Dale (aka Lichtenbergian)
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thatdale.bsky.social
Dale (aka Lichtenbergian)
@thatdale.bsky.social
570 followers 440 following 3.4K posts
retired educator, author, composer, director, burner
blogs: dalelyles.com, Lichtenbergianism.com
books: "Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy" and "A Young Person's Guide to Lichtenbergianism," available at your favored book vendor
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thatdale.bsky.social
December 16, 2025 at 12:37 AM
thatdale.bsky.social
Cecil the Pest™ just barfed up a foam earplug. Whether it was the one he ate last week or one he knocked to the floor last week and just now came across, I am not prepared to say. How's your day going? #CatsOfBluesky
A handsome if dimwitted tuxedo cat stands staring vacantly into space.
December 15, 2025 at 8:50 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
I have the finale of Beethoven's 9th cued up and ready to roar on the outdoor speakers. Also:
A flag with a smiley face with stars for eyes and lipstick kisses for freckles. Behind it, the phrase "Party in the USA" repeated in pink and blue. It will be deployed to celebrate the death of Donald Trump.
December 15, 2025 at 5:30 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Every #ABANDONMENT hurts. Would it be less painful to finish it? (p. 42) #postcardquotes
A black background. Across the bottom, a white strip with extra-bold, all-caps ABANDONMENT printed on it. Across the top, in white ink, the last two measures of Johann Sebastian Bach’s unfinished “Art of the Fugue.”
December 14, 2025 at 9:49 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
#Lichtenbergianism #TaskAvoidance
A photo of a postcard with a portrait of William Shakespeare. The text reads, “So I haven’t written much lately! So what? Neither has Shakespeare.”
December 13, 2025 at 7:31 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Show us again on the little doll where the socialists hurt you.
December 12, 2025 at 7:46 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
If you make enough little things, at some point you will have big things to deal with. #WasteBooks #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
Vintage drawings of plant cells are accompanied by a quote from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: “I have jotted down a host of little thoughts and sketches, but they are awaiting not so much a final revision as a few more glimpses of the sun that will make them blossom.”
December 11, 2025 at 5:16 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
If you could see it, would it be your target? #Gestalt #AbortiveAttempts #postcardquotes
On a white card, a heavy black painted circle with a black dot in the center.
December 11, 2025 at 3:46 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Exactly what we teach in Lichtenbergianism!
a graphic representation of the creative process as visualized by Lichtenbergianism: a Abortive Attempt (less-than-perfect product) —> Gestalt (what's missing/wrong?) —> Successive Approximation (tweak it) —> back to Abortive Attempt; the cycle is eventually ended when the product is ready for Abandonment, i.e., release to an Audience.
December 9, 2025 at 2:41 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
My son as Mamillius 30 years ago when I directed it at Newnan Community Theatre Company. I needed a 7-year-old who could read and whose TV time I controlled. Quick story about that: 1/3
A pretty little boy in Elizabethan costume of gray silk, playing the role of Mamillius in Shakespeare's "Winter's Tale."
December 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Young Frankenstein, Casablanca, She-Demons (long story)
December 8, 2025 at 8:11 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
"The Color Kittens," by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen: Introduced me to color theory and set me on my path as a creative human being. www.lichtenbergianism.com/blog/2018/5/...
The cover of the classic Little Golden Book "The Color Kittens," by Margaret Wise Brown (the author of "Good Night, Moon," illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen. Two anthropomorphic kittens in coveralls are seen stirring and applying paint to the cover.
December 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Gives off vibes, for sure.
Jacques-Louis David's massive painting of the "Coronation of Napoleon," depicting the moment when the emperor, after crowning himself, crowns his wife Josephine.
December 7, 2025 at 1:25 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
#Lichtenbergianism
A quote from Mary Oliver: “I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame.”
December 6, 2025 at 6:54 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
The thing about STEALING FROM THE PAST is that they can't tell you you're doing it wrong. #StealFromTheBest #postcardquotes
An etching of Renaissance decorative carvings has been scribbled on with colored pens.
December 6, 2025 at 5:15 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
MAKING THE THING THAT IS NOT does not happen if you don't provide a time and place for it. Draw a circle around your time and space and make it safe for your art. #Ritual #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A painting of a red circle. Inside the circle is the dictum “Where we work.” Leading into the circle is a white arrow labeled “The way in.” Surrounding the circle and the arrow are all the tasks that keep us from making our art.
December 6, 2025 at 3:01 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Sometimes you need to take a closer look: the pieces may already be there. #Gestalt #Lichtenbergianism #blogquotes
A black-and-white print of Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” has been cut up and rearranged tangram-fashion.
December 4, 2025 at 3:46 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Don't believe everything you think. #AbortiveAttempts #Lichtenbergianism
On the right, a perfect rectangle. On the left, a grunge font says, “DON’T MESS THIS UP” with a hand-drawn red arrow pointing into the rectangle.
December 2, 2025 at 1:31 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
I'm pretty sure I saw one in Bear Lake, Jason.
a photo of Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. A boulder in the lake has a red arrow pointing at it, and yellow letters say "a Rocky Mountain Manatee probably."
December 1, 2025 at 10:00 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
"You see it as a flaw.
Step back.
Look again.
#Gestalt #Lichtenbergianism" #postcardquotes
A piece of black art paper is glued onto a kraft paper background. It is rectangular, but a notch is cut out of the top. Asemic writing seems to indicate measurements and perhaps instructions about the situation.
December 1, 2025 at 9:02 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Learning to look at work to see where it might need adjusting also includes learning to see work that is presenting itself: the front of this card was random scraps until I saw them in place. #Gestalt #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
Random geometric shapes cut from an old encyclopedia arranged in a pleasing pattern.
December 1, 2025 at 3:47 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Do not concern yourself with time. Either it is time to work, or it isn't. Either you have time to make the thing that is not, or you don't. #TaskAvoidance #Lichtenbergianism #postcardquotes
A winged hourglass floats over a semicircle dived like a protractor. Above the hourglass is asemic writing in red ink. Below the semicircle is the message “Time flies” with an abstract sketch in red ink.
November 30, 2025 at 8:16 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
As you do your holiday shopping, remember those friends/relatives who would like to be creative but think they're not: bookshop.org/beta-search?...
The cover of "Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy" by Dale Lyles. The title is in a bold font at a 90-degree angle, aligned with the spine. The subtitle is at the top right, flush right. The author's name is in the lower right, also flush right. The image in the center is an abstract "to do" checklist with the first three items scratched through and the the fourth a checkmark. The cover for "A Young Person's Guide to Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy," by Dale Lyles. The title is at the top; the subtitle is in a speech balloon being spoken by a portrait of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. A hand drawn red arrow points from the title to the speech balloon as if explaining the title, and at the bottom of the cover is Lichtenberg's name scrawled in red marker.
November 30, 2025 at 7:40 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
As we say in Lichtenbergianism:
The creative cycle as defined in Lichtenbergianism: Abortive Attempt —> Gestalt —> Successive Approximation, going in a cycle until the product is ready for Abandonment. More info: Lichtenbergianism.com
November 30, 2025 at 7:15 PM
thatdale.bsky.social
Bunsen Honeydew is lying again.
The muppet Dr. Bunsen Honeydew has a disturbing resemblance to the Turmp Administration's Kevin Hassett.
November 30, 2025 at 7:10 PM