Of Childhood Innocence and Rice Fields

I think that intensity is both my gift and my flaw. I am passionate about those things in which I believe but sometimes the passion is so intense that I forget to breathe. I think that I'm perhaps too hard on my fellow humans. I get frustrated with our disdain for the pursuit of the intellectual and angered by our obsessive selfishness. Every now and then I realize that it's time for me to stop and smell the roses, to embrace the moments of joy, to be awed by our creativity instead of appalled by our destructive impulses.

My nearly 19 month old great nephew is the joy of my life. I entertain him by blowing bubbles; he lets me know when he wants more bubble blowing by walking over, placing a small hand on each of my knees and announcing, "Bub." He never tires of trying to capture those spheres of soap and water, and I never tire of blowing them.

When he's at my house, he likes to follow me around whenever I leave the room. Generally the trip is to the kitchen in response to his announcement, "Eat, eat," his shorthand for, "I'm hungry." He makes me laugh at the way he walks close to the open refrigerator and peers inside as if seeking hidden treasure. His new favorite thing is to drink out of my cup, a blue and white 28 oz monster cup. My job is to hold the cup as he sips out of my straw. Most of the time, it contains water, but once it was a bit of mango juice. His face lit up and he did a little jig as he tasted it.

I hope that he will be creative. His grandfather Bob, my sister's husband, is a talented musician, so he's got creative genes.

The creative impulse may be humankind's saving grace. We make grand wars but we also make grand music and art. We paint masterpieces on ceilings and walls. We write operas with music so sweetly beautiful that it makes us weep with joy.

I saw an interesting story on the CBS evening news about rice art in Japan. Artists create images that are transferred onto computer generated grids and enlarged on a massive scale. Then the entire town comes together to plant the images in rice.  How wonderfully awesome that hundreds of people work to create these transistory works of art. The rice is eventually harvested, but before the harvest tens of thousands of visitors come to town, boosting the local economy, as they view the rice fields in all their glory.

Inakadate Village, where this creative endeavor began has a population of 8,400. Last year there were 170,000 visitors to the village's rice field. Other rural areas of Japan have also created their own rice art.

I felt uplifted by this story. It seems that I may be wrong about humankind. Perhaps there is hope for a better us, a hope born out of the innocence of childhood and rice fields.

The Creative Spirit

Perhaps it's the season, but there is a lot of giving going on here lately. Earlier this week, Alan of Robert's Roost and Lessons for a New World, was kind enough to include my blog as a recipient of the Arte y Pico Award. I have learned a great deal from Alan about the importance of communication. I have greatly enjoyed my dialogues with him, spurred by our various blog entries. It touches me deeply that he included me in his list of award recipients.

I am always curious about the origins of things, so I went searching for the origins of the Arte y Pico Award . I found a blog with that name, written primarily in Spanish. Hablo espanol un poquito, pero no se muchas palabras. (I speak a little Spanish, but I have a limited vocabulary.)

From my halting translation, the site appears to have devised the award to recognize artistic creativity in textile based arts such as fabric dolls, quilting, and knitted and crocheted items. From tracing the award around the Internet, it appears to have been expanded to cover an all around recognition of creativity.

Today has not been my best day and Alan's thoughtfulness has given me a bit of brightness in an otherwise dark day. I think that this type of inter-community recognition means a lot more than I have previously realized. I hope that my own choices bring a smile to the lips of the recipients.

THE RULES:

1. Choose 5 blogs you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and contribution to the blogging community, regardless of the language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented him/her with the award.
4. The award winner and the one who has given the award should show the Arte y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award. Translated, it means "the peak of art." (Actually, that's a pretty loose translation but close enough.)
5. Show these rules.

There are many good bloggers out there, so to narrow my choices, I decided to only select blogs where the author demonstrates creativity in the visual arts. They are painters, photographers, collage makers, art teachers...

(1) A New Bridge by Bea

(2) Gina's Space by Gina

(3) Judith Heartsong by Judith Heartsong

(4) The Urban Perspective by Rob

(5) The Painting Activist by Ashley Cecil

I include a sixth site that isn't a blog. This means that you (Marc) are excused from having to follow the rules. It's included because of its creative content.

(6) Arcistry by Marc Olmsted