This simple tip could tame frizz and maintain shape

If you were born with curly or coily hair, it’s very possible that you’ve been tempted to chop it off once or twice out of sheer frustration. It’s not known for being the most manageable hair type, however gorgeous curly hair may be.

Curly, kinky, and coily locks are undeniably beautiful – but everyday maintenance can be a struggle. Even when it comes to washing and, especially, drying your hair. When hair is wet, your curls are defined, smooth, and shapely thanks to the moisture. But once dry, they can become something else entirely: limp, frizzy, and devoid of definition.

Before you reach for the flatiron, know this: it’s not your hair’s fault! Your tresses have all the potential to be as bouncy and beautiful as you desire. This kind of definition just comes down to how you take care of it; not only how you style your curly hair, but how you dry it, too!

Learning how to plop hair just might be a foolproof method for saving taming your curly hair. We’ll tell you what it is, how it works, and how to try it at home!

What the Heck Is Hair Plopping?

This method doesn’t have the most appealing name. Nobody wants to shout “I’m plopping!” from the rooftops. BUT, if you’re struggling with limp curls, plopping might actually be worth trying.

Essentially, plopping is a hair-drying method for curly hair that involves ‘plopping’ hair into either a t-shirt or microfiber cloth. The towel is wrapped around your hair for a period of time, and is meant to fully dry it while maintaining volume.

So how is plopping different from traditional hair drying?

While towel-drying hair is the norm, this method is actually super drying and damaging to your hair, especially when your hair is curly. Normal towels have a rough texture that creates lots of friction, and when you create friction on your strands, hair cuticles lift.

This results in excess air circulation, which leads to what is essentially “swelling” of the strands. In other words, every curly girl’s definition of a bad hair day: frizz.

Meanwhile, heat-drying creates less frizz but can also cause curls to lose much of their shape and definition. This makes it difficult to flaunt our exquisite tresses in their fullest, bounciest form! In the worst cases, heat-drying speeds up moisture loss which can lead to fragile, brittle strands.

Plopping is a heat-free, no-fuss method, and learning how to plop hair takes no time at all. Because plopping uses a t-shirt instead of a towel, there’s less friction, which is gentler on your hair cuticles.

Besides preventing frizziness, one of the greatest benefits of knowing how to plop hair is that you can improve the elasticity of your curls. Because plopping creates a lift at your roots, you might find your hair to have more bounce than you’ve been able to achieve with other methods.

To plop your hair, all you need is a few basic products, and an old t-shirt!

How to Plop Hair

1. After washing and conditioning your hair, scrunch out excess water with fingers. Apply your chosen styling products to wet curls, and detangle with a wide-toothed comb. We’re sure you already know this, but don’t use a brush!

2. Spread your t-shirt (or microfiber towel) over a flat surface, like your bathroom counter or bed.

3. Bend at the waist and flip your hair over your head, so that all of your curls are hanging over the shirt. Your hair should be gently ‘plopped’ on the shirt.

4. Take the bottom of your shirt and flip it over your neck, then pull the sleeves around your head and tie them over the bottom of the shirt. If you’re using a long-sleeve shirt, bring the sleeves around and tie them once more on top of your head.

5. Leave for 1-3 hours, or overnight, depending on the density and volume of your hair. If desired, dry with a diffuser after plopping.

Tips for Choosing Hair Plopping Products

Before learning how to plop hair, consider the products you’re using in the shower. A good shampoo and conditioner is essential to any hair regimen, and we recommend something specifically designed for your curly hair’s texture. Think lightweight shampoo with serious glossing and hydrating elements.

If you don’t feel like your current products are doing the job, check out our guide to choosing the correct shampoo and conditioner for your hair’s needs.

You’ll also want a dependable leave-in treatment, whether it’s a hair serum, leave-in conditioner, or other styling agent. We love using our Pro-Vitamin B5 Smoothing Hair Serum for softening strands and smoothing out hair cuticles, without weighing curly or kinky hair.

When it comes to choosing your hair wrap, an old t-shirt is recommended because pretty much everyone has one, but you can also use a microfiber hair wrap. Also note that if you’re using a t-shirt, one with long sleeves may be a bit easier to use, especially if you’re just beginning to learn how to plop hair.

