Words, words, words

Nickity Steez's post about writing got me thinking back to my writing days. I wrote fiction and was also a published poet in high school and college. Though I wore combat boots, ripped jeans, a biker leather jacket complete with zippers and chains, and sported some seriously bright fuschia hair in high school (I refuse to show any of you pictures), switching to radical feminist t-shirts in college, most of poetry was surprising non-angsty.

Many artists seem to feel that writers are not, in fact, artists. I beg to differ. Art originates in the mind and words can inspire and create imagery just as vibrantly visual creations. If you are an artist of any kind and you don't read, you are missing out on an amazingly vast and fruitful source of inspiration. I have always been a consummate bookworm and I read for the pure joy of reading and letting my imagination run away with the story rather than consuming knowledge (not that that's a bad thing either).

In the fast, furious, stressful, high-pressure world we live in, reading what I call "brain candy" or "comfort books" is a great way to relax your mind, use your right brain a little bit, and decompress. I've converted many a non-reader just by making them read the first Harry Potter book. No kidding. Tony Morrison calls the engagement of an open mind with another open mind "the peace of the dancing minds".

End of soapbox/stream-of-conscious crap.

Let me introduce myself...

Most of you know me as PM Extraordinaire :-) at DraftFCB, however, as some of you may know already, I am also a professional dancer specializing in bellydance and East Indian Bollywood dance. I am co-founder and assistant instructor/choreographer of the up-and-coming Blue Lotus Dance Co. Part of my responsibilities in the company is advertising and marketing so we are looking at different target markets and ways to reach our audiences in the Seattle area. The biggest market for what we are doing seems to be the large and affluent South Asian population in the Seattle Metro area. I am going to be working on some promotional designs so I may be asking for some opinions around the office as to the design and impact.

Here's our current web page although it's temporary until we can design and host a full site and domain for the company:
http://nalinidance.com/bluelotusdanceco.html

To the right is one of my original attempts (photography by Nick Chapman). I hope to keep you all abreast of upcoming public performances, I hope you can come see us sometime!

Andrea