CARVING OUT A CREATIVE LIFE

A work in progress

In 1998, at the Santa Fe Indian Art Market, I met Ernest Honanie, a Hopi wood carver/artist from Second Mesa, Arizona.  Ernest is from Kykotsmovi, one of several villages in the Four Corners region of AZ, NM, CO and UT.

I purchased the featured Katchin Mana (Yellow Corn Maiden) and since 1998, enduring several moves, she has suffered a bit of damage and needs a little repair, her right-side hair piece and the feather at the top of the forehead, to be restored soon. Kachina dolls, are often carved out of a cottonwood root, a symbol of life from the earth.

While talking to Ernest about the corn maiden, I noticed another piece he was working on in his booth. Having been to the Accademia Gallery in Florence, I was reminded of the unfinished sculpture of Michelangelo. I asked Ernest if I could purchase that too. “No,” he said, “why would you want that? It is not finished yet.” I explained to him that I could see a shape emerging from the wood and although it was incomplete, he was doing what Michelangelo said,

 “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

What I saw was the creative artistry of Ernest. He knew how the kachina could emerge from the piece of cottonwood root, the raw material of the woodcarver, not the marble of the Italian sculptor. To me, it was the same process. After some back and forth discussion about his work, Ernest relented and sold me the piece. This unfinished kachina sits on the left side of my desk as a visual and visceral reminder. 

I am working on developing my creative skills as a writer.   I signed up for two classes exploring ways to become more creative but that’s not the same as creating.  It’s learning about why and how. I love learning, occasionally creating something worthwhile. That may be by inner critic speaking. Those who know, know.

I had a modicum of success in previous careers creating new opportunities for myself and with others, with people, and with organizations where I had a role and influence.  As my creative activities in full time work slowed down, I turned to more writing as a way of exercising a different kind of creativity. Like any discipline or exercise, what makes it work is a high level of commitment and practice. When you love what you’re doing it’s more play than work.

I had some previous writing practice, took a couple of courses and wrote four books. The first was with a co-author in 1988, then three more in 2013, 2014 and 2018 respectively. My inner critic also said none of them were particularly good or outstanding and they could have been better with more editing and revising. Of the four, the one that meant the most to me was “Seven Decades: A Learning Memoir.” (River House Press, 2013). Will I write another book?

My creative writing resembles the unfinished carving. It is unfinished work.   I’m getting closer. I have another book on the drawing board, close to a finished draft, an illustrated children’s book.  Taking stock from time to time helps, several works in progress, of which I am one.

Like many of you, I continue to work on this writing practice as an expression of my thoughts, experiences, observations and musings.  Many of them are contemporaneous with what I am doing at the time. In the words of Annie Dillard, from “The Writing Life:

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and that one, is what we are doing.  A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order --- willed, faked and brought into being; it is a peace and haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself decades later, still living…”

Decades later, I find myself here, not finished yet, like the wood carving, and my conclusion is that as long as I am able, and willing, to continue exercising mind, body and spirit, I will keep on going, and keep on doing. I will continue working, reading, writing, walking, cooking, observing, wondering and traveling.  If we want to keep on learning and growing, we find ways to fuel our curiosity. It’s a choice. I am fortunate and grateful to have these choices, along with good friends willing to come along with me on this journey of exploration and discovery.