyous adventure begins! Ta-da!


I’m sassy, classy,
smart and free.
I see you and you see me.
I’m here
and now
I state my fact:
Story girl’s
been there,
done that!

Mantras

I often wonder why I never get anything new posted on my blog and why my rhetoric seems so repetitive and tired after a day of teaching. So, one day I decided to write a list of all the things I say or think at least six times per day (and often more than that per hour). See if anything here sounds familiar to you.

Good morning.
Good day.
You’re late.
Where’s your pencil? Your paper?
Mind your own business.
Hands to yourself.
Get to work.
Be nice- even I fit hurts.
Make wise choices.
Open your notebooks (and your minds, please).
Shhh…
I’m waiting.
Focus.
This is how it is done.
See?
Believe.
Try it.
You CAN do it.
Line up silently.
Quiet in the hall…or we’re going back.
Do something productive (related to this class).
Eyes on your own paper, and good luck!
Breathe. Don’t stop now.
Happy Friday.
Don’t make your other teachers crazy.
Good-bye.

(G-d help us all.)

Maiden’s Choice

This is a poem one of my colleagues really likes that I wrote several years ago. I keep telling her I want to toss it away and she implores me to keep it. I doubt I'll ever publish it elsewhere, so for Maisie...here is "Maiden's Choice"

Eye- yigh, yigh, yigh, y- yigh, yigh
Eye- yigh, yigh, yigh
Eye, yigh, yigh, yi- igh, yigh
Eye, yigh, yigh yigh

Michael stands unto my right;
a darker one - the left.
As shapes form in this holy night
My heart, it gets no rest.

Me mother says that in each life
some rain is bound to fall.
But to walk this world, as Lot’s wife
can make a young girl crawl.

Where are you my lovely man?
Do you have another fair?
How I ache for your gentle hand
as I wait upon the stair.

Are you ill or gone from here
to meet our Savior, Lord?
Have you gone, out drinking, dear,
because you were so bored?

My mind, it is within a trance.
I think of what ma-ay be.
This once I took an awful chance
What has it now brought me?

“It brought to you, one man’s love.
It gave you cause to care.
But you cannot cage a wild dove
and keep it from the air.”

“Turn, pale faced, up toward the sun
and let the moon be-e past.”
Michael said, “My little one,
This first will be your last.”

The demon left my other side.
He fled into the deep.
“I vow to live,” my soul, it cried.
“Run my doubt, and sleep.”

“That was many years ago,
My man, I tell thee true.
An angel helped my heart to grow
And kept me here with you.”

Mel Edwards Wins National Storytelling Network Scholarship!!

PRESS RELEASE

Mel Edwards, educator, consultant and storyteller, is one of the selected scholarship recipients for the National Storytelling Network 2007 Conference. The conference will be held in St. Louis, July 12- 15 at Sheraton Hotels Westport and is entitled Reflecting Our Past, Creating Your Future.
Mel earned her master's degree in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University in 2006 and plans to become a full-time professional storyteller in the future. Attending this conference is a logical next step for her to learn more about the business end of storytelling and make new connections with others in the field.
Mel has been a member of National Storytelling Network for several years and in 2005 won a grant through the organization that allowed her to complete her master's thesis, entitled Laughing in the Shadow: The Role of Humor in Ghost Storytelling. The thesis has been published through the electronic database at ETSU and is available online in pdf format for the general public.
Mel currently lives in Simpsonville, SC with her husband, Brandon, and their pet rabbits, Poppet and Foofer. Mel is also a teacher for Greenville County School District and ITT Technical Institute of Greenville.

Role of Humor in Story Telling

Laughing in the Shadow: The Role of Humor in Ghost Story Telling -
A Master's Thesis partially funded by National Storytelling Network, is now available online and to electronic thesis search engines world-wide.

Completed at East Tennessee State Unversity, the thesis is available as a .pdf ETSU's Sherrod library via their website.

Readers who go to the Sherrod website can search electronic thesis for the keyword: Shadow and will receive the following brief listing of the work:

Database: EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Main Author: Bentley-Edwards, Melissa Ann.
Title: Laughing in the Shadow: The Role of Humor in Ghost Story Telling [electronic resource] /
Publisher: [Johnson City, Tenn. : East Tennessee State University], 2006.
Description: Electronic data (1 file).
Includes: Computer File

This listing includes a direct Link to Resource: Adobe Acrobat .pdf file, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader software.

Votre Vray Workshops Set

Votre Vray: Your Truth Through Story

Directed by Mel Edwards, Educational Consultant and Storyteller.
For more details visit www.VotreVray.com

Workshop Dates and Areas:
Monday, November 6th from 6-9 p.m., Greenville, SC
Saturday, January 20th from 9 a.m.-noon, Greenville, SC
3 Day Event: March 30, 31, and April 1st, Greenville, SC

Workshop Fees:
3-Hour Workshop Prices: $25 per person, 20 person maximum.
3 Day Event Price TBA October 1st, 2006.

Votre Vray

WWW. VotreVray.COM LAUNCHED!

In French, votre is used for “your” and vrai means “true” or “truth.” The focus of Votre Vray is to promote the personal and professional success of the "underdogs" who have found thier life path. Votre Vray shares their stories in their own words -- their truth.

How does one discover her or his truth? By paying attention to her or his life path, messages, interests...and more. Once discovered, life becomes much easier, even if a person cannot make immediate changes to follow her life path. Therefore, we use the tag line:

Perception is Everything.


Until then, if you hear of someone’s triumphs to become successful while following their own truth, please do not hesitate to give them this web address. We'd love to assist them in telling their tales.

How true some of this is!

You Are a Newborn Soul

You are tolerant, accepting, and willing to give anyone a chance. On the flip side, you're easy to read and easily influenced by others. You have a fresh perspective on life, and you can be very creative. Noconformist and nontraditional, you've never met anyone who's like you. Inventive and artistic, you like to be a trendsetter. You have an upbeat spirit and you like almost everything. You make friends easily and often have long standing friendships. Implusive and trusting, you fall in love a little too easily. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Is my M.A. in Storytelling close enough?

You Should Get a MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)

You're a blooming artistic talent, even if you aren't quite convinced. You'd make an incredible artist, photographer, or film maker.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Career Confirmation for Storytellers!

Your Career Type: Artistic

You are expressive, original, and independent. Your talents lie in your artistic abilities: creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art. You would make an excellent: Actor - Art Teacher - Book Editor Clothes Designer - Comedian - Composer Dancer - DJ - Graphic Designer Illustrator - Musician - Sculptor The worst career options for your are conventional careers, like bank teller or secretary.

What's Your Ideal Career?

If I had just known Jim Henson...

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

I am Sunrise

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?