Pomegranate, watercolor and colored pencil, 2013

Ooh! or stretched out - ooooh!! It sounds a bit silly but have you paid attention to when you say, ooh! to something? How do you feel? Are you curious? Are you interested? Saying, ooh! is your intuition telling you to look closer and explore some more. Do you follow up on that spark?

My most recent ooh! moment has been in designing a new course that I’m very excited about. It will be a creative, interdisciplinary, deep-dive exploration around the topic of food. How the creative process happens will be in play.

I’m calling it What Do You Bring to the Table?

Everyone is to start with a food they’d each like to explore, and then based on where interests lead, the fun of an open-ended discussion can begin. Historical, culinary, artistic, cultural, botanical, ecological, environmental, economic, musical, linguistic and literary perspectives are some of the possibilities of directions to head.

I’m offering a 90-minute sampler preview of this course for $19 or bring a friend for $29. We’ll meet online via Zoom on Friday, January 8th at 9:00 am Pacific time, or Sunday, January 17th at 12:00 pm Pacific Time (checkout WorldTimeBuddy.com to convert to your time zone).

Bring your curiosity, a food to add to the discussion buffet, and an open mind. Let’s have some fun talking about food!

What was your last ooh! moment?

There’s a lot to be said for developing a creative habit and setting to work every day even when you don’t want to or what you’re doing doesn’t seem like much. There’s also a lot to be said for allowing time for your mind to wander and explore new things – going for a walk, exploring a new neighborhood, meeting people, reading, watching movies, listening to podcasts, etc. Seeing or hearing something new can spark curiosity and inspiration can come.

This past week I started listening to a book that a friend recommended, The Soul of an Octopus, by Sy Montgomery. She said that the audio version was read by the author and was really good. I agree! The author is passionate and very curious about octopuses and how they live. With her enthusiasm, she has piqued my interest in the marine world.

While octopuses are the stars in The Soul of an Octopus, there are lots of other marine creatures mentioned that I don’t know much about. I now want to learn more of and draw some of the various marine life mentioned in the book. It seems like a great place to start learning from. I seem to tend towards lists and collections, so I’ll be making a list of animals to draw.

This is now the second book I’ve been inspired to do drawings from. Last year I read Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I loved all the animal references but realized that there were a fair number that I didn’t know what they looked like. So, I made a list and have been drawing my way through it.

Writing this reminds me of Gerald Durrell, the British naturalist who wrote various stories of the animals in his childhood. Rosy is my Relative was one of my favorites. Rosy was an elephant. Another possible place for ideas.

Various octopus trivia to leave you with:

The plural of octopus is octopuses not octopi. Latin endings aren't supposed to be added on to Greek words (even though we try!)
An octopus has no bones. The only hard thing is its beak which means it can fit into tiny holes and cracks that the beak can get through. A giant Pacific Octopus can fit through a hole the size of a quarter.
Octopuses can change the color and texture of their skin and do it repeatedly in fractions of seconds. While it’s good for a picture, when they’re red, they are not happy.

Where did you get your last bit of inspiration from and what are you doing with it?

The Ooh! Factor

Following Inspiration