Today's writing prompt is a bit introspective. After all, many authors have given beginning writers the advice to write about what you know best -- and what (or who) do I know better than myself? So, here goes!
Prompt: Mona Simpson begins her story "Lawns" with the sentence "I steal." Begin a story or poem or essay or journal entry with the line "I _______." Push forward from there. If you can think of one action that speaks to who you are, what would it be? Write at least a few paragraphs. Try this experiment a few times, using different actions (The Writer's Idea Book, p. 48).
My response:
#1. I cook. The flamboyant artist in me is released when I decide to throw a dinner party for family or friends. Usually I spend anywhere from a few days to a week poring over cookbooks and cooking websites working hard to put together just the right combination of dishes to impress (myself first, and then) my guests. You see, I rarely make the same main dish twice. Don't get me wrong, I like the food I cook, but I enjoy the challenge of new dishes from different cuisines, often mixing and intermingling flavors and styles in a sort of multicultural celebration. I have had some guests reel in horror at the thought that I hadn't previously cooked the dish I was serving. "How do you know it will turn out right," they exclaim. "I just know," I tell them. After years of cooking, I have developed an affinity for understanding how spices and herbs tease hidden secrets out of foods. If my nose tells me a combination just isn't right, then I abandon it, using what "feels right" instead. I have yet to fail at putting good food on the table for a party.
I do repeat successful appetizers, however; certain family members would be extremely disappointed if I didn't make my Beef and Olive Empanadas or my Stuffed Grape Leaves every now and then. And I plan to repeat a really great desert I made this past Easter: Lime Panna Cotta with Raspberry Sauce. The dish about which I am most proud is the Shrimp Biryani I served last Christmas. This was a fairly intricate Indian specialty that was is close to heaven as I have ever gotten via my culinary skills. I plan on making this one again, for sure -- maybe this summer before my daughter leaves for Germany.
#2. I create; I am an artist. This is an intriguing statement, since I never really considered myself an artist before writing this sentence; however, as you will see, this is a true assessment of my nature. Ever since I can remember, I have been creating things. When I was young, playing with my Barbies, I would scour the house looking for unusual objects. I would gather discarded cigar tubes, plastic tops from spray deodorant cans, paper towel tubes, and other industrial miscellanea and transform those things into furniture and other needed objects for my fantasy play. I also created storybooks. I would cut visually pleasing and unusual pictures out of magazines and store them. Over time, I had so many pictures that I had to categorize them (faces, landscapes, animals, children, etc.) and place them in file folders. When I was captivated by a story idea, if it was someone's birthday, or if I was just plain bored, I would get out the pictures, my construction paper, glue, and markers, and go to work. Before the afternoon was up, I had constructed a properly bound storybook. I wish I still had one or two of those around to see if their creativity is as good as I remember.
As I got older, I moved into other realms. I learned to play the clarinet in elementary school, and taught myself how to play the guitar. I would come home from school and play my guitar for hours -- 4 or 5 each night. At one point, I was fairly good; I was able to finger pick "Malaguena" a la Roy Clark. My father even took my younger sister and me to perform for a recording agent. We both sang while I played "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The agent was all too willing to take my dad's money and create a demo, but somehow we managed to talk him out of this expensive endeavor. I don't play my guitar hardly ever anymore, having moved on to other things.
Throughout school, I dabbled in the theatrical arts as well. During my summers, my older half-sister would adapt stories out of a giant Disney storybook and collect all the neighborhood children (Do you remember this, Kiki?) We'd practice for a week or more and then charge our parents money to come and see us perform. What a hoot. My acting career continued throughout high school. Now I am a teacher, so you can see that the theatre just continues to be a part of my everyday life.
I could go on for a long time relating my adventures in cooking, decorating, photography, pottery, podcast creation, my two blogs, leading Church worship, and I'm sure a bunch of other things that don't come to mind so readily. I am a published (albeit self-published) poet -- my printed books were Christmas gifts when I was 16. I once referred to myself as Lovely Laura, the Literary Lady of the Alluvial Hills and Valleys. Wow. I am the Portrait of an Artist: a woman's work in progress.
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