Creating for Good — Blog

It is a good job that I finally posted that Gish 2021 round-up in February, because I haven’t posted a blog since, and last week marked Gish 2022 (The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt). It was all a bit different this year, I knew I was having house guests, and that I’d be busy, so rather than approaching the week in the manner of an over-excited, rabid, tasmanian devil, and turning the house upside down, I approached it… well, like an adult. I didn’t get dehydrated, I didn’t put too much pressure on myself, and I didn’t make a mess, (not much mess anyway).

I chose three items from the hunt list on the Saturday, all of which I completed by the time my guests arrived on the Tuesday.

The first task involved taking two short poems, from two different genres, and using all the words (you were allowed to add and take away conjunctions and articles) to make a new poem. I chose “Now We Are Six” by A. A. Milne, and Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep – originally Immortality by Clare Harner. It was tricky because both poems have a repetition of words, so, there was quite a lot of “I”s and ‘now”s. The result is a little abstract, and I’m sure some people would read it and say something like, “Shouldn’t that say ‘were’ instead of ‘was’?” – well, no, because the word ‘were’ wasn’t available. So, try to leave everything you have ever learned about grammar to one side, and just go with it. I called it “Death is Born”, which sounds a little glum, but I like to think that it is about a spirit who is transitioning between passing on from a human life and becoming a reaper. Everything is new, but also old, they are a bit confused, and trying to make sense of the remains of human memories they have mixed up with their new role.

The second item I chose from the hunt list was also related to poetry. It was to create a piece of animation to accompany a poem by Misha Collins, chosen from his book, “Some Things I Still Can’t Tell You”. I chose a poem called “Old Bones”, because I like its warmth, it feels simple but authentic. It was also pretty short, and as I knew I was going to do some kind of stop-motion animation, I wanted to make sure I didn’t bite off more than I could chew, because I didn’t have much time to complete it.

Finally, I chose to create a cover for a graphic novel edition of the podcast audio drama, Bridgewater. I know some of the covers by other teams are absolutely brilliant and feature some of the characters, but again, I decided to keep it simple and concentrate on shapes and the environmental elements. It is an eerie, supernatural story, based on lots of real folklore, and a lot of the action take place at night, so I stuck to black, greys and white. There are some tall swamp trees in the background that can vaguely be seen, then there is a big rock with a ledge, then we have a fire, lit by a cult at one of their meetings, and a cult member with a knife (for carving symbols into the rock). There are also three mysterious balls of light, and general leafy foliage. Intrigued? Bridgewater is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim & Mild, and you can read all about it here, and listen to it pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts.

It does feel a little strange to have only completed three items, to have remained completely calm the whole week, and not be faced with the aftermath… I didn’t even get post-Gish blues this year. I can’t promise the same will happen next year, old habits die hard. Should I end up feeling like I missed out I can always catch up on the Zoom webinars that I missed on YouTube when they become available. The webinars have guests invited to give a talk and share their expertise, and it can be be on any kind of subject, from adventuring to storytelling, to rejection (a few examples from last year). This year I only managed to catch Sam Maggs and Patrick Weekes talking all things writing and fanfic, but it was marvellous, and I look forward to seeing the others.

So after three items, I pulled back from Gish and instead, I tidied the house, went on walks, outside, and saw the sunshine – these things rarely happen in a normal non-Gish week. We even popped to Cowdray to raid the farm shop, look at the ruin and eat a spot of lunch.

I even got to have a little walk alongside the sea, and got a bit high on all the pastel, jewel colours in the evening light, how can anyone not love those colours!

That was my first week of August? How was yours? The second week is looking nowhere near as promising as my neighbour is on the roof repointing the chimney – it is noisy!