How to Maintain Curls After Plopping

Once you know how to plop hair, your curls are at a great start for bouncy, defined texture. But that’s not all there is to maintaining beautiful tresses. Here are a few extra tips for keeping your curls intact and frizz-free all day long:

Avoid Touching Your Curls
A little scrunching after a wash is great for curls, but it’s best to avoid touching them throughout the rest of the day. This is because your hands can actually steal oils from your strands, leading to increased breakage and frizz.

Use a Moisturizing Spray Throughout the Day
When it comes to maintaining curls, moisture balance is the name of the game. Curls can lose moisture fast, so a spray product with a hydrating formula can work wonders for curly, coily hair.

Put Your Hair Up at Night
If you’re not plopping before bed, it’s recommended that you avoid going to bed with your hair down. This goes back to the idea of friction: when you move around in your sleep, your strands are rubbing against your pillowcase and tangling together, leading to the ultimate bedhead.

Spare yourself morning hair stress and tie your hair in a high top knot before bed. If your hair is too short for this, or you find that you just can’t sleep this way, using a satin or vegan silk pillowcase is a worthy alternative.

Recording Academy

Entertainment Tonight

Daily Mail

Access

E! Red carpet & Award Show

Billboard

People TV

CIRCA

Variety

Credits :

Recording Academy,Entertainment Tonight,E!,Access,Billboard,Circa,Variety,People TV

Living in California, our family is truly blessed to have an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables year-round. In Marin, we take advantage of our local Farmers’ Market and stock up on most of the produce we need for the week. But, if there’s one thing I hate, it’s seeing this fresh, beautiful produce go to waste in my fridge.

After I quit plastic, I was challenged to find new methods to preserve my fruits and veggies. Without a protective layer of plastic, a lot of my produce was coming out wilted and flaccid after a day in the fridge. Unsurprisingly, with a little research I found that storing produce without plastic is nothing new. Our grandparents were able to preserve their produce minus plastic and you can bet they weren’t about to let their food go to waste.

After some trial and error, I've found that I can protect my produce just as well as plastic, and even better in most cases.

Here is a list of ways to store your produce minus the waste:

Apples. Store loose in crisper drawer

Asparagus. Trim ends and store in a glass of water in the fridge. Change the water mid-week.

Avocado. Store at room temperature until ripe and then transfer to the refrigerator. If you eat half, store the other half in the refrigerator with the pit in wrapped in a beeswax cloth.

Bananas. Store on counter away from ethylene sensitive produce like apples and potatoes.

Basil. Trim ends and store in a glass jar of water on counter. They will grow roots after about a week and you can transplant into your garden!

Berries. Berries do not like to be wet, so do not wash them until you’re ready to eat. Store in a sealed glass jar or container in your fridge.

Broccoli (and Cauliflower). Store loose or in a cloth produce bag in the crisper. The produce bag mostly just keeps your drawer clean from debris. 

Carrots. Cut off ends and save in a sealed glass container in the fridge or store upright in a glass of water.

Celery. Store loose in crisper or in cloth produce bag.  

Chard. Store in a cloth produce bag that’s been spritzed with water.

Citrus. Store loose in crisper.

Eggplant. Store loose in crisper.

Figs. Store in single layer on a plate or in a glass container. 

Garlic. Store at room temperature on counter.

Grapes. Store in cloth produce bag in crisper or a glass container.

Lettuce. Either store in cloth produce bag that’s been spritzed with water or wash lettuce and spin dry in salad spinner and store directly in your spinner in fridge.

Melon. Store at room temperature on counter until ripe, then transfer to fridge.

Mushrooms. Store in sealed glass container in fridge.

Onions. Store at room temperature on counter.

Pineapple. Store at room temperature on counter until ripe (you should be able to easily pull out a leaf). Then cut into pieces and place in sealed glass container in fridge.  

Potatoes. Store at room temperature on counter.

Radishes. Cut off stems and rinse. Store in a jar of water in fridge. Change water every few days. 

Stone Fruit. Store at room temperature on counter until ripe, then transfer to crisper.

