All posts by artiststevel

Articles on travel

Paradise Found: Gatlinburg and Beyond

After a very long trip across the country, I have fallen in love with Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It’s a ski town with the gondolas to the top of the mountain, views of the Great Smoky Mountains and a trout stream that runs through the town.

We first visited Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, a wonderful tour of beautifully designed exhibits along with interactive exhibits for the kids to get up close and personal with sharks and rays. Next we went to the Ripleys’ Believe It or Not and running through a cold rain in the middle of the Smoky Mountains was a memorable experience.

The next day was an experience we almost missed. As we were driving up the road into the Great Smoky Mountains we realized the higher we got the more ice was hampering travel. Carefully we proceeded but they closed the road as several cars wrecked both going up and coming down.

It’s hard to impress a fifteen year old but think he was extremely impressed with the landscape. The snow capped mountains and the sprawling snow covered landscapes offered so many opportunities to photograph, unfortunately for me my camera was not working and my son was the photographer for the trip.

We finally ended up on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, at an altitude of 5046. I wanted to walk the Appalachian trail but it was very cold and my son was more interested in having a snowball fight.

My original intent for this trip was to explore many
waterfalls, I mapped them out for weeks but you must be open and allow for change when you”re on a  road trip especially with a stubborn teen intent on fishing. Instead of waterfalls we both got our exercise walking the lengths of a
stream, he fished and I just relaxed and followed along.

I am definitely planning another trip out to the Great Smokies only just like Yosemite perhaps a trip to Gatlingburg for a week in the Smokies-this is why we do such a large scope of a trip; exploring for later going back to specific places to enjoy. The Great Smoky Mountains would definitely be one of my favorite places we’ve visited.

 

For a wonderful site that really gives a great overview of the smokies-visit https://smokymountains.com. It gives you so many options from guide service, dining and things to do, to places to stay.
In the future I will use this site to plan my trip as I definitely plan on a return trip to the Great Smoky Mountains.

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Articles on travel

Saving a Pelican

Saving a Pelican – Have you ever wondered what you would do if given the opportunity to come to the aid of another? If giving aid caused you discomfort or risk, would you? That is a question we all ask I think –What would you do?
Several years back I had that chance-what happened seemed a metaphor for my life at the time. The night before Thanksgiving I spent at the ER with a family member who had overdosed and it was a dark time in my life to say the least.
I was smoking at the time and Thanksgiving morning on a brisk November day seemed like a good time for a cigarette and a walk. I walked down to the lake and noticed something moving in the water, it was a white pelican struggling to fly.
It was windy and cold but suddenly there wasn’t the slightest thought of what to do. I walked through thick twisted vines, thorns and mud to where the pelican was struggling with fishing line. I fell into the water up to my waist and cut the line with my keys while being pecked by its huge beak.
Waist deep in the cold mud, I watched as it flew again and I felt as if I had experienced a teaching moment. I realized that I could not save the pelican and the best I could do for it was to simply free it.
I walked back to the shore and laughed as my cigarettes were now soaked and with a presence you can only describe if you feel it-I felt almost like God was saying-“oh and quit the smoking, it’ll kill you”
That Thanksgiving turned out to be a very memorable and powerful day for me-the family member lived to win their battle with addiction and I was taught a valuable lesson-sometimes you can’t fix it, sometimes all you can do is let it go.

So what would you do? And what have you done to help another, whether another person or an animal and what did you learn from that experience? Why did you chose that moment to act?
Articles on travel

Organizing Chaos: Managing time

Organizing Chaos: Managing time – So how do we bring order to chaos without losing the chaos that sparks creativity? This is something I plan on exploring in the new year.

