The Art of the Schmooze

Are three sisters who each month write about the same topic essentially participating in a verbal paint party? We don’t think so. What we love most about our Schmoozes (besides the sisterly schmoozing that goes into planning them) is how in the end we each create our own piece

R emember coloring books where you used your Crayola crayons and carefully “stayed inside the lines”? Paint-by-number picture sets that told you where to splash on which color? Perhaps you’ve noticed art students sitting in a museum copying a masterpiece. Or attended a paint party where friends combine camaraderie and canvas and all come home with the same picture.

All these activities can be good fun and they certainly give useful practice to budding craftsmen. But they all create cookie-cutter products. They don’t create… art.

Are three sisters who each month write about the same topic essentially participating in a verbal paint party? We don’t think so. What we love most about our Schmoozes (besides the sisterly schmoozing that goes into planning them) is how in the end we each create our own piece. Story or satire musing or schmoozing memory from the past or commentary on the present each of us uses words to create a unique picture. Cookie cutters? No. Same dough very different cookies…