All images via City of Westbrook

Earlier this week a peculiar phenomenon was discovered in a section of the Presumpscot River in Westbrook, Maine. In the chilly winter waters a gigantic disk of ice had formed with a diameter just short of the river’s width. The floating patch was recently captured by the city in an aerial video. In the footage a nearby parking garage seems dwarfed by the mammoth proportions of the circular ice patch. According to Westbrook’s marketing and communications manager Tine Radel, the icy island has been spinning in a counterclockwise direction, and does not appear to be moving up or downstream. You can view an aerial tour of the floating ice patch (set to a pretty dramatic soundtrack) in the video produced by the City of Westbrook below. (via Earther)

The French creative company La Machine recently premiered their latest creation, a nearly 50-foot-tall robotic Minotaur, in Toulouse, France. The beast marched through the labyrinthine streets of the city’s old town accompanied by a 42-foot spider for the group’s latest production The Guardian of the Temple. The pair of machines performed an operatic interpretation of the myth of Ariadne, a Cretan princess who helped Theseus overcome the Minotaur, to live music. These impressive kinetic sculptures are La Machine’s latest project from their oeuvre of mechanical bestiary which has operating worldwide since 1999.

Bringing together artists, technicians, and show decorators, this unique group of enthusiasts and experts construct atypical show objects, and movement is the key factor for their awe-inspiring performances and creations. La Machine’s animal-like works turn the cities into dream worlds. “We always work on movement,” La Machine’s head of marketing, Frédette Lampre tells Colossal. “It’s our artistic line and we always use the fine material such as wood, leather, copper, or glass, and never use plastics.”

The mechanical spider was constructed over the course of two years by a team of around 60 people. The mythical Minotaur machine is half electric and half combustion, and moves around the city with the help of 17 operators. Although this technical beast weighs over 10,000 pounds, it still has the capacity to move smoothly and realistically between the city’s large buildings and blast steam out of its large nostrils.

The performance was organized as an introduction of the newly repurposed Toulouse Aerospace district. After presenting their creations and projects throughout Germany, Belgium, Italy, Argentina, Chile, Japan, China, and Canada, their upcoming shows are scheduled for Nantes and Calais in France. You can see a portion of the Toulouse-based performance in the video below and view past productions on La Machine’s website, Instagram, and Youtube.  (via Dioniso Punk)

 

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Astérion a parcouru @toulousefr au pas de charge pour accomplir sa quête #gardiendutemple

A post shared by Compagnie La Machine (@compagnie_la_machine) on Nov 3, 2018 at 5:01pm PDT

Jim Bachor (previously) has been filling potholes with mosaics in Chicago and beyond for the last five years, combining his art practice with public service to create popsicles, flowers, and the Chicago city flag. The cheeky creations are one part beautification, one part nudge to city infrastructure, and are meant to exist in situ as both solution and artwork.

Bachor just returned from a trip to New York City where he installed five new mosaics as a part of his series Vermin of New York. All of the pieces—a dead rat, pigeon, cockroach, portrait of Donald Trump, and a bouquet of flowers—were installed in Brooklyn or Manhattan. “A lot of my work is pretty upbeat, so I try and be a little unpredictable to keep people of balance—hence the vermin,” Bachor tells Colossal.

Just days after installation his cockroach, portrait of Donald Trump, and bouquet were removed by the transportation department, something that has never happened to previous 67 installs. You can see the works that have managed to stay in the ground on his Instagram.

I recently watched the documentary Wasted! and I have to say – it was great to see many well known, admirable individuals, break down our food waste problem and talk about real working solutions. The film highlighted the EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy in parts to really explain how each portion would work to reduce the roughly 31% (133 billion pounds) food waste we currently generate.

Source Reduction

Pare down the amount of food that you purchase, portion control, and reduce the excess overall.

Feed the Hungry People

When there is left over food, get that food to people. Whether it’s donating the food to a food bank or taking leftovers over to a family member, work to get that food eaten.

Feed Animals

When the food isn’t consumable for humans, send food waste to animals.

Industrial Uses

Send food waste to plants that can turn it into energy.

Composting

Send the food scraps to the earth to turn into rich soil.

Landfill/Incineration

As a last possible resort, should food go to the landfill.

Food waste has been an ever growing problem for a while. Not only is the amount of food that enters the landfill a problem, we also have to consider the resource depletion that goes into said wasted food, food insecurity across the globe, and how that food is contributing over 18% of the total greenhouse emissions coming from landfills. It’s nuts. Realizing that we already make enough food for everyone on this planet makes me sick to think anyone goes to bed hungry. We can do better.

