Corey Aber

Early this week I was excited to be nominated for the Liebster Award by fellow watercolor blogger David Tripp. This was pretty exciting because David is an artist whose work and blog I admire quite a bit. In fact, they really pushed me to give this thing a go. Thanks David for the inspiration and the recognition.

So what is the Liebster Award? This is something I gather that every recipient wonders, because there seems to be nothing official about it, no governing body, no paperwork, and it has morphed over time. In short, it’s a way for bloggers to recognize each other’s work, and as such it is pretty meaningful because it’s by the bloggers for the bloggers. In the iteration I received, each recipient is supposed to answer a few questions and nominate five other recipients to keep the thing going and relate more readers to bloggers.

I am going to break the rule and answer another question from David Tripp’s site, one raised by Wallace Stevens to one of his employees at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company.

“Can you give me your idea of what imagination is”?

My answer:

The ability to make the non-sequitur sequitur.

I would like my nominees to answer this question as well.

My nominees in no particular order:

1. G.E. Gallas, whose in-progress graphic novel The Poet and the Flea is pretty amazing. How many people take on William Blake these days without being either the ghost of Allen Ginsberg or Harold Bloom? And of those people, how many come up with such cool stuff? This is a great example of reading through art and engaging in the long conversation.

2. Jake Seliger writes an interesting blog called The Story’s Story. I like it because he’s an academic type with a sharp wit that’s well applied, often to topics that interest me, such as publishing or housing. He writes some pretty good book reviews too.

3. Leslie Metzler has a new blog called New England Restorations that’s chronicling her recent purchase of and ongoing renovations to a homestead in Lakeville, MA. It’s an awesome property and she’s doing great things with it. I hope to paint there soon.

4. Pete Scully is one of the Urban Sketchers, and is based in Davis, CA. I have been following the Urban Sketchers for a while, and someday hope to get prolific enough (and find the time to sketch enough) to join up with them, at least in DC. I like Pete’s sketches a lot, and he’s a pretty funny blogger.

5. Dan Sheehan, ex Cobra pilot turned author, is doing a lot of good helping returning soldiers through his writing, speaking, and actions. His new blog is part of that project.

Thanks to the five of you for the interesting work.

Back with more paintings soon.