There is a thin line between chaos and madness and the same with order and the obsessive compulsion. The engineer can’t understand why the artist can’t color in the lines and the artist wishes the engineer would stop creating lines to stay in.
There is a problem with the lack of order and discipline in the creative process-without some regiment it is hard to complete things. I live in a state of chaos that goes from periods of manic creativity to the interim moments of creative block.  
Creativity without order is like an open circuit for an engineer; just a series of sparks and energy that goes nowhere and does nothing. Order and discipline turns the idea into the actual finished product.
I think the first and most important process in discipline for a creative is time management. Time is such a rare commodity and to have it at the same time you have that spark of creativity is a rare thing. I think my resolution for the New Year is to stop and allow solitude and introspection to fill more of my time, in this process perhaps when I do have time I might not be as creatively blocked.
Articles on travel

Adventure, Explore, Get Lost

Redwood forest California
Redwood forest California
Adventure, Explore, Get Lost – I want to get lost this year, lost in thought, lost in far away places, lost in exploration of the self and the people I plan on surrounding myself with. I want to get lost in words, so many words I hope to drown in thoughts and ideas.
I want to let go of the wheel. The treadmill always moves so quickly we barely have the privilege staying in the moment, we are hanging on for the next hour rushing by us. I want to stop trying to control my life but instead jump into the whirlpool and enjoy the ride.
I have always said, inspired by an interview with Bruce Lee– it is always better to be like water that moves and bends with things. My thought is to be more like the tide and how you can fight the tide, which is impossible or you can ride with every wave and enjoy every bit of the experience.

Next is how do we get there? how do we turn it off, when life and time just seem to slip by us-how do we take the time to really live creatively. Stay tuned!
Articles on travel

2015: Resolution 1 PLAY

I just finished reading a friends’ blog and they used several words that I want to use in the next year until people are tired of hearing them.
Number one and one of my favorites-“play” I want to play a lot this year, I want to try new things, eat new things, go new places, all awhile playing. My  friend mentioned they were playing in the snow and it just brought back so many memories of hot cocoa, soaking wet clothes, hot soup and oh yes! “playing”.
When do we lose the idea of playing? I guess it’s when we realize somehow we are holding up the structure that has become our lives and there is no time to just play.

So my new challenge to myself and others this year-play, play, play until we all get tired and have to be called home for supper-I just couldn’t resist. More simple but amazing words coming soon.
Articles on travel

The Beauty of Criticism

It seems to me that criticism has become something akin to bullying. Parents will march to school in defense of their child not getting chosen or being corrected by a well meaning teacher or student. I think there is a fear of hurting self-esteem.
I believe it is just the opposite; there is no better way to improve than to be criticized constructively. There is no better motivation to improve than to be not picked for a team or chosen last-it hurts but it brings about good change. A false self-esteem is just a truth away from an unhappy child. We learn where our strengths and weaknesses are, we learn about ourselves and adapt to our surroundings.
Criticism strengthens our character, makes us realize who our true friends are and who are better to remain acquaintances. There is a beauty in truth, good or bad, in our lives we need to learn to take in information from multiple sources and decipher what is real and what is false.
A part of our children’s learning process is criticism and hiding it or eliminating it builds only a weak foundation to build their self-esteem upon. There is no better way to improve than to be constructively criticized and there is no better way to build a thicker skin than to be able to ignore useless criticism.
Articles on travel

There’s a bit of Ebenezer and the Grinch in all of us.

I realize that the story of the Grinch and the classic A Christmas Carol are works of fiction but they do speak to how we chose to live our lives. In Ebenezer’s case it wasn’t a matter of being an evil miser but more personal experiences that form how he sees the world and how he sees himself. I believe it is perspective and sometimes we need to step out of our circumstance and realize what our lives and our legacy truly mean. There is a wonderful truth to the saying, “you can’t take it with you”, and so while we’re here we need to give to others, not because the government wants us to, not because it is popular among our piers but because it brings us joy. It brings joy to give freely in very subtle ways-the liberation of our material inclinations, the feeling of touching others and making others feel special and the reward of feeling free of material attachments.
Another character that strives to teach us about ourselves is the Grinch-again a creature of sorts that others have shunned, either in reality or from the Grinch’s’ perspective of how he is seen in Whoville. The resentment and the envy of this wonderful season the Grinch attempts to destroy for all of Whoville and yet he hears them sing in the morning, even after all they have lost. No one can steal Christmas or the seasons from anyone-we give it away freely. We change the way see holidays, we alienate ourselves and create the season from our perspective, now I don’t think we can grow our hearts no more than they shrink from lack of use but I do think we can guard them to the point that they don’t feel anything and what you lose compared to what you keep safe is a shameful trade at best. To me this safety is like a wounded leg that you keep protected, it never heals and it never really hurts but you also never walk again.

