First, here’s the link to Megan’s entry.
And here are the text portions of entries #2, #3, and #4
Entry #2: Mandala – “Unfolding”
Watercolor & ballpoint pen on watercolor paper. Some digital color enhancement, because I didn’t have access to a scanner and my camera couldn’t do it justice.
TalysMana.com Be A Character In TalysMana Contest Entry
Entry #3: “Light Up The Darkness”
The song is an original composition called “Light Up The Darkness”. I’m playing both the flute and the harp; it’s a multi-track recording, but otherwise “raw” sound – no digital effects.
The Instruments
(Click for larger image)
I built the harp from a kit ordered from Musicmaker’s Kits and added the decorations myself. Those weird characters are Elvish (Sindarin, to be exact), and the full inscription, roughly translated, reads “May the sound of this harp be as sweet as water flowing over stones”. Kind of silly, but hey, who was going to read it?
The flute is made from a piece of bamboo I cut from my grandparents’ land. It didn’t take anywhere near as long to build as the harp, but it was much more involved and “fiddly” because of all the factors that affect the tuning. I didn’t get it perfect, as you can probably hear, but I’m still pretty proud of it.
Oh – how did I learn to play these? Well, I play the piano a little, so it wasn’t too difficult to teach myself harp, and I got a couple of pointers from some harpist friends. The flute fingers like a pennywhistle and blows like a concert flute, and I can play both of those fairly well, so I basically knew how to play it from the start.
TalysMana.com Be A Character In TalysMana Contest Entry
Entry #4: Who Am I, Anyway?
I am very grateful to the TalysMana contest because it has made me think deeply about two things that I’d never really considered before. First, why do I do such crazy, random, creative things? And second, who am I anyway?
The second question is especially interesting. I could answer that I’m Megan Aldreth, known as Meg. But that’s just a collection of sounds used to refer to me. I could answer that I’m a flutist in the local youth orchestra, that I enjoy collecting knowledge (especially about things I’m interested in, like plants and music) and then sharing it, that I sail and do archery whenever I get a chance, and that I love to make things. But those are just things I do. I could answer that my favorite color is blue, that I love music and irony, that I’m practical, laid-back, down-to-earth, logical, and intuitive, or that I’m curious, brave, highly independent, and not very respectful of authority in general, all of which tends to get me in trouble. But these are just some of my attributes; they are not me.
I could answer that I’m a seeker. That’s better. I am a seeker of wisdom and truth, of beauty and knowledge. Unfortunately, they aren’t so easy to find… except for beauty. Not only can I create it for myself, but it’s all around if you know where to look. Have you ever looked at the cooling tower of a power plant? They’re designed for strictly utilitarian purposes, but they’re like huge sculptures with their whiteness and graceful lines. Have you watched a sailboat on a lake on a windy day, or the flight of a swallow or a seagull? Have you bent down and examined a flower the size of a pinhead, and found that its color is as bright and its shape as graceful as those a hundred times its size? Have you gone outside during a storm just to be able to hear the rain and thunder better, or on a clear night with a full moon so bright it casts a shadow? Kids do these things all the time; I guess I’m still a lot closer to being a kid than a grown-up that way. But I can’t be the only one here 
When I create something, I take the beauty I find in places like these, and try to put it into… well, maybe not words – I’m no outstanding writer, though that doesn’t keep me from trying – but to express it, to incorporate it into whatever I’m creating. Obviously, there are times when I can’t do that; for example, if what I’m creating is some type of jury-rigged solution to some problem. That kind of thing definitely takes creativity, but the result is almost never beautiful, even if it works.
I still enjoy it, though, because in the end, there are two things I love to do: meet challenges and create something that wasn’t there before. I make music, I compose, I write, I climb trees and anything else that stands still long enough even though I’m supposed to be too grown-up for that, I paint, I whack my friends with sticks and get whacked in return, I spin, I mix strange things together in an effort to create a unique color or scent, I practice endlessly to improve whatever skill seems insufficient at the moment. I’m addicted to the feeling of accomplishment I get when I am successful. In short, I do all these things just because I can… but that doesn’t make them any less worth it. And in doing them, I become who I am.
TalysMana.com Be A Character In TalysMana Contest Entry
