Tag Archives: Making Magic

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Making Magic: Keeping it Real

*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab as well as musings about art, creativity and imagination.

Recently, I watched Patti Smith’s Nobel Prize ceremony performance of Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall. Smith was chosen to accept the prize for Dylan who was unable to attend, a huge honor of course, and her performance to quote the “New Yorker” was fierce. The fierceness came from the Philharmonic’s gently accented  orchestral accompaniment; the fierceness came from the deep and gravelly tones of Smith’s famous voice; the fierceness came from the power of lyrics that reflect dark times that resonate today; but most of all the fierceness came because Smith messed up and she owned it gloriously.

When Smith forgot the lyrics of the second verse, rather than mumbling her way forward, she politely asked the orchestra to stop and then apologized to the audience for being so nervous. Her apology was genuine, and despite the fact that Patti Smith is a famous rock star her visible nervousness was real. This performance was important to her, the significance of the ceremony was overwhelming, and it meant a lot to her to get it right. When the instruments began again, Smith’s voice was stronger and the performance all the more powerful because Smith broke down the wall, let the audience in, and acknowledged that she was human and that the emotional weight carried in her heart and by this song were real.

Sometimes the hardest thing about being a writer or artist, and one of the toughest things about life, is being honest about things that are difficult to face. But the best stories and essays, the best works, are not the ones about the day when everything went perfectly; they’re the ones that dig deep to talk about the pain, the guilt, the hurt, the brokenness, the honest portrayals of the times when we messed up. We all have those things inside of us, but the power of artists is their ability to bring them to the open to help us learn and heal. When Smith stopped the orchestra, she made it not only OK to be imperfect, she made it powerful to be imperfect. She honored herself and her art by embracing all of the many facets of herself and her performance. In the process, she honored the song by infusing it with a deeper reverence that would have been lacking without that moment when her heart was just too full.

So the next time you’re writing, painting, performing, or otherwise creating, I encourage you to think about the power of imperfection and the glory of being genuine. In the meantime, find some inspiration in two musicians who are also wonderful writers: Bob Dylan and Patti Smith.

Just KidsJust Kids by Patti Smith
Having devoured this book in two afternoons, it’s no surprise that I can’t recommend this National Book Award Winner highly enough. Smith’s memoir of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe not only tells their story but paints an engrossing picture of life in the days when the boho set lived in New York’s Chelsea Hotel. Smith and Mapplethorpe support each other’s interests and art, and even after they are no longer a couple, they maintain an intense friendship that lasts until Robert’s death. A powerful story beautifully told.

m trainM Train by Patti Smith
In M Train, Smith tells the story of her artistic process and the loss of her husband through a tour of the places that have shaped her life. Starting with a coffee shop and then moving to international travel, Smith’s M Train is an tour of an artist’s life.

 

chroniclesChronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan
Dylan’s memoir explores his life and career highlighting the people and places who influenced him and his music. The New York Times’ book review said that “this book recaptures its author’s first stirrings of creativity with amazing urgency. Mr. Dylan is fully present in re-experiencing the dawn of his songwriting career.”

LyricsThe Lyrics: 1961 – 2012 by Bob Dylan
Read the lyrics to the songs that earned Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature. To quote the Los Angeles Times, Dylan “was the rebel, the healer, the bard in blue jeans and oversized shades who sang a generation through war and peace, past the perils of unrest and self-complacency. . . . And now Dylan has entered that pantheon, shoving against the boundaries of the definition of ‘literature’ just as he pushed past so many borders in music.”

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Making Magic: The Spirit of Giving

*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

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Take a minute and think about the most meaningful gifts you’ve ever received or given. If you were to list them my guess is that few, if any, of those gifts came from a store. Often, the meaningful gifts are the things that are passed on from loved ones and trusted to our keeping, shared activities, or the things that someone took the time to make for you. Being as this is a Making Magic post, I’d like to take some time to focus on that third option.

If you’re struggling with holiday gift ideas, you can’t go wrong with a homemade present, and thanks to the library’s Creativity Lab, you have more tools and options at your disposal than ever before! Why not 3D print your brother a custom case for his phone, laser cut your mom a new keychain etched with a photo of the two of you, or use the recording studio to write and record a song for someone special? If those ideas don’t appeal, just visit the Lab and I’m sure you’ll find the inspiration you need to create that perfect gift.

The other wonderful thing about handmade gifts is that they make the giver feel pretty good too. When I make something for someone, I find that I spend a lot of time thinking about them during the process, and who doesn’t feel good when they spend time thinking of the people they care about? So this year, why not put a little extra love into your giving? If you’re looking for ideas, here are some great books to get you started.

Hip to StitchHip to Stitch by Melinda A. Barta
Barta presents 20 contemporary embroidery projects with illustrated step-by-step instructions. Unique projects include a guitar pick case,  and a stitch embellished skirt. Great projects for both beginning and advanced embroiderers.

