Pencil Shavings

Empty Content

It’s hard to believe that I used to write a blog daily.  Sometimes even multiple times a day.  I know that school kind of took away that drive to write, because writing for marks is a lot different than writing for fun in a lot of ways.

I used to write 1000 words a day.  I wrote a novel length manuscript (or two or three) and a children’s book that was considered (briefly) for publication.  I wrote short stories that were published and I even wrote magazine articles.

What happened to the writer in me?

It would be easy to say that it was replaced by the visual artist.  But that is really an over simplification.  I think that the writer still lives in me, but I haven’t given her the time to come out to play.  Is it true that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the things that I really want to do?  Well, there is the whole time-suck of the internet that really does decrease my productivity in an alarming way. 

Well the year is half over, maybe this is the time to make resolutions?  Maybe if I promise myself that I need to work first, just maybe if I find that will power to turn off social media for a few hours a day (or a few days a week) I will be able to do much more of the things that feed my soul instead of feeding my eyes with the fast food that lives on Twitter and my other social sites.

 

NaNo-NaNo

A few winters ago I participated in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with the idea that over the month of November I would compete to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel.  I completed the draft with a few words to spare and was happy to be done.

This year, for some absurd reason I feel like I should be trying it again.  I have no novel outline, I don’t have a vaguest idea of a plot and I certainly don’t have the time.  After all I’m a full time student and the work load for November is already looking unbelievable.  And I do have the Tiny Terrorists^TM to tend to.

So why do I have this nagging desire to start writing again?  It’s not that I’m not being creative.  I am majoring in art for god’s sake.

But there it is, I can’t deny it, I’m hungering for the feeling of keys under my fingers and worlds spinning out from my imagination.  There is something there that I can’t shake.  I really need to write and the more that I try to push it away the less I want to do of my other work. 

I know that I cannot complete the NaNoWriMo, but I am going to try and get a few creative bits out of my system before the end of the year.  After all there are some lovely writing contests to enter in the new year, and it would be great to have a short story (or two ) to fling at them. 

Meanwhile there are still several assignments waiting for my attention.

Sometimes It's Too Much, But It's Really Never Too Much.

This weekend is one where I am seriously considering reevaluating my sanity.

What on earth was I thinking when I thought I could raise a family, go to school and keep up with my own interests?

My husband and I are celebrating our anniversary this weekend, it's not our anniversary yet, but it is when we are celebrating.  I have a test on Monday, on a book I read two months ago and now I'm struggling to remember the details of, so I'm re-reading in between working on my "space" project for 2D fundamentals class which is due on Tuesday.  That piece is 44x30 inches (not exactly tiny).  Also on Tuesday I have to submit my sketches for my next project for drawing class (for which I have done nothing and I am severely improverished on the idea front).  Also I have to get my first draft of an essay for my english class finished so I have time to figure out if I'm going in the right direction.

Add on to that the swimming, skating, and general kidness of my kids and I have my hands, heart, brain and schedule really full right now.

But, in a month I will be finished classes and likely at loose ends trying to figure out what to do with my time.  Funny how it seems I have so little now, and I know I will have too much then.

I'm not giving up, I will get through this crunch time, and I am still moving forward with The Postcard Project.  It would be easy to say that I won't do it anymore, it would be easy to say it's too much pressure on myself when I have so much else that demands my time.  But I can't, I love giving free gifts to strangers.  It is taking longer than I planned to get through the list, but I think it's worthwhile. I was telling my art professor about the project last week and he said it was a great idea, and he couldn't believe how inspired and generous it was.  I told him that there are one hundred people on the waiting list right now,  and progress is slow during the school term.  He said "It's a gift, people will understand, and be grateful."

And if they don't, well they don't.  I don't make any promises on delivery date, I just promise to fulfill my promise, hand making, hand writing, hand mailing an original piece of art to anyone in the world who asks.

I know that many people are surprised now when they get the cards, some have forgotten they even requested it, so the comments are fun when they get them.

Anyway, this was my break time from reading and drawing, and I have to put some more muscle balm on my aching hands, and I have to get back to work.

Do me a favour, can you make some more coffee for me?

