UNFINISHED INSPIRATIONS

Unfinished projects

Like many fellow creatives, I have a stack of unfinished projects. When we lived in the suburbs, my answer was to invite friends to my house once a month for Craft Day. We would all bring something to work on. Friends brought knitting, quilts, jewelry, greeting cards, and photo albums, anything that stared at them from a closet, asking to be finished. We shared a lunch and companionship as well.

I also attend creative workshops, with the result that I come home with new unfinished projects that need time and thought to complete. Some of them are watercolor projects, others are book arts projects, and some are calligraphy. All of them asking me for time.

In front of me is a small completed project, a simple box about two inches by three inches that I covered in marbled paper made by Pietro Accardi, a marbled paper master. All I need to complete the box, which I named "Quote Collector," are some quotes that grab my attention. So far, I have two that relate to creative thinking:

As I look at these two quotes, I realize I have the perfect place for them between scraps of failed watercolors that I had glued on both sides of heavy paper. I love the subtle hues of the cover, these watercolors made, and the pages that I've added inside seem a good place to write new quotes. Did I just add another unfinished project to my collection?

Pages from Landscapes of the Mind, unfinished booklet

At the Letters conference in L.A. last year, I created the beginnings of "A Stamp Book." The pages each contain one stamp. I started the book by writing something in pencil about each stamp or adding a quote from the person featured on the stamp, but I'm only halfway through the book. I still need to add something to the stamps that represent Clara Barton, World Peace Through Law, the Boys Club and Camp Fire Girls, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and the Statue of Liberty. Maybe I will just add the phrase carved on the Statue of Liberty to my page. And I need to rewrite the statements in ink. The book is a reminder of my stamp-collecting hobby when I was in grade school, and also that stamps acknowledge, in miniature form, parts of our history.

Stamp Book with quotes ready to be written in pen

I still purchase stamps at the post office. This week, I went to the huge Rincon Post Office building that covers an entire block. The post office has been moved to one corner, but is still city-large. I was one of three people walking towards the teller behind the counter. Our steps echoed against the marble floor. I thought of how busy post offices used to be. I would avoid certain times of the day to miss the long lines. Though the lines may be reduced, I feel the same way about the post office as I do about paying taxes. It's a privilege to have both. The post office is still an important service provided to Americans, no matter where they live.

The original Rincon post office is now a small museum, which has maintained the murals painted around the walls after WWII. The murals depict parts of San Francisco's history, some of them full of labor strife and protests. The murals became controversial during the McCarthy era when some considered them un-American because they didn't depict the celebration of the idea of America. That reminds me of the parts of our history that our government is trying to remove now.

At the counter, I asked for a sheet of the LowRiders stamps with images of the low-rider cars that used to be mocked when I was young, and that represented a side culture of Mexican American resistance to the Hot Rods of the day. Since moving to San Francisco, we noticed on weekends cavalcades of Low-Riders as they drive the Embarcadero towards the Golden Gate Bridge. The cars are amazing to look at, not only for their engineering, but for their meticulous paint jobs. The deYoung Museum now displays two low-rider cars in its main lobby, showcasing their artistry. By acknowledging the creative work found in these cars, our culture has opened up to consider the ideas behind these cars and the people inside them as important and relevant to our mainstream culture. Besides, the stamps also highlight the Low-Riders' use of the Gothic font, a connection to calligraphy, too.

Low-Riders Forever Stamp