Sadly, more than 40% of food waste comes from the consumer. This is food scraps, food that’s expired, and even food that just didn’t get eaten on dinner plates. We like to quickly blame wasteful farming practices and businesses for the waste they generate but we first need to assess our own habits to see if we aren’t just as wasteful.

6 Ways to Reduce Food Waste

Shop Your Pantry and Fridge

It’s important to utilize and use food you already have on hand. Find the food that’s been sitting at the back of your pantry or the food in the fridge that is on the verge of expiration so that it gets used instead of wasted. Keep a basket in the fridge for “use first” produce, keep a list on your fridge of food that will go bad first, or even utilize an app that keeps expiration dates organized like Fresh Pantry.

I will sometimes pull all of the items out of my pantry and meal plan based on what I have. I make it a game to see just how empty I can get my cupboards without buying much food. I have a weird competitive side.

Meal Plan

Having a plan keeps your grocery lists concise and to an “as needed” basis. If I go to the store without even an inkling of what I’m making for the week, I typically buy a lot of food that doesn’t get utilized properly. I end up wasting food and wasting money. Winging it at the grocery store might work for some of you but it does NOT work for me. The only “winging” I do is for produce. I go to the farmer’s market to purchase what is in season and I then incorporate that into my weekly meal plan.

Cook with the Scraps

There are many parts of food scraps we could be using and eating. Not only think about this in a “waste” way but think about how utilizing food scraps in meals can stretch your dollar! Use those broccoli stems, eat those carrot tops. There are many ways we can incorporate those parts we’d otherwise toss into our meals. Check out my article: 16 Ways to Use Produce Scraps for more helpful ideas on how to cook with produce scraps.

Store your Food Properly

Make sure your produce is stored properly so that it does not go bad quickly. Put carrots and celery in water, store your greens in the crisper, and make sure your potatoes and onions are stored some place dark and dry. Also, start freezing leftovers you know won’t get eaten. I like to freeze leftover lasagna to reheat later for my work lunches. Freezing ensures the foods’ longevity. Your freezer is your best friend when it comes to food preservation in a pinch.

Share

Have leftovers or an over abundance of food? This tends to happen to me especially during harvest when my garden is overflowing with food. Instead of letting food go to waste, share it! Send food to your neighbors, friends, or family members. There’s even an app called OLIO that makes food sharing even easier.

Compost or Feed Animals

Of course there’s going to be food we inevitably cannot eat and will waste in some form. That’s life. Instead of tossing said food, think about donating your food to someone with chickens or consider starting the composting journey. This ensures that the food will return back to the earth in some way rather than getting sent to a landfill. I have an article HERE on how to build your own backyard compost and another article HERE outlining what you can and shouldn’t compost.

How do you reduce food waste?

The post 6 Ways to Reduce Food Waste appeared first on Zero Waste Nerd.

Copyright VG Bild-Kinst, Bonn, 2018 and the artist. Courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo © Jonty Wilde

A ghostly piano frame releases swarms of white thread and sheet music in a new installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota (previously). The work, titled Beyond Time, is installed in an 18th century chapel. Yorkshire Sculpture Park describes Shiota’s work as referencing “the Chapel’s rich history and years of human presence, dating back to 1744, making poignant allusion to the bells that were rung, the songs that were sung, and the lives that revolved around it, from cradle to grave.”

Shiota lives in Berlin, and exhibits widely. Her installations are currently on view in Gothenburg, Milan, and Knislinge, and a new piece opens in Germany on June 22, 2018. You can see more of the artist’s projects on Instagram and Facebook.

Photos © India and Magnus / Haarkon

Photo © India and Magnus / Haarkon

Copyright VG Bild-Kinst, Bonn, 2018 and the artist. Courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo © Jonty Wilde

Copyright VG Bild-Kinst, Bonn, 2018 and the artist. Courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo © Jonty Wilde

Copyright VG Bild-Kinst, Bonn, 2018 and the artist. Courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo © Jonty Wilde

David Bowie, who passed away in 2016, had a very special connection – some may even call it a “love affair” – with Japan. He originally developed his affinity after taking an interest in Kabuki and was heavily influenced by the exaggerated gestures, costumes and make-up. He later went on to work with fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto on many iconic costumes, as well as with musicians like Tomoyasu Hotei and the filmmaker Nagisa Oshima. In a sense, the love affair has come full circle and now a project has been announced to immortalize David Bowie in the form of ukiyo-e woodblock prints that depict Bowie in elements of kabuki.

