Lynda Barry

Wow.

Can I just say, right off the bat, that that was the best convocation I've attended since being here?

Lynda Barry was absolutely amazing. Not only a wonderful artist, but also humorous, witty, creative, and braver than I could ever imagine being... I am almost beyond words.

I loved her entire performance - lecture is too dry a word for that - but I was particularly drawn by her ideas on creativity and the state of being creative. She spoke about how creativity is like 'playing hard' in children: not a state of 'having fun,' persay, but a state in which everything flows freely and you're briefly transported to another world. That idea really spoke to me on a deep level, because I have recollections of periods of time where I have entered that exact state, and I do know a lot of my favorite, cherished memories come from that. In fact, in my roleplaying I often enter a similar state, wherein the characters I write for come alive in me (as cheesy as that sounds!).

I also was very inspired by her thoughts on art and adults. While I consider myself to be quite a creative person, I never really have considered myself an 'artist,' possibly because I haven't found any talent for traditional media. But her words about how any image is art, even the child-like drawings of adults who haven't drawn since they were children themselves, have really inspired me to try to take up some of those again, however bad I think I am at them. Maybe I'll try to draw again - no, maybe I'll draw again. After all, what is there to lose?