The Delicate Turn of a Phrase

I don't know why I'm suddenly feeling drawn into the debate of e-book vs. physical book.  Maybe it's because, up until December 25th, I read very few books from an electronic device.  On of the books I had read up until that point was Oliver Twist, a book I had chosen for a project in 3D art class.

After opening the gifts on Christmas Morning I got the wonderful gift of an iPad and proceeded to download (I hate to admit it) well over a hundred dollars worth of books.  Then I read them all. 

Did I miss "the delicate rustling of the page"?  No. Not once.  Did I miss the smell of paper?  No.  Did I miss the feel of a book in my hands?  No.  I did miss running my hands over the cover of a book and feeling the raised bits of print and design.  I'm pretty certain I can live with that longing.

I have books, real live paper books.  I have them stacked all over every horizontal surface of my home.  My kids have books filling three bookcases on different floors of our house. I have six book cases in the basement stuffed full, with more books piled on top.

I love reading.

And maybe that's the difference, I love reading.  Books are ways to read, but it's not the physical books that I love, it's the words.  I love the words, the ideas, the delicate turn of a phrase that sticks with me until I can return and finish the story, or chapter.  I love the people that populate the stories, I love the landscapes.  I love how I can lose myself in that world of print and surface an hour, or two, or three later and feel changed.  I love the bittersweet feeling of finishing a great novel, and missing the characters and the world of that novel, as if I had lived there, and then had to move, against my will.

I still have a number of books unread on my iPad, and on my bedside table.  I have biographies, novels, fantasy, short stories, all waiting for me to immerse myself in. 

I have been reading from the screen for a long time, websites, blogs, tweets, statuses, so perhaps I was ready to accept e-books.  But I think the reality is that I just love reading.  I'll take the words where ever they live, and I will love them.

 

 

She's Here, She's There, She's Everywhere!

I found out this weekend that I was going to be the featured on the EBSQ Blog as the "Blogger of the Week"

EBSQ is a great resource for self-representing artists.  You can load and maintain your own gallery of work (with links to your website, blog, and places you sell your work)

There is an artists forum where you can go for critiques, and a digital sketchbook section for little unfinished works that you have been working on.

It's a great, supportive environment to learn, and mingle with fellow artists.

I'm very please, and proud, to be the Blogger of the Week.

Not Every Celebrity is Worth Following

This guy keeps showing up on my TypePad dashboard.  He's a celebrity, in a TV show, done a high profile movie.  Typepad seems to think that I should follow him.  I clicked on his picture and there were his updates.  Lots of one liners about "the industry" but nothing really gripping, a lot of gloss, and no real substance.

And what is it about people who think they are channeling e.e.cummings and won't use capital letters.  That's either pretentious, or just annoying. 

Anyway, I didn't follow him.  I really only read one "celebrity" blog and that is Wil Wheaton's.  Because even though he has probably one of the most loyal followings on his blog and on Twitter he doesn't think of himself as a personality.  His tag line on his twitter feed says it all "I'm just this guy, you know?"  He writes about himself (as most of us bloggers do) but it's real and compelling, it's funny and sad, it's frustrating and delightful.  It's life. 

He's also a really great writer, and not just because he uses punctuation and capital letters, but because he has an unerring way of making us hear his voice through the silent medium of words.  

Trying to get back to my point (I'll blame the coffee) just because we admire someone on the screen doesn't make them sparkle in all mediums.  Some folks earn our loyalty as readers by trying hard to keep us as readers.  Being a fan doesn't mean you are required to follow everything  - keep your illusions and skip the blog.

Chaos, Panic, Disorder.... You Know, The Usual!

I know it sounds so elitist to say it, but I love my laptop and the fact that I can write my blog while lying in bed!

Why am I in bed on a beautiful sunny day?  Well this is the last few hours I'll have to myself for many days, and it's also some of the few hours that I have had for myself in weeks!  And I'm worn clean through.

I haven't updated this blog in a long time, mostly because I either have nothing to offer, or because I'm so tired at the end of the day that I can't string words together in any meaningful way.  Although a lot of interesting (and weird) things have happened recently, I really can't write about them without exposing my family.  I'm OK with exposing myself to critique, but my family and friends don't need that in their lives.

