Sketches II

I had an art night with my friend Bethany on Friday and made some solid progress of the text component of one potential graphic story. I might have only produced fifteen lines of poetry during our lengthy creative session (far less creative output that Bethany's fabulous bead work!), but I'm really happy with what I've got so far. Plus, I got a few more sketches done.


I'm so glad for the art night because lately it seems that the universe has been telling me not to create. No drawing. No painting. No writing. No blogging. Big or small. Messy or perfect. I've been hitting roadblocks. And be it time or energy or whatever, it's been a little frustrating and more than a little unproductive. I won't give up on my list though, even if it means that, come December 31st, I'll be simultaneously folding origami swans, stuffing ravioli, watching Breakfast at Tiffany's, and sketching at the zoo.

One thing I shouldn't be doing on December 31st is finishing my second of twelve novels-to-read. This time, I opted for something a little closer to home - a novel set in Toronto called Girls Fall Down by Maggie Helwig. I didn't know much about the book before I picked it up other than it's partly about hysteria and it comes from the ever fabulous and bizarre Coach House Books.


I'm thinking I might skip the gym tomorrow to give myself a little more creative time in the evening, so hopefully this little artistic (and blogging) dry spell will come to an end. Hopefully.

Sketches

I started some preliminary sketches on the weekend for what might eventually become a graphic novel (or, more accurately, graphic story). I've never been particularly strong at cartooning, so my idea of a graphic text is a little less Superman and a little more traditional pen and ink... with some text thrown in for good measure.

I have a few pieces of writing sitting around in draft form and ideally I would like to use one of these as the text inspiration for the images. I'm also brainstorming a second graphic project that would work in the opposite way - drawings first, then text - which would be based on some of my New York photos, but I haven't thought that one out enough yet.


These sketches are based on a poem I've been working on called 'fame lit me up'. I intended the poem to be snappy and humourous, but it has taken a slightly darker turn. Here are the opening lines:

I was born with a thirst for humiliation

I pinned my headshot like a missing dog poster to every post in town.

When it rained, I shivered with self-loathing. In the sunshine, I was exposed as a lonely amateur.

My other weekend creation (with some serious grilling support from T): Chicken Satays with homemade peanut sauce:


It looked so pretty I just had to take a picture.

Back on Track

Wow. I didn’t expect there to be such a long break between my previous post and now.

I’m not really sure why my desire to write suddenly wandered off. It might have had something to do with the summer-weather-in-March miracle we've been enjoying in Toronto. There are other things too – maid of honour activities, long weekends out of the city, newborn babies (Anna!) – Lots of lovely moments to pull me way from my projects. I hope you didn’t mind the absence. I’ll try my best not to be so delinquent again.

A big part of getting back on track has been surveying my list and figuring out what items I’m going to tackle next. We’re a quarter of the way in to the year and I should have 25 items accomplished, but as of today I only have ten. TEN! So it’s time to prioritize and start working.

Up next:

16. Re-read 'Meanwhile'
17. Learn to draw a new font
19. Complete an acrylic painting
21. Brainstorm ideas for a graphic novel
31. Update mailing and contact lists
40. Write 'constellations' poem
43. Begin an ideas journal
46. Enter a poetry competition
52. Start a new literary journal subscription
54. Brainstorm etching ideas
62. Enlarge and frame a group of photos
72. Research the history of the motion picture
76. Watch an Audrey Hepburn movie
83. Buy a blues album
84. Learn the lyrics to the hymn from 'Junebug'
…although not necessarily in this order…

I did manage to make some forward progress on a few of my projects. I finally finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (yes, that would be January’s fiction book for those of you keeping track). I also tracked down a copy of The Emergence of Cinema to satisfy Number 72.


Just flipping through and looking at the old drawings and photos is inspiring!
More updates to come!

NYC

I'm sorry for my tardiness in posting. T and I have just come back from a mini vacation in New York and the lead up to the trip kept me away from my projects. Now I'm back, refreshed, inspired, and ready to make some serious progress on my list.

The latest to be crossed off... 39. Spend a day taking photos around the city. Thankfully, I didn't specify the city for this entry, because I've opted to use NYC, not Toronto. I'm sure Carrie Bradshaw would approve.

Here are some of the highlights. I'm thinking that at least one of these is going to show up again for Number 62.

