The art of observation

Ted Mooney, the author of several novels, including the most recent thriller, The Same River Twice, is also a teacher at the Yale University School of Art. He is in the enviable position of combining unique skills, both as an accomplished art critic and as a narrator. In a recent podcast interview, Mooney described how he spends time trying to capture the essence of a place. I found his comments on observation useful for anyone who likes to travel or is interested in writing.

What I do when I visit a city... I spend fourteen-sixteen hours a day on the street. And if you just look -- and I do owe this to my years in the art world, I think, in some way -- if you keep your eyes open, and look at everything as if you've never seen anything of that kind before, you discover amazing things. They are all there to be seen.

If you stand in front of an art work of even medium value, you really have to spend some time clearing your mind of words -- utterly -- and just begin to look and keep yourself as blank as possible, for as long as possible, and you will begin to see the relations of things, how they fit or don't, and eventually you'll be able to see the object whole and then you can start letting words come in again and they will be the right words.

If you do the same thing at a street corner, it works too, by the way. You need to see the things that the people who live in that place can't see because they have their own routine

Notes:
To read a review of Ted Mooney's latest novel, see Worlds of Trouble
For an interview with the writer, see Malcolm Love's conversation, posted on The Current Reader.

Dealing with demons in the Bayou; nature and a shot of Jack Daniel's

I came across a passage today that I hadn't seen for a while but that still resonates with me. It's written by the American writer, James Lee Burke. I like it because of its descriptive quality and its Louisiana imagery; so real you can smell the scent in the air and feel the sun on your face. But I also like it for another reason: it aptly describes the appeal of alcohol to someone who needs it to basically function.

Burke, a former alcoholic himself, lets his protagonist, Dave Robicheaux, do the talking in the 1989 novel Black Cherry Blues. It's interesting how he blends nature and drinking in a short, powerful paragraph.

"When these moments occurred in my adult life, I drank. I did it full tilt, too, the way you stand back from a smoldering fire of wet leaves and fling a glass full of gasoline onto the flames. I did it with Beam and Jack Daniel's straight up, with a frosted Jax on the side; vodka in the morning to sweep the spiders into their nest; four inches of wild turkey at noon to lock Frankenstein in his closet until the afternoon world of sunlight on oak and palm trees and the salt wind blowing across Lake Pontchartrain reestablished itself in a predictable fashion."

A travelogue through the bottom of a glass.


Note:
In case you were wondering what Jax is, it was a popular brand of beer once brewed in the New Orleans area.

Links:
James Lee Burke
Black Cherry Blues
Lake Pontchartrain
Burke talks about his career and past struggles with alcoholism

Notebooks are hot

While we live in exciting times of ever-growing digital media and the invention of new electronic applications almost daily, some people still prefer older tools for certain tasks.

A case in point is the tried-and-true use of pen, paper and notebook. There’s nothing like the feel of a pen flowing freely, or the light friction of a pencil scratching on a piece of paper, recording one’s thoughts or designs.

And nothing beats the portability of a good, sturdy notebook.

Ideas and feelings are captured, projects are sketched out, experiences recorded in the most personal way, with no need to worry about the power supply.

One of the most popular notebooks is the Moleskine (shown in the photo), originally made by French bookbinders for stationary shops that sold to writers and artists. The last manufacturer, a company in Tours, closed up shop in 1986. But now the pocket-size Moleskine has made a strong comeback, after a company from Milan resurrected it and began to market it worldwide.

It’s fans share ideas on Moleskinerie a fun and creative web site. It's a great place to see what people are working on and how they use their Moleskines.

If you’re energized by the creativity of others, explore Notebookism, another interesting site for people whose notebooks have become an extension of their minds.

Considering the tradition, from Leonardo da Vinci to Picasso to countless other luminaries of today, you can safely bet that notebooks are here to stay.