For Every Door That Closes, Another Opens?

Well, I didn't win a nü Icon scholarship like I had hoped. But, I did get an amazing amount of positive feedback about my scholarship contest entry and a great boost of positive energy from just having followed through on something I really wanted to do.

Something else I've always wanted to do is run a successful crowd-source campaign and since there is still a chance that crowd-sourcing can save the day I decided to put my money where my mouth is.

The great news is that the nu Icon program is currently available at a contest sale price of $5997.

I'd also really like to see Laura Hollick's notes on my entry, but the only way to do that is by paying for the tuition! For tonight I would need only the first month's payment of $597 and then the whole $5997 by December 17th.

What do you think?

Visit http://igg.me/at/nuicon to share, donate or participate.

Follow my story on Diary of Chainman at http://www.chainman.me

Feel free to email me at dylon@grumbledude.com and remember that sharing is more important than donating!

Thank you in advance,

Dylon

P.S. Perks from previous works now available!

Chainman.meow?

From the FAQ Department, a reader asks...

Q. "In your book Beaded Chain Mail Jewelry (which I own and is very good) you say to tumble dry and not with liquid. Can you explain this please?"

A. Thanks for your inquiry! Dry instructions refer to using rice as a tumbling medium to polish or clean. For other kinds of tumbling, such as with steal shot for taking off burrs, wet is the way to go. Dry, crushed walnut shell is also popular for finish polishing fresh cut jump links.

Lord of the Jungle?

The mornings first question regarded the state of the jungle which occupies the better portion of the southern section of our apartment. Apparently midweek watering had been overlooked and the result was a room full of very distressed plants silently crying for attention.

For a moment I felt brutal, then I'm grateful for plants lack of vocal cords.

The decision to market cuttings from the jungle at our shop means that it has evolved from a hobby with the side benefit of effective organic air filtration and beautification to monetization requiring more diligent attention.

A cursory examination of the situation leads to the decision to give the entire jungle a right proper autumnal cleaning before watering.

As I trim dry leaves and long dead vines I imagine that for this miniature ecosystem I am quite literally a god of the four classic elements.  Warmth from the southern exposure of the apartment and electric heater are fire.

Then as the embodiment of wind, I tear through the jungle like a cleansing hurricane. In the wild these plants would naturally shed dead matter to the weather. Today my embodiment of air-bending is more hands on. By the end of the day this has lead to a million itchy micro cuts, abrasions and more than a few fine cactus needles stubbornly embedded in my flesh.

Like shifting lands, with the strength of the earth I lift and carry jungle specimens to new locales. I wonder if the plants experience these relocations as catastrophic earthquakes?

The thirsty plant babies cry out for hydration, some bone dry with sad leaves that wilt at my touch. They'll have to wait until everything is inspected and cleaned before the watering can jet stream lifts moisture from our kitchen sink and finally sates their drought.

One of the best complements the jungle received was from a visitor a few years back who's son was examining our crop of kittens. She said "You have a nice jungle." I replied modestly. She reiterated, "You don't understand. I'm from Brazil. I grew up in the jungle. When I say you have a nice jungle I mean you have a nice jungle."

I also recall another jungle admirer who confided that it was easier to bend the will of plants than people and therefore found gardening to be a much more rewarding activity. Given the ease with which we clone our specimens, he may have been right.

For a time I imagine am alternate world where the people are like plants. So that every time somebody loses a finger to an industrial accident they are made liable for care of the clone which grows from their severed digit.

I feel like a plant doctor of sorts, or perhaps surgeon is a better term. A pair of kitchen shears and a small serrated paring knife are my instruments. No anesthetic required as I remove a troubled cable tie which once support for a stalk is now digging into bark and causing a series money tree blockage.

When cut, certain specimens emit very distinct odors (including an umbrella tree that's rather piney.) I recall watching a nature documentary on YouTube about how plants communicate via scent when injured. I start wonder if the jungle now fears my presence like some kind of titanic Grim Repear for the botanical set.

Quote of yesterday: "If I had more time I would have written less."

Why is my blog called Diary of a Chainman?

Sorry for the lack of content laltely fellow bloggies, here's an update on my latest project, please support my effort by liking and sharing: http://www.facebook.com/groups/numovie/permalink/389306147900364/
 

Hi Laura and fellow nü Icon hopefuls,

How do you do?

My name is Dylon Whyte and medical science has no explanation for my feet.

This may seem like a strange place to start a last minute entry for the 2015 nü Icon scholarship contest. However, much like any loop, link, ring or circle, there’s a reason epic oddities tend to begin where they end. Or is that the other way round?

In my hometown I operate as a freelance jack-of-all-trades IT technician. In my “spare time” I am also a respected author, actor and artist who has never quite figured out how to make a living by “just being themselves.” In particular, the last 26 years have been spent creating and teaching folks how to make their own chain jewelry and armour.