Special Requests

One of the fun things about having this blog and letting people know what kinds of artsy things I'm up to is that I get some really interesting requests for handmade things. I've been working on just such a special request this morning. (A new entry for Number 75)

My friend Helen will be getting married this summer and she wanted a little stamp to decorate wedding-related paper goods. She sent me a specific celtic-style font to use for their initials and I found a matching celtic knot image to incorporate into the design.



The stamp was surprisingly easy to carve, even with all of the extra care I took to make sure the letters didn't get nicked at all. It was so nice to be able to draw, carve, and test a print in only a few hours.

I made a couple of test cards to showcase the print. I can't wait to see how she incorporates the image into her wedding!

Number 45... Done!

Technically Number 45 requires that I submit a short story to a 'contest', but when I wrote the entry I actually had a very specific literary journal in mind. Not a contest exactly, but certainly a good test of my literary merits.

Submitting a story that's already written might not seem to be a big task, but I've actually spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks editing, soliciting feedback from trusted friends (thanks guys!), and fussing over the title. I don't know why it's so hard sometimes to simply print out a piece of writing, put it into an envelop, and slip it in a mail box, but I always seem to procrastinate when I get to this point. Well, no more.

Here's just a little section of the story. It may remain an unpublished labour of love, but at least it's been sent out into the world in some form.

Grief (excerpt)

The woman jumped at her sister’s touch, turning abruptly to face her before looking back at me with deeper confusion. Jeff was now beside me and, although he didn’t say anything, his presence silently confirmed that she had been mistaken, that I was not Karen.

At this moment, a loss – tragic and sudden – repeated itself in a split-second between us. The subsequent grief, the knowledge that Karen, whoever she had been, was gone, still gone, welled up in her eyes.

“I... I’m so sorry... I thought... I though... you were someone else”

Highs, Lows, Hockey

I had a pretty bizarre weekend with some incredible highs and lows.

As some of you know, my apartment was broken into on Friday while T and I were at work. Coming home to find the contents of every drawer in our house scattered on the floor and our most personal things rooted through, taken, or destroyed, was pretty much one of worst feelings I’ve ever experienced. Most of what I lost was valuable not only in a material sense but also in a deeply personal way. I can deal with the clean up, but losing the family jewelery I received from T’s family for our wedding, the watch I gave him when he became a resident of Canada, and the inexpensive rings I bought while backpacking through Europe – that definitely hurts.

At the end of the day, it’s much more important to be able to say that T and I are okay and can move on with our life without too much trouble, but I still feel this incredible sense of violation. It’s made us both think carefully about how we protect ourselves and the things important to us and, sadly, has even made me think carefully about what I write on this blog. I feel like I’ve taken care to post enough information to connect with readers, even those who don’t know me, without giving away too many personal details, but now I feel a little warier of my online presence. It’s a bad feeling.

Thankfully, the things that are most important to keep in mind in situations like this – family, friends, beautiful artwork, Olympic gold medals in hockey – were all in abundance this weekend and turned what was an awful Friday night into a wonderful Saturday and Sunday.

Some highlights:

Letterpress - In a miraculous act of kindness and good timing, Tanya of snap & tumble sent me a stunning collection of letterpress cards, including a sample from her new custom stationary line. What made her gift even more surprising was that our intruder actually opened the package(!) and scattered its contents in with our other papers. Imagine my surprise as I started cleaning up and discovered letterpress cards everywhere. It wasn’t until I found the opened envelope that I actually realized where it had all come from!


Family - My parents visited this weekend and were a great comfort after all of the chaos. We tore up the town on Saturday, somehow cramming in the King Tut exhibit at the AGO, drinks at a pub, a walk along Queen Street West (including some serious time in the ‘junk shops’), a walk through Kensington market(cheese shops!), dinner at Rancho Relaxo, and then a very funny evening at Second City.

Babies - My close friends visited for brunch on Sunday morning and brought their two-and-a-half week old son. He was so beautiful! Peaceful too. The little guy slept like an angel as we took turns holding him. Add great conversation, buttermilk pancakes, and mimosas and we had a perfect morning.

Hockey - You couldn’t ask for a better close to the Olympics than that nail-biter of a hockey game. I was, quite literally, on the edge of my seat. In the evening, we went out into the city and I was blown away by how many people were running around in the streets with huge Canadian flags. It was awesome to see so much joy coming from so many complete strangers and a nice reminder that there are many, many good, happy, lovely people in this city.

Now that it's Monday and things have calmed down a bit, I'm hoping to get back to a few of my projects. We have a brand new lock on the door and hopefully our sense of comfort will return after a while. At least, even with the break in, I still managed to scratch Number 10 off my list!