 

food gift loveFood, Gift, Love by Maggie Battista
From preserves to pantry items to baked goods, Battista presents over 100 food gift ideas to make and share. When you’re done cooking, make sure to get creative with your packaging. The Creativity Lab has plenty of yarn and ribbons just waiting to be put to use.

 

needlecraft bookFirefly’s Step-by-Step Encyclopedia of Needlecraft
Whether you’re looking for projects, step-by-step instrctions, or just some really beautiful illustrations of needlework, this is a great resource for beginning and advanced needlecrafters. Whether you’re interested in making knit, croched, embroidered, quilted, appliquéd, or sewn gifts, this is a book rich with ideas to get you started.

 

jewelry techniquesThe Workbench Guide to Jewelry Techniques by Anastsia Young
Jewelry makes a wonderful gift, and you’re in luck because we have jewelry making kits in the Creativity Lab. Check out this guide by jeweler and artist Anastasia Young to gain a comprehensive understanding of jewelry techniques. Lapidary Journal says this “well illustrated book is a must-have volume for anyone interested in making jewelry using the traditional and modern methods.”

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Making Magic: Thoughts on Leonard Cohen and the Power of Song

*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

Every time I hear Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah it slowly moves through me like a wave building, cresting, breaking, and then retreating to leave behind an inner landscape that is a little bit different than the one that was there before the song played. It’s one of those songs that makes it feel good to feel sad, a song of longing, of loss and of love, but most of all, at least to me, it feels like a prayer. The interesting thing is that if you asked me about the lyrics, I would tell you that I’ve never paid close enough attention to tell you exactly what they are or what they mean, but I don’t need those things to know exactly what feelings Cohen wanted to evoke when he composed the song. The magic of music is it’s power to make us feel without needing to fully understand why. A song is a catharsis of sound.

Earlier this month, Leonard Cohen passed away, but he is immortalized by his music. From Saturday Night Live to the Shrek soundtrack, Hallelujah alone has been covered by numerous artists, my favorite being this version by Jeff Buckley:

2016 has been a big year of loss in the music world. I mentioned Leonard Cohen already, but David Bowie, Sharon Jones, Leon Russell, John Berry of the Beastie Boys, and Prince were among this year’s noteworthy passings as well. This is starting to sound like a downer of a post, but it’s not. All of these musicians live on in their music, and there will always be new musicians entering the field to make their exciting contributions to this ever growing and changing art that touches so many of us. You could be one of them.

If you are someone who likes to make music, whether it be original songs or covers of the work of someone you admire, the library has everything you need from books about the music business to a sound recording studio equipped with resources like Pro Tools, a professional quality microphone and a selection of instruments just waiting to be played. The best part is, if you don’t already know how to use the sound recording equipment, the Creativity Lab offers classes so that you can learn. For free! The next one is coming up on December 17th, so if you’ve been thinking about recording your first album, or even just experimenting a bit with sound, now is your chance.

The following are some books from our collection to provide inspiration and help you get started:

33 Revolutions33 Revolutions Per Minute : A History of Protest Songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day by Dorian Lynskey
Not happy with the way things are going in the world or your corner of it? Write a protest song! For inspiration, check out this title where music critic Dorian Lynskey provides an overview of seventy years of protest music.

speak musicLearn to Speak Music: A Guide to Creating, Performing, & Promoting Your Songs by John Crossingham
Our teen room offers this great book that explores music from all angles. You’ll learn about songwriting, promotion, the importance of a good practice space, and more.

 

The Bigbig payback Payback : The History of the Business of Hip-Hop by Dan Charnas
Are you a hip-hop fan? Why not take some time to explore this 40-year history of rap? Rolling Stone’s 4-star review calls this one, “a classic of music business dirt-digging as well as a kind of pulp epic.”

 

here come the regularsHere Come the Regulars : How to Run a Record Label on a Shoestring Budget by Ian Anderson
If you’re interested in starting your own record label, you’ll find everything you need to do it on the cheap here. Covering topics from fundraising to saying no to your friends, this book is a great choice if you’re looking for a DIY spin on the music business.

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Making Magic: Making Peace

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*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

Right now, our country is hurting. Whether your candidate won or lost last Tuesday, you know that there is a deep divide, that people feel misunderstood by those who don’t share their values, and it became very clear to us that an often overlooked group of people felt their voices weren’t being heard. Some people voted for what they hope will be radical change, some people protested in the streets while others celebrated, others cried or sat in silent deep grief. No matter who your candidate was, you know our country’s future is uncertain. You know that half of the country doesn’t understand the other half at all. And if you’re paying any attention, you know that part of that lack of understanding is due to an absence of listening. Not just listening to friends who share your values, but respectfully listening to those who don’t.

