Single Frame Stories

While searching for something totally unrelated, I came across this interview with Rainn Wilson posted on BigThink.com. He’s speaking here about creativity in general, and its effect on every single person. Whether you call yourself an artist or not, you are still using creativity in some capacity in your life.

Rainn Wilson: Creativity is absolutely for everyone. I firmly believe this. I think if you’re the driest accountant with the plastic pocket pen protector it’s in how you interact with the world. There is artistry in everything that we do and there is expression in everything that we do and you see that in the game of chess as you… I used to play a lot of chess and competitive chess and study chess and as you get to the grandmasters and learn their styles when you start copying their games like the way they express themselves through… The way Kasparov or Bobby Fischer expresses themselves through a game of chess is it’s astonishing. You can show a chess master one of their games and they’ll say “Yeah, that is done by that player.”

So it doesn’t matter. It’s again, about that yearning to transcend. There is a surrender to a power greater than one’s self as every artist or scientist or thinker talks about a certain point when it’s no longer like their brain. It’s like the ideas are like streaming through them and that can happen with anyone. If you’re a janitor you can do it through your work or on the side or how you are with people, but this is the mission of Soul Pancake is to show that everyone is an artist. Everyone is creative in their own way and that that creativity is a great thing. It’s a human thing and it needs to be nurtured and it can help us go down life’s path and help us to become deeper, richer, more satisfied human beings.

I agree that everyone is creative in their own way. “Artists” don’t have a monopoly on the creative process.

I’m thankful for the folks who choose to express their creativity here.

Before we get to our challenge gallery, the prompt for next week is, “Engage.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 39: Invisible

“I’m lost. Can you find me?”
by Jewel Appletor

by Crap Mariner

“The difference between feeling and being invisible lies in an insecure mind.”
by Meandroid

“Not so Some” He was lost to his family for 60 years. 
She really did find him in real life, via Second Life. 
by Ferd Frederix
 

‘
‘invisible’ (almost)
by PixiLate

“I’m invisible!”
by Derry McMahon

“Imaginary Friend?”
by Sinjin Cooperstone

“(Almost) Invisible”
by Peep Sideshow

“See Right Through Me”
by Deoridhe Quandry

by Masha Runya

by Bridget

“To see the lonely man”
by Bear Silvershade

“Normal is not invisible…. it simply does not exist.”
by Southie Allen

“The Lunatics are Running the Asylum”
by Whiskey Monday

“On theme of artists versus their work. I’m posing live in front of some of my prior image work.”
by Botgirl Questi

by Botgirl Questi

Ever have that nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten something, but you just can’t put your finger on it? That’s been me today. I kept thinking I’d forgotten a med time, or an appointment or maybe a… CHALLENGE GALLERY! That’s what it was! I forgot to post this. Derp.

So I’ll keep this brief. You’re really here for the stories, anyway.

Before we get to this week’s challenge gallery, the prompt for next week is, “Invisible.” Make of it what you will. 

Challenge Gallery 38: Self

“Oh, you said ‘Self’.” by Crap Mariner

“SELF(centered) or SELF(reflected)?” by Meandroid

“Structure” by Skye Donardson

“A Sad Day for Marilyn” by Jewel Appletor

“Embracing her shadow” by Peep Sideshow

“Know thyself” by Sinjin Cooperstone

“Hm…this must be me ?…
trapped in a dead pixel
zap please”
by Pixi Late

“Self” by Bear Silvershade

“Break the Chain Now” by Derry Mcmahon

“Who Am I?” by Deoridhe Quandry

“One among countless others, infinitesimal, but larger on the inside.” by Cinnamon Ghoststar

“Bigger Than the Self” by Whiskey Monday

“Self?” by Botgirl Questi

I’m posting today’s challenge from a hospital waiting room. This isn’t my personal blog so I try to keep it general here, but it’s hard to get my mind outside this room today. There are so many stories here. Families waiting for word, people (like me) taking a break from a bedside vigil, and visitors waiting their turn. A hospital can be a great equalizer- we’re all here from different places and lifestyles, our loved ones here for different illnesses, but we all share the same fears and hopes and thousand-yard-stares.

I love that same thing about our Single Frame Stories. It’s a kind of an equalizer. We come from different worlds, different mediums and completely different viewpoints, but we come together and work here together. I think what we create here each week is cohesive in theme, but unique as well. We tell one big story made up of many individual ones.

But I’ve had half a dozen waiting room donuts and it may just be the sugar high talking.

Either way, I find myself surrounded by stories everywhere I go. I wish I could tell them all.

