• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Goodreads

ML Hart

ML Hart's journal of observations, obsessions and inspirations

  • Home
  • Books
    • The FAB Book
    • Inside the Music
    • The Art of Making Opera
  • Words and Images
    • Writing
    • Photography
    • Creativity
    • Opera & Theatre
  • Recommendations
    • Artists & Craft
    • Drama & Dance
    • Movies & TV
    • Music
    • Opera
    • Positivity +
    • Reading
  • About
    • Reviews
    • ML Hart résumé
    • Articles and Interviews
  • Blog
    • Books
    • Creativity
    • Film & TV
    • Miscellany
    • Photography
    • Reading
    • Writing
  • Contact

Musings on the Artist’s Life

my books remind me of this fanciful illustration of woman reading a book

Reading is ‘something you do’

April 24, 2009 by Martha

Out with the old notion of the unsociable aesthete, pale and too-thin in a lonely room, huddled next to a stack of books. In with the idea of the reader actively engaged, all senses on high alert, merging body, mind, and spirit, ready to transform to read to an action verb. Reading is now a …

Read moreReading is ‘something you do’
text printed on old typewriter, New Chapter

Playing with writing the words

April 8, 2009 by Martha

Novelists have the luxury of leading us down the neural pathways of a character’s mind, allowing us to wander the by-ways, stopping at every scenic overlook on our way to Casterbridge, Casablanca, Mordor, Starkfield, the Land of Oz, the epoch of belief, the heart of darkness. We laugh, we cry; we suffer, sympathize and triumph …

Read morePlaying with writing the words
cut-out letters spell WORDS hung from strings like marionettes

Question everything: art, words and form

March 21, 2009 by Martha

Can we manipulate art, words and form into literature? How, exactly, do words become art? When does a story turn into literature? Why don’t we have a checklist of the qualifications and simply figure it out? This is literature, this is not, that might be. I’m not sure how I would begin to define, let alone …

Read moreQuestion everything: art, words and form
closeup of fingerprint whorls, digitized in blue

What you know and who you are

February 28, 2009 by Martha

Write what you know, they say. We always answer back: But what about this one, or that one who didn’t exactly know, if you know what I mean—I mean, what about In Cold Blood by Truman Capote? How about Philip K. Dick, whose classic novel was made into a film called Blade Runner? Peter Robb wrote …

Read moreWhat you know and who you are
street signs showing road closed and diversion represent what-if questions and procrastination

The art of delay, or procrastination as a means to an end

February 18, 2009 by Martha

In our hurry-up, gotta-have-it, don’t-waste-a-minute world where productivity is the holy grail and idleness is the biggest loser, procrastination and missing a deadline loom larger than original sin. All the excuses in the world cannot expiate the offender. It doesn’t matter how clever, intriguing, original, bizarre or even, in the end, true the excuse may …

Read moreThe art of delay, or procrastination as a means to an end
map showing Greek islands in Aegean Sea

Visiting Delos and Finding the Best Surprise of my Journey

December 8, 2008 by Martha

Whispers From the Other Side of the World Under slightly more than half a moon, the curve of a bay and a silhouette of rooflines emerge though blue-black-blue darkness. Silence is thick. Only a few stars remain visible with moonset still an hour away. The cool of night’s transition into morning feels heavy on my …

Read moreVisiting Delos and Finding the Best Surprise of my Journey
Dancer in rehearsal, out of focus to show movement

Ignoring the rules

December 4, 2008 by Martha

I can get pretty wound up with everything I’m juggling and, every now and then, I need a remedial lesson in breaking through walls and trusting my instincts. A few years back, I got a week-long reminder: There’s an indulgence in letting oneself go, an indulgence we don’t often given in to. Can I creep …

Read moreIgnoring the rules
  • Previous
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
ML Hart logo

MUSINGS ON THE ARTIST’S LIFE

ML Hart’s journal of observations, obsessions & inspirations

Writer. Documentary photographer. Artist.
I’m inspired by both shadow and light and curious about most everything. Welcome to my journal of musings.

More about ML Hart.

Contact Me

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Goodreads

Explore Topics

Comment Policy

Play-nice guidelines for commenting on posts and articles.

Privacy and Cookies

Privacy on the internet is as important to me as it is to you. Details about how this site may track and store data such as email addresses can be found in the Privacy Notice and Cookie Policy.

Copyright

Copyright © 1995 – 2022 ML Hart
Original writings and other works, including posts, stories, reviews, excerpts from books, extracts from interviews for The Tenor Book, unless otherwise attributed; all photography and artwork, except as noted.

All rights reserved.

Confused about copyright and why it’s important to a writer and artist? Puzzled about copying content from someone else’s site? Take a look at my Copyright Reference page and Why Copyright Matters post.

Permissions

Contact me for permission to re-post, quote from, link to in whole or in part, or for use in any form.

Copyright © 2023 · ML Hart · All Rights Reserved
LOGO BY RFG3 | SITE ASSISTANCE BY CALLIAWEB.CO.UK | POWERED BY SITEGROUND