Alexa Mergen's Blog - Posts Tagged "observe"
To Create: Attempt, Observe, Modify
Saturday morning, I met with my Day Poems class to prepare for our week-long commitment. We set parameters, four or five variables to record as part of the practice of noticing. Each day poem chronicles a few minutes in the stream of time using observation, serendipity, and juxtaposition.
Some opt to record temperature, cycles of the moon, time of day. Some listen to music, watch passersby, gaze through a window. Titles may be plucked from newspaper headlines, classified ads, menus and signs.
By Saturday afternoon, I'd changed my parameters. I thought I'd sit and write; I walked. I thought I'd log a bird species; I included the bird's name in the poem. My initial plan didn't work.
I remembered learning to "monitor and adjust" when I trained as a teacher. Psychologist and educator Madeline Hunter's edict acknowledged the thousands of decisions a teacher makes after planning a lesson. She freed me to fine-tune, in midair, as I led students.
An artist must also free herself to "monitor and adjust." She attempts, observes and modifies as she flies, engaged, through the world, paying attention and recording.
Three Weeks Before Summer
Some opt to record temperature, cycles of the moon, time of day. Some listen to music, watch passersby, gaze through a window. Titles may be plucked from newspaper headlines, classified ads, menus and signs.
By Saturday afternoon, I'd changed my parameters. I thought I'd sit and write; I walked. I thought I'd log a bird species; I included the bird's name in the poem. My initial plan didn't work.
I remembered learning to "monitor and adjust" when I trained as a teacher. Psychologist and educator Madeline Hunter's edict acknowledged the thousands of decisions a teacher makes after planning a lesson. She freed me to fine-tune, in midair, as I led students.
An artist must also free herself to "monitor and adjust." She attempts, observes and modifies as she flies, engaged, through the world, paying attention and recording.
Three Weeks Before Summer