Until next time… Now where are my headphones…

I just can’t seem to get back into the habit of blogging, I have photos and videos on my phone that remain unshared, and various rough drafts sitting on devices, and I’m determined not to let them go to waste. The last year has been a bit difficult for me, and I have been very distracted, but I will keep trying to catch up the best I can. This catch-up is all about Gish 2021, I thought I had better get this one posted before Gish 2022 rolls around, it’s only 5 months away…

Oh Gish, how I love thee. For those who haven’t heard me babble on about Gish before, it is a yearly, week-long, global scavenger hunt. You pay to enter, and some of the proceeds of the fee go to charity. You find yourself a team, (it could be people you know, or anyone across the world), or you are automatically placed in a team, and then on the last Saturday of July/first Saturday of August, a list of tasks appear on the website or app. Tasks aim to be fun and weird, they might be artistic, such as creating portraits from spices, or infuriating, such as polishing a coconut. There are tasks that help those in need, or those in your community, such as taking supplies to food banks or dog shelters, or maybe sharing a local dog, that is up for adoption, on social media to help find them a home. There are tasks that raise awareness for groups of people, or world issues, such as LGBTQI+ or the climate emergency, and each year there is also a four day “Change a Life” fundraiser to help specific people or communities. In 2021 money was raised for the children’s ward at “EMERGENCY”, an NGO and charity hospital in Kabul. To be “Gishy”, is to be kind, be supportive, willing, and a bit weird, and it is the loveliest community. This was my fourth Gish, and I’ll be honest, I came very close to not signing up. Life was very much getting in the way, and I just didn’t feel like I had much left in the tank to contribute to my team. Thankfully, my wonderful team captain, Sonya, assured me, they’d rather have me ‘there’ doing nothing, than not be there at all. I am so glad that she convinced me, because it turns out that I had never needed Gish in my life, quite so much.

I didn’t complete as many tasks this year, and the ones I did complete were mostly not fulfilled to the greatest standard, but I did also try to complete a few that were not in my comfort zone. To be clear, my comfort zone is something creative that doesn’t need me in a video – this year I put myself in three videos. It still isn’t something I’m comfortable with, I’m the biggest introvert, so I’m only brave enough to share one of them here, (the other two will be left forgotten, in a folder somewhere on my computer, hopefully to never see the light of day again, unless one day, I really need to remind myself how brave I can be). I guess the point is, I wasn’t in a great place, but Gish still makes me feel safe enough to give things a shot.

So, the first item on the list that I completed was : Tokitae the orca was captured from the Puget Sound 50 years ago and has been imprisoned in a small tank at the Miami Sea Aquarium for years. Her mother and the rest of her pod are alive and living near Washington/Canada. The Lummi Nation has a sea pen ready for her and want to bring her home, where the Lummi people and her pod can care for her and prove that orcas will recognise and accept family even after 50 years, but the owner of the Miami Seaquarium won’t let her go. Write a haiku with a watercolour image of Tokitae about family belonging together.

This is very much within my comfort zone, as I created a haiku for an aye-aye in a previous year. I’m beginning to think that I could start a collection if there is another wildlife based illustration and haiku task in 2022.

The next item I completed was: Salt and pepper go so well together. They are a match made in heaven. Let’s use the magical symbiotic powers of salt and pepper to unite two feuding personalities in art. Take two legendary nemesis and unite them on a cutting board or plate, one depicted in salt and one in pepper.

So, I may have interpreted this one a little clumsily. I read it as “feuding personalities in art”, as in ‘the world of art’, so I chose Pollock and De Kooning (who didn’t feud so much, but were pitted against each other by art critics), but that is okay, Gish likes to be a little offbeat. I figure that at least it was an unorthodox choice compared to more obvious nemeses like Batman and the Joker :D.

Next up: Waffle House. No, no we mean a REAL Waffle House. Let’s see your best flapjack house. Your best Eggo edifice (thank goodness for Stranger Things or anyone outside of the U.S. would be flummoxed). Your best hotcake homestead. Your best crepe condominium. You get the idea.

I made so many waffles, and bought so many waffles and pancakes, but it was definitely worth it. I didn’t have a solid plan for this, and I woke up on the Monday morning feeling really low and sad, but do you know what? By the time I finished that waffle house at 2pm I was in the best mood, talk about therapy (or possibly the consumption of sugar). I highly recommend getting lost in a task that ultimately has no meaning, and can also be eaten – that vegetable patch was delicious. (I’ll also add that my sweet little waffle house made it into the Gish 2021 coffee table book, which can be quite the challenge, so I was very pleased, and I’m also proud of my team mate who made it in there too, it’s the first year we had two images in the book).

