The Gravity of Art

Back in Fall of 2007, I was living in Germany with my family. While we had been having adventures and traveling internationally, I had grown out of touch with my writing and the larger creative world.

I looked around and found a door to that creative world online: I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. From that contest, I met a  group of talented, dedicated writers, and with editorial support from several of them, I began the literary magazine Conclave: A Journal of Character.

Through this chain of creative people, I also met several LJ friends, among them Trillian Stars ( ) and her now-husband Kyle Cassidy (). When given the chance to attend their wedding party in Philadelphia last Fall, I went and met a new bunch of fabulous, creative people from around the country. Combine that experience with my work on the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame and the unexpected phenomenon of Twitter, and I cannot believe how many talented writers and artists and musicians I have met and reconnected with over the last 3 years. This is just the beginning!

The Gravity of Art

That’s what Kyle Cassidy called it in his blog, and I loved the phrase (Kyle, I hope that you don’t that I’m using it?) It captures the phenomenon so well–when you are engaged and passionate about creating, you become a force of attraction.

I’m wrapping up Conclave and hope to have it printed later this month. I cannot wait to get back to revising the novel I completed last Fall, and I have some decisions to make about The Silence of Trees. I’m excited about the progress of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, and some other projects that Chicago friends are working on in photography, music, video, and theater. There are other top-secret projects in the works. 2010 has such potential!

The Gravity of Art: it’s a powerful thing, an inspiring thing, an exhilarating thing.

The interior of our home is nearly finished. I want Casa del Lobos to be a nexus, a center for the gravity of art, a place frequented by creative people, a place where my kids will grow up seeing people making art, talking about art, living lives of passion and integrity.

Do you know about the Parisian Salons of the 17th century and 18th century? They were gatherings of artists, writers, philosophers, etc. to amuse and educate. The salons were revived in the 1920s in Paris and London. Some of the greatest writers and artists, readers and thinkers of the time met at those salons. Wouldn’t it be something to recreate that kind of time and space set aside for the discussion of art and literature in its many forms?

Casa del Lobos is just waiting for the chance.

Published by Valya

Valya Dudycz Lupescu has been making magic with food and words for more than 20 years, incorporating folklore from her Ukrainian heritage with practices that honor the Earth. She’s a writer, content developer, instructor, and mother of three teenagers. Valya is the author of MOTHER CHRISTMAS, THE SILENCE OF TREES, and the founding editor of CONCLAVE: A Journal of Character. Along with Stephen H. Segal, she is the co-author of FORKING GOOD: An Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of The Good Place and GEEK PARENTING: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family (Quirk Books), and co-founder of the Wyrd Words storytelling laboratory. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her poetry and prose have been published in anthologies and magazines that include, The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Kenyon Review, Culture, Gargoyle Magazine, Gone Lawn, Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium. You can find her on Twitter @valya and on Mastodon.social @valya

4 thoughts on “The Gravity of Art”

  1. angelislington says:

    Wouldn’t it be something to recreate that kind of time and space set aside for the discussion of art and literature in its many forms?

    Casa del Lobos is just waiting for the chance.

    Oh, I do hope this beautiful idea comes to fruition someday. 🙂

  2. spacedlaw says:

    And…
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
    I hope that you’ll have many more years of such adventures.

  3. hollyheartfree says:

    First- HAPPY HAPPY TODAY!
    Second, I can’t imagine anyone with more talent, more drive, more ambition than you to create exactly what you want for your own life, for your family, and for Casa del Lobos!
    You ROCK!

  4. silveringridd says:

    happy birthday!

    yeah to salons!

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