Two unique prints were announced last month from Ukiyo-e Project, an organization that creates contemporary Ukiyo-e based on elements of pop culture. Each of the prints are inspired by iconic photo shoots of Bowie, which have been translated to woodblock print by ukiyo-e artist Masumi Ishikawa.

One of these is inspired by Brian Duffy’s photograph of a bare-chested Bowie with a red lightning bolt scrawled across his face the cover of “Aladdin Sane” (1973). For the ukiyo-e print, the artist imagines Bowie as Kidomaru, a fictitious snake charmer from the Kamakura period.

The second print was inspired by Terry O’Neill’s “Diamond Dogs” promotional photograph (1974) in which Bowie is posing with a large barking dog. For this ukiyo-e print the artist imagines Bowie as Takezawa Toji, a magician and entertainer who was often depicted by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

The prints will be on display, and available for sale (priced at 100,000 yen) at the Marc Jacobs-owned BOOKMARC in Omotesando from June 23 – July 1, 2018. The final prints will be displayed alongside photos of David Bowie, as well as other materials that show the process of creating the woodblock prints. (Syndicated from Spoon & Tamago)

left: David Bowie, Aladdin Sane, Eyes Open, 1973© Courtesy of the Duffy Archive | right: Terry O’Neill – David Bowie Diamond Dogs, 1974 © Courtesy Mouche Gallery

A post shared by UKIYO-E PROJECT (@ukiyoeproject) on Jun 5, 2018 at 3:09am PDT

German seamstress Agnes Richter (1844–1918) was a patient at the Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic during the 1890s. While held at the asylum she would densely embroider her standard issue straitjacket, stitching the object with words, phrases, and diaristic entries in deutsche schrift, an old German script. The layers of language make it difficult to distinguish a beginning or end to the writing, and only fragmented phrases have been deciphered from the jacket such as “I am not big,” “I wish to read,” and “I plunge headlong into disaster.”

The object is a part of the Prinzhorn Collection at the University of Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic, named after collector and psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn. The collection contains over 5,000 paintings, wooden sculptures, sketches, and other art-based ephemera from patients at the hospital, collected by the psychiatrist during the early 20th-century. This vast collection of work made by psychiatric patients has had a major influence on a modern understanding of “outsider art,” or the artwork created by self-taught artists who have had little to no contact with the mainstream art world.

Over a century later, the jacket remains a powerful item, a lasting object that showcases how one woman transformed a sterile and impersonal garment into a rich record of her life’s journey. (via #WOMENSART)

Update: Sources vary as to whether this article of clothing was Richter’s straitjacket, a regular jacket, or part of a non-restrictive institutional uniform.

Left image via This Is Not Modern Art tumblr, right image via The Lulubird

via The Lulubird

American designer and illustrator Jenna Barton combines watercolor and digital processing to create mysterious anthropomorphic scenes of dogs, foxes, deer, and other four-legged beings. These eerily rendered creatures often have blank glowing eyes which suggest the animal is possessed or hiding a deep inner world.

Barton is based in Utah, which translates into her work through broad sweeping pastures and farmland illuminated by twilight. These settings add to the heightened tension presented in the animals’ demeanor, while providing a fitting background for her editorial illustrations, album art, game artwork and custom tattoos. You can buy select prints through her online store, and view more of her animal-based illustrations on Instagram and Tumblr.

Artist Ashley V Blalock crochets enormous red doilies that she then installs in site-specific configurations ranging from galleries to stairwells to trees outside. Her ongoing project, Keeping Up Appearances, began in 2011 and has been installed at museums, galleries, and gardens across the United States.

The artist describes the meaning behind Keeping Up Appearances: “Although non-threatening in a domestic setting, in the gallery and at this scale the [doilies] overtake the viewer and cover the walls… Inherent is a compulsion to arrange and place and decorate in order to control or influence a perceived outward appearance. The red color gives away the futility of such an act and hints at the unease that lurks below the surface of an obsessive need to control and arrange.”

Blalock is based in Southern California. She received a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees in sculpture and art history. You can see more of her installation work on her website.

There is an unfortunate tendency on the part of some in the nonprofit arts industry to believe that it is their responsibility to provide to the public art that they think the public needs. This is usually based on little to no understanding of what those needs might actually be. In addition, when examined a bit, what they are really giving the public is the art that they want to give them. Anyone’s true need has little to do with it.