Then one day (about a five and a half years ago) something unquantifiable happened. The resulting discovery was a preference for the of linking words into poems and stories. A creative expression I came to enjoy more than the physical activity of linking metal rings together to create clothing and jewelry.

Not that I had any desire to quit teaching, quite the opposite as a matter of fact. I have always thought it better to teach folk how to fish, as opposed to selling them fish.

Yet some unexplainable part of myself burns for something more. So over the years, instead of continuing with my regular DIY titles, I toiled (amongst other things) on a string of remarkably unsuccessful eBooks. Each with it’s own unique humour and each failing to reach an audience.

In the meantime we opened a small family gallery last year featuring the work of my father, artist Jack Whyte, amongst other friends. Here we envision a future where it will be possible to acquire the work we love directly from artists for resale. It is hard to imagine a more organic method for supporting arts and artists.

You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to start an all-original art gallery here!

The best way I can think of describing our region is as a locale which has been between a rock and a hard place for so long that the rat race evolved into a dog-eat-dog struggle for survival.

Although, I’m convinced that if you can survive here, you can survive anywhere. Also with the rise of crowd funding, virtual goods and everything in-between, the digital economy offers renewed hope for remote regions such as ours. If not our world as a whole.

I had to think long and hard about what to create for this scholarship entry. Being homeschooled and auto-didactic means that this kind of contest is an avenue which I hadn’t previously explored.
On some level I must like working under pressure or I simply wouldn’t always be leaving things like this to the last minute (literally 23 minutes to go as I edit this for the final time.) At first the plan was to create a video introduction to myself and career.

Then (as usual) my schedule was constipated by the regular chores of survival here on Manitoulin Island. The Island’s east end is literally the penultimate conclusion to Ontario’s Hwy 6. Which I believe starts somewhere down your way.

Finally I settled on a medium with which I’ve become accustomed since my rickety attempt at awakening nearly 5.5 years ago. In case it isn’t obvious, I’ve chosen storytelling with an accompanying picture collage as the medium for my contest entry.

The truth is that I’m a lover of art in all its forms. Often I find myself wishing that I could absorb every single artistic ability I stumble across. Currently, above all things, I have come to love evoking images and emotions in the imaginations of my audience.

My own strange tale is a combination of ups and downs with a persistent creative talent that at one time often seemed as much bane as boon.

However, for the sake of brevity already exceeded, I will now restrain my pen to the matter at hand and a tale which began last May with International Soul Day.

Although often dubbed “spiritual” by others, I’m actually not sure what a soul is and was immediately attracted learning more from this interactive online event. A discovery I would not have made if not for scanning targeted advertisements over my wife’s shoulder as she surfed a popular social media venue.

Interestingly enough, male vs. female audiences often receive radically different advertising and I was therefore enjoying an alternate perspective with insight into potential target audiences.

I don’t recall the exact content of the International Soul Day advertisement, but I was immediately drawn in and recall thinking “this is somebody I really need to learn from.”

Immediately I joined the Pure Inspiration mailing list and have followed your story for the past 9 months or so.

I particularly enjoyed the tales of your serpentine jungle encounter and your courage in overcoming art school critics. Above all else I have been completely blown away by the nü Icon material. As mentioned, my belief in the ability of a digital economy to reinvigorate the world is wholehearted and I simply love opportunities for distance education.

This means the nü Icon program is exactly the kind of learning I both desire to tap into and eventually share. With an eye toward someday awaking others to their potential, much as you do.

To me arts and culture are a vital component of mutually assured survival. This means the concept of joining the nü Icon program and mastermind are precisely the kind of collective connections I dream of fostering.

It may seem like a non-sequitur, but did you know that the average Northerner’s debt is akin to life with an angry Kodiak bear continually lurking over your shoulder?

Neither did I, until recently researching online advertising opportunities. I honestly thought I was alone in the feeling of being consumed by financial insecurity.

I remain convinced that it is this fact that lead my heart to literally skip a beat when I received the email announcing the scholarship contest for the 2015 nü Icon program.

Over the years I’ve been told that it is who and not what you know in life that makes a difference. Well, if there is one guide whom I would like to receive mentoring from in the new year, it is you, Laura Hollick. Or any of my assorted friends, family, fans, followers and yes, even foes who may happen to bee reading this.

There’s an old adage that states when a student is ready, the master will open the door.

So, if nothing else, I would like to thank you personally for your time, this opportunity and for all that you do in service to the arts.

Journey On,

Dylon

P.S. Still wondering what the heck my feet have to do with it? Well, despite medical science’s lack of conviction on the matter, being attached to the rest of my person via my ankles is enough of an explanation for my feet as I’m ever likely to require. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s easy to find any (let alone good) winter boots for a person of my podiatric stature.

Please find attached some pics introducing myself and my latest wearable art project.

The same way each link that makes up a chains inevitably circles back on itself, chains themselves are especially symbolic for someone (such as myself) who is determined to make their own way in this world.

Thank you for Reading Diary of a Chainman

http://www.chainman.me