Cushions and other compulsion that make my day

I have it in my calendar that if there is no pressing deadline in sight, weekends are for family and home projects. This weekend was for making cushions. I couldn't stop, I admit. But my garden loves these colors.
I blame this maniacal obsession of having to make things (anything, something, but make it!) on my mother. My sisters are afflicted too.

Celebrting Gabo's birthday

My friend Gianna sent me this poem written by Rafael Jesus Gonzales in commemoration of Gabriel Garcia Marquez 84 birthday. You can find the poem written in English too at Rafael's blog here.

-Lunas de los arcángeles

--a Gabriel García Márquez


Dice Gabriel el arcángel
que por cada minuto
que uno cierre los ojos
se pierden sesenta segundos
de luz —
por eso vigila de noche
y enciende velitas de azucenas,
las estrellas sin cuenta,
con su lámpara redonda
de la luna plena.

Dice Rafael el arcángel
que por cada minuto
que uno duerma
se escapan sesenta peces
de ensueño —
por eso vaga la playa nocturna
para coger los peces de azogue,
las estrellas sin cuenta,
en redes con el flotador
de la luna plena.

Dice Miguel el arcángel
que por cada minuto
que uno olvide
se marchitan sesenta flores
del recuerdo —
por eso va por la noche
segando con su espada de plata
los jazmines de llama,
las estrellas sin cuenta,
que recoge en su escudo
de la luna plena.



------© Rafael Jesús González 2010


Feliz cumpleaños.

Nick Glass came visit last spring and we had a day of talking, filming, and working (and some eating of tortas de queso fresco too), and the result of his visit is now my author program available at Teaching Books Net.

If you are not familiar with Nick's work yet, let me tell you that Teaching Books Net is an amazing resource for exploring children's and young adult books and their authors. The program that Nick created about me and my work includes two mini-documentary movies (one of them in Spanish), a written interview, movie transcripts, Bibliography, and many other resources like name pronunciation for children to learn how to pronounce the names of authors like me that have weird names. You can find it all here.

Yeah, there are lots of other authors too, like my beloved Ashley Brian, the incredible Peter Sis, and many more--so worth cheking it out.

NADA

At the beginning there was Nada.



Nothing but emptiness from here to there.

But then Nada began changing. She breathed, she moved, sometimes she even thought. And so Nada became Algo. Something she became

And the more Nada grew into Algo, the more something she wanted to be. And so she became creación. Creation she is.

As usual, I am waiting for that kind of miracles to happen at my drawing table today...