There is a closely related opinion that community engagement is simply giving people what they want. I’ve written about the fallacy of that too often to count. Obviously, people can’t make choices about things when they don’t know what the options are.

And it is this upon which the “give them what they need” advocates hang their hat. Over the last decade or so Steve Jobs has been cited as an example of giving people not what they want but what they will come to want even though they didn’t know that ahead of time. As I have written before, Apple was right. However, the “proof of concept” was their sales results with the iPod and iPhone. People often don’t know what they are going to come to want. In the case of Apples iProducts, if no one had bought them, clearly those products would not have been something they needed, much less wanted. (Think of, for example, blu-ray discs.)

A few weeks ago I read an article devoted to Mr. Jobs’ response to a disgruntled shareholder. It was an interesting piece on how to defuse a hostile questioner. However, one quote stuck out to me, unrelated to the focus of the article.

One of the things I’ve always found is that you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it.

He did not begin product development with a vision of the cool thing he wanted to design. He (and Apple) began with the customer. The relevant technology was derived from an understanding of the user. Substitute “arts experience” for technology and you can see why the Jobs example does not justify an authoritarian “this is what you need” approach to arts programming.

It seems so simple to suggest that knowing the people we are trying to reach and applying that knowledge in both communication and programming is important. Given many marketing practices and presentation choices in our industry it’s apparently not simple. This is certainly not a concern limited to community engagement. It is one that has, and will have, a significant impact on the health of the nonprofit arts industry.

Engage!

Doug

Photo:  Some rights reserved by Detroity2k

Elin Thomas creates petri dishes filled with mold, but she’s not using any week-old peanut butter sandwiches. The fiber artist builds her science experiments using a felted wool base, and then carefully crafts individual growths using crochet and embroidery techniques. Most of her creations are set in authentic 8cm borosilicate glass petri dishes, although she also makes free-form brooches and other accessories in a similar style.

Thomas has an MA in Visual Culture from Bath Spa University College, and she is based in the UK and Wales. The artist sells her work, including custom orders, on her website and Etsy store. (via #WOMENSART)

Peruvian artist Ana Teresa Barboza has previously been drawn to recreating full landscapes with yarn and thread, embroidering large tapestries with rivers, valleys, and waves that spill out from the wall and rest on the floor. Barboza continues her exploration of installation-based tapestry with a new body of work that charts the growth of individual plants, while also expanding her practice into weaving with a new work of interconnected baskets.

Her series Increase charts a plant’s shadow for 15 days, steadily tracing its growth and movement over the two week time space. Balls of yarn lay at the foot of each tapestry, providing a visualization of the diminishing material as it is slowly added to the changing portrait. The colorful embroidery provides a charged glow around the white space of the original plant, its increasing mass illustrated in a collage of jagged shapes and vibrant hues.

Barboza’s new work United Baskets, retreats from color altogether, instead focusing on process and shape. The piece is a collection of seven interconnected baskets, which took the artist 30 days to weave from bundles of Huacho reed. The series of vessels vary in size and position, yet are each seamlessly linked throughout the full 10 by 10 foot composition.

Although Barboza now works with textiles, she previously studied painting at Lima’s Pontifical Catholic University. You can see more of her embroidered and woven installations on her website here.

“Don’t write at first for anyone but yourself.”

“If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in,” the great marine biologist and author Rachel Carson advised a blind girl aspiring to be a writer, “you will interest other people.” Six years earlier, around Valentine’s Day of 1952, a sixteen-year-old self-described “aspiring Young Writer” by the name of Alice Quinn reached out to T.S. Eliot (September 26, 1888–January 4, 1965) — by that point one of the most famous writers in the world — hoping he might answer several questions about the creative process, what it takes to be a writer, and how he himself developed his creative faculties.

Unlike Carson and unlike Albert Einstein, who also frequently replied to fan letters, particularly those from young people, Eliot rarely did. But something about the young woman’s earnest inquiry touched him. His response — thoroughly warm and just the right amount of wry, full of simply worded wisdom — may be his most direct statement of advice on writing. It was only ever published in Hockney’s Alphabet (public library) — that wonderful, forgotten 1991 charity project raising funds for AIDS research through short essays by famous writers about the letters of the alphabet, each illustrated by artist David Hockney. Provided by his Eliot’s, Valerie, his response to Alice Quinn — the only posthumous contribution to the volume — appears under the letter Q.

