It’s a rather long list. Coffee table, stained glass lamp, two storage bins, Turkish stone vase, Baluch tapestries, stoneware crock and mixing bowls, fireplace, patio table, cantina lights, solar driveway lights, window blind … Twenty items, all told, that were damaged or destroyed in the past six months – when the tree fell, during house … read more Claims on me
Tag: creativity
Zen and the art of office design
For many many years, I have had a divided self – torn between the practical and the spiritual, the creative and the logical. I’ve tried so many ways to work it – mostly, by giving a chunk of my time to “work” and another chunk to “art. I grew up seeing this division in the … read more Zen and the art of office design
Decision fatigue
I read that high-powered executives try to limit the number of trivial decisions they have to make each day, so that they can save their mental energy for the important decisions. They have a rack of identical suits, they have tightly scheduled routines, they let someone else order lunch. There is actual science behind this. … read more Decision fatigue
Lofty ideas
My new office is uplifting. Today I was up lifting boxes of files. And down carrying empty boxes. I’ve claimed the loft in our rental house for my office – and what an office it is. A skylight illuminates the room and frames blue sky with the highest tips of leafy branches. To my right, a … read more Lofty ideas
What hurts about beauty
I slept too late and moved too slowly. When I gathered my seven pieces of colored paper, the shapes would not play. They sat stiffly in their rectangles and triangles, and waited for the time to pass until the daily call from Pakistan came and I had to answer it. After a lot of commotion, I … read more What hurts about beauty
The valve is open
My art table is covered with plastic sheets and a layer of gypsum dust from all the holes in the drywall. My glass art supplies are in boxes and bags in the living room. I cart my supplies downstairs, and dust and vacuum to make a small table space, and unearth a stool to sit … read more The valve is open
Suddenly simpler
Sometimes my to-do list is so long, it makes me incredibly anxious. Even worse than the long to-do lists is the mess at my desk. Since November, even before I had a brain aneurysm, my desk has been covered with growing piles of paper: magazines, memorabilia, bills, receipts, cards, and random sheets of information. It corresponds to the … read more Suddenly simpler
It’s never enough
After working through the formula for Positive Predictive Value in my data analysis course, I should now definitely analyze what I have in common with Eminem. But it’s after 9 p.m. and I’m tired, and anyhow, this rap pretty much says it: No matter how many battles I been in and won No matter how many magazines on my … read more It’s never enough
Picasso said so
One of my mental blocks about art is that I am always trying to create a masterpiece. After all, Picasso said, Everything you can imagine is real. So if I can imagine a masterpiece, it is real already. I just have to paint it. So I come to the daily practice, reminding myself of another … read more Picasso said so
Where do ideas come from?
In fused-glass class today, one of the other students asked the instructor, “Where do you get ideas for projects and patterns?” I had to zip my mouth to stop from saying, “Where do you NOT get ideas?” For me the problem is “Where do I get the time to carry out all the ideas I have already?” … read more Where do ideas come from?