Jo Godwin once said that “a truly great library has something in it to offend everyone,” and it’s true. Literature and art are wonderful entry points to understanding different points of view, and libraries do their best to collect materials that represent all sides of every story. In a time when we need more understanding, artists are more important than ever. In the words of Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison, “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. This is how civilizations heal.”

Whether you’re a writer or a visual artist,  you know the importance of self expression, you know the process of creating can be a process of healing and deeper understanding, and you know the powerful impact of sharing your work with others. This week, I’m not going to talk about a particular tool or project available in the library’s Creativity Lab. All I’m going to do is ask you to use your creativity to express yourself, to bring people together, to generate understanding and in turn create peace. Share your work, appreciate the work of others, practice deep listening. Be curious. Be open. And be grateful you have a gift that can bring people together.

Toni Morrison

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Making Magic: Sacred Space and Kindred Spirits

*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

“The hardest thing about writing is applying your butt to a chair.” That’s the advice that my college creative writing professor gave us as freshman and, although it sounds like an easily dismissed oversimplification, I find that it holds true for most creative pursuits. Whether you paint, write poetry, work with clay, embroider, or compose music, it’s all too easy to tell yourself that you’ll work on your project later, when you have more time or when there are fewer distractions at home.

Recently, I’ve been reading a book called The Invitation by Oriah, and in the chapter about commitment she tells us that when you think about it, there are really very few things that actually have to be done. Do you have to feed your children? Yes. Do you really need to dust your house? It could probably wait. I’m here to tell you that there will never be more time and that there will always be new distractions to replace the old ones, so go put your butt in that chair.

When I want to focus on a project, it usually goes better when I bring myself to a space designed for that purpose, but many of us don’t have such a space available to us at home and that’s why the library’s Creativity Lab is so important. In the Making Magic posts I’ve talked a lot about the equipment, classes, and stuff that the Lab has to offer, but I haven’t talked about what in my opinion is the most important thing about the Lab, and that’s the Creativity Lab as a creative space.

door sign

Housed way down in the Main Library’s lower level, visiting the Creativity Lab can feel like you’ve entered another place entirely. It’s a space where 3-D printers gently buzz while sewing machines thrum along their seams, and everyone knows that it’s OK to get a little sawdust or some vinyl scraps on the floor. Yes, there is plenty of mess in the Lab, but from that mess comes magic.

sewing machines

Open Labs occur on a regular schedule to accommodate makers who want to work on independent projects, and when makers are perched on chairs and stools throughout the room working on projects that vary from custom 3-D printer designs to robots to patchwork quilts, there is a silent hum of energy to the space. Even when you don’t know exactly what other makers are working on, there is a sense of excitement, a sense that something important is happening, a sense of wonder, and one of the terrific things about being surrounded by wonder is that it often inspires you in your own work.

laser cutter and 3D printer

The Creativity Lab gives you the space you need to focus and work independently, but at the same time there is a sense of creative community. Everyone there is inventive, imaginative, or visionary and when a group of people with those attributes comes to work side by side, it’s a powerful thing. These are people who make stuff happen, who bring their imaginings to life. These are all people like you, who come to the Lab looking for a space where they can lose track of time while they do something they love.

Sounds perfect, right? So, your task today is to stop reading this post, and go apply your butt to a chair. You’ll be amazed at what you can create when you give yourself the time, and find the right space, to let your mind run free.

If you want to learn more about Open Labs and their hours, check out the Creativity Lab’s calendar of events.

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Making Magic: Bringing “What If” to Life

*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

Having a rich inner world is a gift. Kids are great at imagining and, as adults, if we give ourselves a moment to wonder without limits, we can be pretty good at it too. We can conjure characters we’d like to meet (or hope we never do), wish for things that haven’t been invented yet, and picture ourselves in fantastic situations that will never happen but would be lovely or exciting if they did. In one of my previous posts I mentioned that it was unlikely that I would ever sprout fairy wings and develop an ability to fly, and while that’s entirely true, what if I were able to make it look like I did? What if I could create an image that made it look like I had wings and was flying through the sky? Or one where I was in a cave fighting a fire breathing dragon? What if there were a way to make our dreams come alive if only for a moment frozen in time?

knight and dragon
The knight in this image is a Maker Academy participant dressed in costume.

This summer, I had the privilege of being a part of the Creativity Lab’s two-week Maker Academy program where teens came together to create their own photo comics. Our imaginative team developed their own fantasy and superhero characters, learned costuming skills to outfit themselves as those characters, worked in groups to write stories that featured their characters, and finally took photographs of each scene that they then edited for the photo comic. The result was Four Ways to Save the World: Or, Cliched Title of a Collection of Cliched Stories, some panels of which you’ll see illustrating this post.

teaching
Some students learn basic Photoshop skills while others take green screen photos.