The fourth task was (and this is where I start getting a bit shy): Bees communicate through dance, and so do you. Make a beeline to TikTok and show us what the Beeline dance looks like – and you must be dressed as our cat/bee mascot when you do it. (Every year Gish has a different animal hybrid mascot).

So, this one I don’t mind sharing because it made me laugh so much (which was a real tonic), and I was just so proud (I’m not sure that is necessarily the most accurate word) to do it, because I never put myself on the internet, I really just had to say “screw it, this terrifies me and I’m doing it anyway”. I also realise that it isn’t the most successful costume in the world, but I wanted to create it without spending money and with as little waste as possible (the tail which was made of a pair of tights stuffed with socks, is all back in a drawer ready to use as tights and socks again, and the painted, yellow, paper stripes are in a folder ready to use for collage).

The next two video tasks are just too painful to share, the first one was: Resting B**** Face The Musical! Write a song with happy uplifting lyrics, and perform the whole thing in a monotone, one chord/one-note fashion, with resting b**** face the whole time.

I can confirm that monotone resting b**** face is not an attractive look, it encourages you to create your very best double chin :D, I’ve never looked so bad, but I am bloody good at it – who knew? A skill I never realised I had! I haven’t got a great singing voice, but it is really hard to try not to sing at all and remain monotone, and also not smile or animate your face. I thought my song was quite cheery, it had a little hearty tune, even if I couldn’t use it!

The third video was me attempting to shout/sing/butcher Pearl Jam, and I won’t inflict that on your ears, it is quite the punishment. The item was: It is International lost in karaoke night & you’re up next! Choose an English language song and translate it into at least 3 different language via google translate, then back to English. Then sing the resulting lyrics.

I chose Evenflow by Pearl Jam, and I think I used Hawaiian and maybe Welsh, I can’t remember, I tried a lot of languages.

Both ‘singing’ tasks were particularly terrifying, and as a result the videos were a bit boring and could have been funnier if I had put more thought into them, but for where I was and how I was feeling at that time, the important thing for me was to just try, and not try to be the best, or do something quirky and outstanding, I literally just wanted to be brave enough to do it, brave enough to submit it, and then forget it ever happened. Who knows, maybe I’ll do a better job next time.

The final item that I completed alone was: Gotta catch ‘em all: rejections that is! You want be the very best (like no one ever was) and to do that you have to collect as many rejections as you can between now and the end of the Hunt! Create a Pokemon-style trading card set of 3 of the lovable “no” monsters you collected, detailing what you asked for, how powerful a “No” it was, and how the experience strengthened you in some way.

As I was very much completing tasks from home, most of the ‘nos’ I experienced came from me restricting myself, and I had to use my imagination a little bit, I didn’t have much negativity to play with, so it was a bit of a stretch, but I do love to draw any kind of character, so I just went with it.

The final task was part of the Gish closing ceremony the following Saturday night. It was a group record breaking attempt: In celebration of 10 years of Gish, we’re attempting to set our first GISH World Record: the most handwritten notes of kindness posted on Instagram in an hour! Encourage all your teammates as well as everyone you know to join this effort.

This was fun and emotional, in all the right ways! Lots of people were on Zoom, and everyone was posting their notes all at the same time, and I spent most of the hour looking at the #GISHnotes hashtag (which you can still look at if you need to read some good and kind words right now), and reading all the beautiful things people had written. Mine was directed at the whole of the GISH community because I was just so grateful (and emotional) to have taken part, it really made me appreciate all the wonderful things that this weird (not so) little game does.

So that was it for another year, or was it? There was a fun, free, participate if you feel like it, “Halloweird” in October (a task a day for 13 days), and I couldn’t resist completing one of the items, to illustrate the poem Black Cat by Misha Collins. I just got it into my head that I wanted to cut out some paper and layer it somehow, just like the waffle house, there was no particular plan, I just sat down and worked it out as I went along, and I think it turned out alright considering I winged it.

I’m pretty sure that is GISH done until summer ‘22 – for me at least – but you can never quite tell. I can’t wait to see what happens next.