My 8,000-mile writer’s retreat: A worthy and welcome return to creativity

Larry Burns is a writer and artist. Using the persona mylarr, his current work, “Taking Shelter In…,” is part of a group show, “The 52 Project,” at the Riverside Art Museum. It is set to run through April 30. I’ve never been on a writer’s retreat. As a creative person, I’ve tried countless tactics to get ideas out of my head and into the world. Looking at what has worked and not worked recalls the refrain some circles use to close out an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting: “Keep coming back, it works if you work it.” I’ve been back enough times to accept the writer’s lot in life. I’m dogged by the empty page. Writers must always return bravely to that unsaved Word document, that insistent blinking cursor. One reliable tactic for me is trying new forms of expression. Six years ago I started creating 3-D assemblage out of found materials, which I combined with text. Finding and arranging discarded objects felt similar to writing. The jumbled chaos of each, a pile of trash or drawerful of consonants and vowels, can be assembled to say or do anything. This drive, to combine things, to create new meaning, is how I accidently assembled my own writing retreat following a series of unfortunate events. A breakdown in early 2021 triggered the suppressed memories of sexual abuse and isolation I endured as a child. Much later in 2021, I finally began weekly mental […] (Courtesy of Larry Burns) By Larry Burns | Contributing Columnist

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