Voicing a Voice

shiny, al-U-minium

My newest Family Member, and favored at that!

The other day I stopped into the Apple Store and walked out with a new MacBook Pro, log overdue.  I've been having some fun exploring the updates since my last laptop maybe 5 years ago, and it also afforded me a chance to upgrade my carrying case since it's a different size.  Fortunately all I had to do was look in my bookmarks for a few that I've picked out over the past months...So, here it is being closed up:

And here it is closed!

BookBook is the name, and what it is is a real repurposed leather bound book with zipper added around the sides that looks like a bookmark when it's closed.  The inside is red suede so I'm sure the computer is cozy as hell nestled inside.  There are two little elastic corners to hold the upper corners when it's open, and I absolutely love this thing.  Check the website because the pictures are much better than these from the iPhone.

Today Robert Genn answers a question about finding one's voice.  Good advice, maybe I'll take it even though my 'voice' isn't missing.  My studio is!

You need to make stuff. Artists who put in regular working hours find their voice. Work itself generates clarity and direction. It's like invention--one thing leads to another. One must only lurk for voice. Unfortunately, along the way, most drop the ball. Like the dilettante inventor of the soft drink "6-up," they just don't stick around long enough.

You need hunger. It can be the hunger for knowledge or for self-knowledge. It can be the desire to find an antidote for some injustice or human miscalculation. Perhaps you need some inexplicable, deep-seated compulsion to keep moving forward.

You need curiosity. Wondering how things will turn out is more powerful than having a pretty good idea beforehand. Wondering if you can do it gives you reason to try. Curiosity is the main juice of "ego-force" that keeps you keeping on. 

You need joy. You need to feel joy in yourself and you need to feel you're giving it to others. As Winston Churchill said, "You may do as you like, but you also have to like what you do." A disliked job is soon abandoned.

And lastly, I must get in touch with Jeanne Williamson to see if she is designing dresses now!  Found this picture of Jessica Simpson wearing for all the world what looks like a construction fence ensemble!