School is winding up and I've been busy helping out at the school, and winding up all the paper work that will set the kids up for next year.  I've been finding books, and socks, and papers.  I've been sorting and fussing about things, and going on a lot of “end of the year” field trips with my girls' classes.  I did get confirmation that the teachers do give me the more difficult kids on the trips “because we know you can handle it”.  Which makes it mighty tempting to “misplace” someone occasionally.  But of course I would not do that (as tempting as it might be).

So here are the highlights:

My buddy, who I paint with once a week, hasn't seen me for nearly a month.  At least she is understanding and is giving me 21 days to get my act together and get back to work with her!  Which is good, because I need the deadline right now.

I am working on a project, but I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, so you will just have to wait and see (I'm such a tease).

I discovered that two-bite brownies spread with peanut butter is an excellent treat (and may have saved my husbands life last week when I was feeling particularly stressed).

And finally, for those of you in the art world, I will be starting up a product review section of the blog over the summer, and let you know the results of some of the new things I've tried recently and how they worked for me. ( I'll even put in pictures, how's that for a deal)

But today.  Well today I'm going to put on some fresh coffee, lounge about, read a magazine and maybe work on a poem or two.  Tomorrow the chaos begins again!

Returning to Form

Spring seems to bring the need in me to write more, and to in particular it seems that I write poetry in the spring.  Maybe it's the excitement of waiting for the first green shoots coming up through the warming earth.  I don't really know.  But I do know that I have been thinking about poetry a lot lately.

I've also been thinking about how I can use poetry in my visual art.   I think that is something that I might be pursuing soon.

I like the poetic forms of Haiku and Tanka. 

This is a poem in the Tanka form although it's more Haiku in subject matter.  Luckily I can break the rules of my  writing to suit myself. 

Foothills Spring

The air, still as snow
as the earth warms slowly
unstoppable green
presses up toward the sun
the start, life, incandescent.

Checking In

Well, artistically, it's been a pretty good week for me.  I've had lots of sales for my scrabble tile pendants, (only two left in the ArtFire Studio)  I made some big progress on my larger painting, (it's 12x16 – which is a lot bigger than a scrabble tile!) and I wrote up another article and posted it on Squidoo.  This article is about ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) and ACEOs (Art Cards Editions and Originals) and the differences between them.  I like the article, I hope you go check it out.

Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for a painting session, and I'm hoping to get a few art cards made up myself.   I got my latest American Artist magazine yesterday and I'm trying to resist crawling into bed to consume it until I fall asleep and dream art dreams.

I know I'm getting tired of the late nights creating, because I fell asleep on the couch today while I was checking my e-mail on my laptop.  It's a good thing that I set the alarm – or I would have missed picking the kids up at the school bus while I got QWERTY all over my face.  I do set the alarm everyday.  I'm really paranoid about missing the bus.  I see the look on some of the kids' faces when their parents aren't there to pick them up, and I don't want my kids to look that way, ever.  So the alarm gets set – and thankfully today I needed it and I wasn't late.

It's getting a little late here, and I have some more tiny things to paint before I crawl into bed.  I'll try to catch up in a more meaningful way tomorrow.

While the Paint Dries

The worst thing about being self employed is your boss.  My boss is constantly bugging me about getting stuff done, and is really on my case this week because I haven't knocked the things off my to-do list that I wanted to get done, but I did play a lot of games on Facebook.  No wonder she thinks I'm a slacker.

 I am participating in the monthly painting challenge at WetCanvas, and my painting is long way from being finished (I thought I would be done last week... but I'm sitting here looking at my painting and wondering if getting out the hairdryer to hurry things along might be a good idea.

On the upside I did a few things that weren't on the list, like making some “lenses” on Squidoo about art.  That was very satisfying. 

I didn't get a painting of the week again this week (once again wondering about the hairdryer) but I did finish five scrabble tile pendants that I listed in my ArtFire Studio.

Uh-Oh my boss is wondering when I'm gonna wrap this up and get back to work... better get going!