60 days to go and I'm actually kind of excited. Not freaking out like I was 40 days ago. Not stressing like I was 20 days ago. Just having a good time and accepting those things that had been crinkling around the good ol' think-box. At least for the time being, anyway. Ask me how I am next week and that could change entirely.
It's been really, really hot here lately and I kept using it as an excuse as to why I hadn't worked on anything. And then I stopped and thought about this for a minute. I snapped out of it and realized that it's okay to lay low sometimes and that I don't need to find an excuse when there's an actual reason. And the reason, that I finally happened upon after secretly celebrating the first couple hot days that would magically keep me out of the garage, was that I was in a rut. It's really that simple. I just wasn't feeling it. I'm sure you've felt the same way. The good thing about mulling this over was that I wasn't at war with myself anymore, which meant that I eventually found my way back to my path. So off I went to set up the sawhorses and find my saw. Of course, re-finding the path happened when it was still 106 outside, but thankfully it was toward the end of the heat wave. Yes, that's me wearing jeans in the heat and yes that's my super cute vintagey green air compressor and yes that's my canoe hanging by the rafters. And yes I wore safety glasses when I cut the wood. Sun glasses? Hmm.
So um, as you can see here, after the whole "hey it's effing hot out" ordeal was over, I have inched my way into the kitchen. Remember how the garage was the only space that was working for me? Welp, looks like the kitchen is the new line leader [do you remember line leaders? i was always too shy and chose to be at the back of the line, mostly because i didn't want people to get upset at me that i was in front of them. first grade logic.] But anyway, yes- so I'm in the kitchen now and I just painted a couple boards. Wood is the only material I've ever worked on and I really like it. One of the pieces is this really great pea green color. The biggest hassle about being indoors now is the cats. Their fur landing on the paint. Their potential paw prints on the paint. Clementine's bitching and moaning. It's all kind of annoying. I'll live, although they might not.
I've been learning a lot about myself during this whole making process [and also being reminded how much I dislike drawing....] and it's been kind of a fun venture. Minus not liking to draw. But anyway, I've taken to heart the fact that I need to switch things up a lot and it's a lot less of a battle now that I've accepted it. Not only with my environment, but general routines as well. Schedules, repetitive processes, and planned activities tend to make me a bit edgy and withdrawn and I'm thankful that I've [recently] learned how to deal with this. I just change my schedule or environment or mosey onto a new venture and like a rabbit in a hat, it's all better. I encourage any of you restless thinker types or creative creatures to try it some time. There's actually a good article on something similar over on Psychologies UK. The only concern that this has lead me to is the fact that maybe I shouldn't find myself what they call a career after all. The other problem is that sometimes all that swapping leads to lack of fulfillment. I've definitely trudged that ditch before. Like, last week. Dumb.
Okay, so back to drawing. One thing I learned during my short stint in design school [oh...design school...i miss you so much.] is that trace paper is my saving grace. It's really good if you get frustrated with drawing like I do. Because then you can draw and draw parts and pieces over and over until you get it right without having to erase anything, because eventually you just trace all the parts you like and come up with one entire image. Yeah, it takes forever but that's the way I do it and the only way drawing is any form of enjoyable for me. Aaannnnd you don't go through erasers as quickly. So onto my most recent tracing- a Violin Mantis. They're pretty charming, yeah? This will eventually turn into a screen print but until then I might just transfer the image and ink it up. I don't have a Rotring Rapidograph pen with a nib that's large enough in diameter, so I may have to bust out my Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph pens and curse them for 3 hours until they work. So I'm off to do that now...and feed my always bitching orange boy cat. Ugh. [I love my cat I love my cat I love my cat I love my cat...wait, what's the number of times you need to tell yourself something before it's rooted into your brain? shit. i'll tell you when i figure it out i guess.]