Before we get to today’s challenge gallery, the prompt for next week is, “Self.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 37: Balance

“Balancing on the edge of darkness”

by Meandroid

“The Train Couldn’t Tell Me Where I Was…
So I’ll follow these tracks, and see where they take me.”

by Skye Donardson

“Acrobat cat – Balance. They make it look so easy … “

by Crap Mariner

“Out of Balance Tuesday Child”

by Jewel~Appletor

“‘Balance is the enemy of art’ – Richard Eyre”

by Sinjin Cooperstone

“I’ll continue to try and balance like a circus act. And I will just fight to always tell the truth. Even if it’s difficult. – Katy Perry

It’s all in how you arrange the thing… the careful balance of the design is the motion. – Andrew Wyeth

I find it satisfying and intellectually stimulating to work with the intensity, brevity, balance and word play of the short story. – Annie Proulx”

by Pixi Late

“Out of Balance”
by Whiskey Monday

“I was working on an image for this week’s Single Frame Story, when I realized the balance I was experiencing in the moment was between the work in progress and my view out the window. So I took this shot.”

by Botgirl Questi

“The art of balance is mostly about managing weight”

by Botgirl Questi

I know you all wait on the edge of your seats all week until you can finally read my pearls of wisdom that I leave here each Saturday. (The sarcasm is implied.) But I’m afraid this will be another week of brevity, as it’s been another week of Big Doin’s in my world and I haven’t time to string any wisdom pearls today.

Perhaps next week, we’ll have a guest writer. (Leave your CV in the comments to be considered.)

The prompt for next week is, “Balance.” Make of it what you will.

  The great thing about my lack of words is that our challenge gallery says plenty as is.

Challenge Gallery 36: Reaction

Territory war >> Reaction
by Meandroid

by Peep Sideshow

“Sunset Skinny Dip Gone Wrong”
by Jewell Appletor

“Hidden Reaction”
by Southie Allen

“Get me out of this thing right now AND I MEAN IT!”
by Cinnamon Ghoststar

by Masha Runya

by Deoridhe Quandry

“Some Feelings Require an Orchestra”
by Whiskey Monday

WHY ME?
by Botgirl Questi

I’m posting this week’s gallery from my phone, so I won’t say much. I’m not quite as adept at thumb typing as my kids seem to be, not to mention my autocorrect and I disagree on what I’m trying to say 9 times out of 10.

It’s been quite a week, both personally for Botgirl and I, and in the news around the world. My natural inclination at times like these is to retreat from the barrage of news and talking heads, and to focus on what I can control. The only thing I can really control is my reaction, to both my personal challenges and to larger happenings in the world.

Which brings us to the prompt for next week. The prompt is “reaction.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 35: Weapon

“Liberty: Armed to the Quills” by Michelle Hyacinth

“She wore her smile” by Peep Sideshow

by Billy Dollinger

“The Most Powerful Weapon, The Mind.” by Jewell Appletor

by Tormie Baarer

by Aequitas Aequitas

Wheel of Sharp Weapons

When the experience of personal suffering
opens the heart to compassion for others,
poison becomes medicine.
by Botgirl Questi

One of the aspects of our Single Frame Stories that I find most impressive is the ability that we all have to portray emotions in our work. The best art makes you feel something, and this is harder than it sounds. It needn’t be a deep, meaningful emotion- it can be playful and light, but the ability to make your viewer really feel something is one of the most important elements of art.

Each week as I study the entries here, I first allow myself to feel what the work evokes in me, and then I wonder if it’s the same emotion that the artist intended. The difference in expressing and evoking is important to note. Sometimes the emotion that the artist expresses might not be the same as the emotion evoked in the viewer.

This week there are many emotions expressed in our stories. I hope that they evoke something in you as you view them.

Before we get to our challenge gallery, the prompt for next week is, “Weapon.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 34: Hero

“Unlikely Allies” by Skye Donardson

“We can be Heroes” by Michelle Hyacinth

“How Sleep The Brave” by Peep Sideshow

“This is a picture of Amina, and she lives in Tunisia. Because of this picture she has been threatened with death. She’s a Hero in my book.” by Shockwave Plasma

“I Miss You, Dad.” by Jewel Appletor2012

“From Hero to Zero” by PixiLate

“Hero” by Aequitas Aequitas

“I don’t know how to be a hero…” by Deoridhe Quandry

“If you’ve never tied Snuggie sleeves around your neck for a cozy fleece cape, you’re probably way more classy than Super Whiskey.” by Whiskey Monday

“Hidden Heroes” by Botgirl Questi

Apologies for the week’s delay. We now return to our weekly schedule.

This week I’ll just let the gallery speak for itself. You guys had a lot to say.

But before we do, the prompt for next week is, “Hero.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 33: Watch

“Watch” By Masha Runya

Someone’s Watching by Skye Donardson

“What big lenses you have” by Shockwave Plasma

“Watch” by Southie Allen

“Watch” by Caitlin Tobias

“Are You Watching?” by Felicity Francois

“Watch” by Peep Sideshow

“I should have known that a night watch at the morgue is deadly boring …” by Mayala Loon

“Watch the SKies” by Cinnamon Ghoststar

by Bridget Z

“Watch it doesn’t look as usual” by Pixilate

by Deoridhe Quandry

“Silent Sentinel” by Michelle Hyacinth

by Billy Dollinger

“Watching the world in purple” by Stone Semyorka

by Tormie Baarer

by Tormie Baarer

“Garbage In, Garbage Out” by Whiskey Monday

“Watch Your Back v1 and v2″ by Botgirl Questi