M. Pia De Girolamo

One of my Christmas presents this year was a Japanese fountain pen. You can see it in the photo above. There are two cranes on it. The word for crane in Japanese is “tsuru”-don’t ask me how I remember this. I learned the word sometime in childhood and it got stuck in the folds of my brain somewhere. I think it’s because it’s fun to say. There is also the iconic Mt. Fuji, and at the bottom of the pen, a glistening blue stream, hinting perhaps at the flow of writing that is to issue forth from the golden nib.

It is a “fine writing instrument”, a Lexus of pens so to speak. I took it out for a test drive on some really nice thick paper in one of those leather-bound notebooks and indeed it worked beautifully. Well-balanced, it is a nice size for my hand. The ink flows easily; the line is a little thicker than I would have chosen for myself but it is “juicy” and that’s fun too.

Just before the holidays I was browsing in a used bookstore and found a copy of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, which is a creativity jump-starter and aid for blocked artists.  I had skimmed it a couple of years ago and found it interesting but never felt the need to do any of the exercises.  Not that I was blocked creatively now, but just before and after Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s getting into the studio can get a little tricky so I figured I’d pick and choose and try some of the exercises. Since I like writing and find it also helps me clarify direction in the studio, I decided to start Cameron’s recommended  “morning pages”. Every morning you pour forth three pages about anything and everything, being as honest as possible with all your hopes, fears, plans, ideas etc.

The morning pages function as a sort of meditation or even prayer, if you will.  You are supposed to write these pages out in long hand as opposed to on the computer. My guess is it's because it mimics that act of mark-making in painting, and therefore is probably connected to firing up the area of the brain that executes that task.

Initially, I put the “The Japanese Pen” aside as it was the kind of pen one reserves for greeting cards or lovely leather-bound notebooks and not for writing on the cheapo paper I was calligraphically regurgitating onto every morning. Moreover, the notebook I was using was one of my sons’ old school notebooks from last year that still had lots of paper in it. Cameron says to go out and treat yourself to a beautiful notebook for this purpose but I figured it was better to use what was at hand rather than procrastinate ‘til I went out to hunt for a special one.

Then I realized that not using the pen was like that tendency not to use “the good dishes”, reserving them for the company that comes every blue moon. We used our “good dishes” every day so why shouldn’t I use “the good pen”?!  So I did and am now happily “wasting ink” every morning. I notice my hand and arm aren’t getting writer's cramp and the ideas are flowing. I may not have followed Julia’s advice to get a special notebook but at least I am using a special pen!!