Nearly four decades after he stunned the world with his masterpiece “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and four years after he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, Eliot writes to the young aspiring writer:

Dear Miss Alice Quinn,

I do not often answer letters, because I am too busy; but I liked your letter, and I am glad that you are at a Catholic school.

I cannot tell you how to concentrate, because that is something I have been trying to learn all my life. There are spiritual exercises in concentration, but I am not the person to teach what I am trying to learn. All I know is that if you are interested enough, and care enough, then you concentrate. But nobody can tell you how to start writing. The only good reason for writing is that one has to write. You ask seven questions. No one event in one’s childhood starts one writing: no doubt a number of “events” and other causes. That remains mysterious.

In consonance with Carson, Eliot adds:

My advice to “up and coming writers” is, don’t write at first for anyone but yourself. It doesn’t matter how many or how few universities one goes to, what matters is what one learns, either at universities or by oneself. My favourite essay, I think, is my essay on Dante, not because I know much about Dante, but because I loved what I wrote about. The Waste Land is my most famous work, and therefore perhaps will prove the most important, but it is not my favourite.

Alice apparently asked Eliot about some of the criticism aimed at his poetry and his person — the perennial lazy accusation that anything sophisticated is automatically elitist — for he reflects:

I am interested to hear that Kunitz & Haycraft say that I prefer to associate with Nobility and Church Dignitaries, but I like to know every sort of person, including Nobility and Dignitaries. I also like to know Policemen, Plumbers and People.

He returns to the subject of how one grows equipped to be a writer:

One does not always need to know a subject very well in order to teach it: what one does need to know is How to Teach Anything. I went to a very good school (which no longer exists) in St. Louis, Missouri, where I was well taught in Latin, Greek, French and elementary Mathematics. Those are the chief subjects worth learning at school; and I am glad that I was well taught in these subjects, instead of having to study such subjects as T.S. Eliot. At the University I studied too many subjects, and mastered none. If you study Latin, Greek, French, Mathematics, and the essentials of the Christian Faith, that is the right beginning.

I like living in London, because it is my City, and I am happier there than anywhere else.

With best wishes,

T.S. Eliot

Complement this particular portion Hockney’s Alphabet, which is out of print but well worth the hunt, with T.S. Eliot on the nature of time, Lewis Carroll’s advice to a young woman on how to overcome creative block, and Beethoven’s touching letter of advice on being an artist, sent in reply to a fan letter from a little girl, then revisit other timeless advice on writing from Susan Sontag, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, James Baldwin, Umberto Eco, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

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Beijing-based artist Peng Wei places traditional Chinese painting on rice paper to create contemporary sculptures of human legs, shoes, and torsos. These paper-cast works display scenes of the natural and domestic, including lush gardens, animals, and interiors of Chinese homes. Peng has been troubled by the adoption of Western styles of clothing by Chinese women. By painting classical Chinese motifs on Western shoes and other fashion-related items, Peng aims to deny the decline of China’s cultural heritage to rapid globalization.

Peg was born in Chengdu in 1974 and graduated from the Eastern art department of Nankai University with a BA in Literature and an MA in Philosophy. Her works have been collected by the National Art Museum of China, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Guangdong Art Museum, and many more international collections. You can see more of Peng’s paintings and sculptures on Artsy. (via Lustik)

I love spring so much… all the wildflowers everywhere, bumblebees flying about, trees sprouting all of that beautiful, fresh green. There’s something so refreshing and energizing about this season. We have four pets, so it’s the time of year when we are looking to do a deep clean around the house, getting rid of the winter coat that has managed to shed (and turn into several new animals). This is the season that I feel the need to open all the windows, smell the honeysuckle and jasmine growing just outside my house, and enjoy the backyard until the sun goes down.

I’ve rounded up eight DIYs and tips from the archives that will help kickstart washing away winter — and prepare us for summer, so we can spend more time outside, enjoying the longer days. —Erin

Image above: I’m always looking for a little guide to quickly clean my home. This printable guide would be great to keep taped inside a kitchen cabinet or in the laundry room for a quick reference to easy cleaning solutions; so you can spend more time enjoying spring, rather than cleaning up from it.