When the teens came up with their characters and stories, although the stories would need to be photo illustrated for the comic, there were no limits to their settings. Thanks to some Photoshop instruction and the Creativity Lab’s new green screen, teens were able to photograph themselves in action shots, and then swap out the green backgrounds for public domain images they found online. When photographs are taken in front of a single color background, Photoshop makes it easy to select everything in that single color to be removed and replaced with something else.

head shots
Character head shots from Week 1 of Maker Academy

In some cases, in addition to swapped backgrounds, participants even used Photoshop’s painting tools to turn themselves fully into their characters.

A panel from "The Last Resort"
A panel from “The Last Resort”

Pretty cool, right? What’s even cooler is that if you’re a registered maker in the Creativity Lab, you can bring your “what ifs” to life too!

All Creativity Lab computers have Photoshop installed on them, and the green screen is available for use anytime during Open Labs. Don’t know how to use Photoshop? No problem! The Creativity Lab offers periodic Photoshop classes (see the complete events calendar for a list of upcoming classes), and during Open Labs the Programming Librarian is available to help out with basic instruction for specific tasks.

Now, I’m going to ask you to do yourself a favor: Give yourself some time to wonder without limits. Then, come down to visit the library so that we can help you bring the things you dream up to life.

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Making Magic: Making History

*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

Many of you are well aware that the City of Peabody has been celebrating 100 years with Peabody 100, a series of events that began with a Family Festival at Brooksby Farm in May 2016 and will culminate with a Grand Ball at the North Shore Mall in May 2017. As part of this exciting line-up of events, the City recently held the Centennial Parade, which included bands from across the country and featured music, costume, dance and the arts. Thanks to the approximately 200 volunteers and numerous city officials involved in the planning, the event was a tremendous success. Now, you may ask,  what does Peabody 100 have to do with Making Magic and learning to use the tools in the library’s Creativity Lab? Let’s take a moment to talk about the library’s parade float.

float

City organizations built their own floats for the parade and the library was no exception. A group of volunteers met on weekends and constructed a rolling version of the Main Library equipped with George Peabody himself (well, not really, but you know what I mean), and of course lots of giant books! As the person who takes care of the library’s graphic design needs, I get some unusual requests. I’ve spent time gazing at the Sutton Room’s beautiful ceiling to find inspiration for the Peabody Institute Library Foundation’s logo, drawn whoopie pies for an International Festival banner, and even taught two teen guys how to Photoshop themselves into the roles of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey during the final lift scene in Dirty Dancing. But the design project that will become a part of history is the 52 giant book titles that I laid out and vinyl cut for the books on the library’s Centennial Parade float.

titles

Although the project sounds straightforward enough, it wasn’t. I knew how to set up the titles in Adobe Illustrator, but when approached with the project, I didn’t know how to use the vinyl cutter yet. Details.… Going with an old philosophy that serves me well (most of the time) I decided to say yes to the project and figure out the details later. In this case, saying yes was a true win because I got to learn something new that I will use a lot in the future, and the added bonus is that it’s fun and has tons of creative potential too!

If you’re like I was, you might not even know the purpose of a vinyl cutter, but once you know you’ll realize vinyl cut work is everywhere. Lettering in the department store window? Vinyl cut. The hours posted beside the library’s front door? Vinyl cut. Those peel and stick animals, flowers, and inspirational quotes that people love to use to decorate walls? Vinyl cut. The cool thing about the Creativity Lab’s vinyl cutter is that if you can create a simple Illustrator or Inkscape file, you have what you need to start to cut your own original art! Why use the Home Depot wall art that everyone else is using when you can create something that is uniquely you?

Thanks to a short tutorial from the Lab’s Programming Librarian, I found that the vinyl cutter was an easy tool to learn. Mike showed me how to load the sheets of vinyl into the machine, change the speed and cut pressure of the blade, how to “weed” the vinyl once my file was done cutting, and finally how to apply the transfer paper necessary to get all of those titles onto the giant books in a straight line. After designing, cutting and weeding 52 titles, I officially consider myself a vinyl cutting expert. The best part was that the whole time I was working in the Lab, I was aware of the significance of what I was doing.

vinyl cutter

Leading up the event, for the purpose of designing the parade’s poster, I was given access to numerous images from the City’s 1968 Centennial events. The moment they were taken, just like those images from 1968, the photos from the 2016 Centennial Parade became important visual documentation of Peabody’s history. And although it’s only a small piece of the big picture, when people look at the images of the library’s float in the future, they’ll not only be looking at a rolling representation of the library, they’ll be looking at something that was created in part in the library’s own Creativity Lab.

parade poster

Want to learn more about the vinyl cutter? The Creativity Lab offers regular training classes, so you too have the opportunity to become a vinyl cutting expert. Check out the Creativity Lab’s complete class schedule for details.