We don’t just grow old and bitter-we chose to see only the things around us that seem to hurt us or make us feel less. We can chose to find peace or we can complain because there is none.
Articles on travel

So this is Christmas

I’ve had a very tough season getting into the holiday spirit this year, still not quite sure why but my son becoming a full-blown teen is probably a major factor. I thought this morning on the way to work about all of my blessings-I even called a few to reach out and be proactive-something we sometimes lose site of in our busy lives. So I asked for some sort of sign, for some way of getting into the feeling of the holiday and I realized both from previous holidays and from the things I witnessed on the road how no one nor no circumstance can steal this holiday from us-for us believers there is the greatest gift of all and for those who believe in other things there is family and a chance to reconnect with what the year has given us-good or bad.
I than realized that some of the most terrible moments in recent seasons had turned into what the holiday is really about. One night before Thanksgiving, quite a few years back, I almost lost my wife and yet it turned out to be the greatest thanksgiving I can remember. I felt a presence that I cannot explain and a peace that is indescribable, even through all the darkness the true meaning of the season presents itself in a language and with a presence that we would never ask for nor understand if it weren’t thrust upon us. Another holiday that should have been horrible was when my mom fell and broke her hip-we spent the holidays in a hospital in Plano and again, Christmas stripped away from the whole lights and glitter, presents and tinsel is the feeling of having family close, for reaffirming what you have instead of missing what you don’t.

A third realization I had was while passing the cemetery. I noticed the blue tents-I hate blue tents and what they signify in this particular cemetery. I watched families with that same familiar look-the faraway silent glance down, the indifferent stone and that uncomfortably green field where we lay our most precious gifts. This life is not a given, the next day is not a given, we need to enjoy each moment not for what it’s missing but for what it is. This can often be very difficult with depression and the inability to feel, loneliness and the feeling of isolation and circumstances that try us to our cores but we need to realize we are only here for a short time, the pain will fade, the time will pass and we just need to celebrate as much as we possibly can even though often we need to dig deeper and see clearer than we perhaps want to. I wish everyone a merry Christmas and Happy New Year with hope for tomorrow and peace for today.
Articles on travel

The colors of the next few moments…It’s all we have.

In the midst of winter-one last glimmer of spring-the seed of the nasturtium, out of the blue gray leaves, the dried up corpses of summer-out of the cold gray sky where no light escapes, not a bit of color nor trace of warmth-the nasturtium….Call it hope in the midst of darkness-one seed on the edge of days ending. Don’t expect the rich orange blooms nor the seeds to germinate only enjoy this moment-the amazing hours where all the color exists and you taste it just like lemons in the spring. One short embrace of moments passing means everything.

Inspired by a friend who shows me color in the depths of winter…

Articles on travel

The Winter Landscape

Winter brings the misty clouded landscape, much like my thoughts these days. A block I have experienced for the last few months has been considerably daunting as of lately. It’s like having too much to process, too many thoughts, words and images in memory and in the end, nothing forms. Lately I have been bringing my camera along with me while driving my son to school and the back roads have become my subject matter-no words but I think the feeling and emotion in the images speak more for the lack of words than words themselves.

I  missed one day-there actually was light rising over the remnants of the lake and sure enough I didn’t bring my camera that day. The most illusive these days is that subtle light that touches things-you don’t even have to create the image, the image becomes because the light  has so much character-the last time I saw this phenomenon was in the rich light of Oakland California-the electric hour series-it seems that was when the feeling and words seemed to really surface and I felt more freedom than I have in quite a while. The problem is how we bury ourselves in our everyday lives, my bit of strength and renewal is nature-something I have missed in my life these days.

There are moments in the creative process where there is no thinking or envisioning the image, the colors or words-they are and they simply surrender to the creative spirit. We can attempt, as we tend to do to over think the creative moments we are blessed to have and this is when that all too common writers’ block becomes the obstacle that doesn’t seem to fade away.          Autumn and winter have always been high points in my creativity but these days it seems the lack of true light supersedes the feeling of drama or atmosphere that is inherent in the winter landscape.
I guess I’m being hard on myself in the fact that in the last series I painted over twenty paintings and began a series of stories, new website and various other avenues of creativity but really it seems that doesn’t matter as much as the need to create and the feeling when the lack of inspiration is a weight on the creative soul.