at the last minute

the optimisim is definately gone. now I simply ask, "why do I bother?"

drop of optimism

Never think of myself as being overly optimistic, but today I seem to have a drop of positive energy I'd like to add to the glass.

"Mad as we are, cannot fail"

That pretty much sums up my current feelings. My friends and I are crazy enough that there doesn't seem to be room for failure. How could there be? Know you guys are going through rough crap lately, but honestly, we're each nuts enough to pull off our dreams. That feels impossible most days, but when I think about what we each bring to the world... I mean, wow. We could do anything. So there world. Take that. And watch out, 'cause our minds are 'bout to birth some wicked creativity and inflict a few changes.

"Hope flickering, like moths in the night"

-today's blog was brought to you by the letter "O" and the stylings of "Erasure"

Hot and bothered...

but not like you think. It's hot. Hot. Hot. Hot here today. The high of 34 degrees isn't bad if all you have to do is sun tan or drink beer on a patio, but forget trying to actually accomplish work. So here I sit in out little apartment sans air conditioner surronded by big windows with the sun beating in. Even with our fan on high and not really moving, just typing, sweat is dripping down my legs. Yep. Seriously. But on the plus side, I down loaded that super catchy techno song from that Jimmy Fallon/ Park Posey Pepsi commercial. So good. Makes me want to run the streets naked in this heat. But don't worry. I still have my sanity and self-consciousness, so no real danger there. Now it's finally off to pick up Marcus and find an air conditioned restaurant for dinner. Thinking the White Spot. Then there's the possibility of eating a mountain of mini cream puffs for dessert. Seriously.

the sweetest little fella

Okay, So I'm sure your familiar with the movie Ginger Snaps. Well, we have this little convenience store at the end of our block and the nice little ol' asian man who runs the place looks exactly like the nice little ol' janitor who helps out Brigitte in Ginger Snaps. I know I'm a movie freak, but Marcus said the same thing. I was kind of creeped out at first, but the little ol' asian man is really sweet. I went into the store yesterday to buy some flowers for Marcus, but all he had ready were potted plants. Ginger Snaps Janitor asked if I could wait ten minutes and asked what price range I was looking for. I said $10 and looked at magazines for a few minutes. And sure enough Ginger Snaps Janitor was behind the counter making up a bouquet. Now you got to picture the place, it's your basic local skeezy convenience store, but from behind the counter he creates a beautiful BIG bouquet, and wraps it all nice and charges me $10. It made my day. I hope it brightened Marcus'. Thanks Ginger Snaps Janitor!

15 pieces of flare

Yep, watched Office Space Sunday with the Frenchs. Although Milton and Samir are my fav characters, I do love the whole bit about "flare".

"If you want me to wear 37 pieces of flare than why not make the minimum 37 pieces of flare!?!"

So good. My flare these days is when I choose not to wear pajamas for the whole day while sitting at the computer working. In fact, I haven't worn pjs all day for a while. I'll get right on that. And while I'm at it, I'll make sure to file that TPS report accordingly. How many people do you think quit their office job after seeing that movie? I just don't think I could do it, work in an office environment day in and day out for years. But that leaves me with the ever-lasting-gob-stopper of questions, "What the hell should I do as a career?"

Actually, the funniest part (or maybe the saddest) is that most of the photos I keyword are office photos. "Businesspeople" wearing their "suits" and "pantsuits" "talking" on "cell phones", "working", "typing", taking a "coffee break", and always looking "determined", "satisfied", "confident", or have "ambition" and the "corporate ladder" on their minds. A good week is when I find myself keywording photos of people on the beach, families at home, or simplistic still lifes. The most fun keywording... kid's birthday parties. Yep. Their uplifting and there's always good cakes and treats to look at, too. That's my little world.

one down, three million to go

Okay, I'm proud. I'm beaming even, accept for the bags under my eyes from lack of sleep. I drew last night for almost an hour. Yep. Not long in the scheme of things I suppose, but long enough to get the wheels going in my art brain. Came up with an idea for the at-arts show (and it doesn't really require paper). Also managed to draw one horrible self-portrait. Man it's hard to get back into traditional figure drawing. But reverted and decided to do some blind contours.

Suggestions for those trying to get back into the art stuff: start small. do warm-up exercises that we thought were lame in art school. do not get frustrated. do not use black conte while working in a room with white to cream carpet. do not flip through old sketchbooks and expect to draw like that right away again. stay loose. yep, loose. do open your old printmaking tool box and inhale the fumes. do attempt to remember all those things that helpful profs once said. nothing is coming to mind at the moment (probably need more coffee).

Good luck! (look ma, I used a font colour)

what kind of artist...

What kind of artist moves to a new province and leaves all their drawing paper, newsprint, and drawing board at their old house in Calgary?! Well, that would be me. Even the DaRaddishman left his mound of paper behind. I distinctly remember him asking to store it at my bro's house. I don't know what we were thinking, especially since we'll be here now for sometime. I had such an urge to draw yesterday. I searched all the portfolios we moved, but none contained usuable paper. Guess we're off on another adventure. A quest for a good art supply store and good drawing paper. I'm gonna try my best at doing a self-portrait for the upcoming show, if I can get paper soon, and warm back up to drawing. I actually find the quest to find paper more daunting than trying to re-teach myself figure drawing.

oops, now my brain is busy, busy, busy thinking about all the art related work I need to do before Septempber. It seems to come in waves. All the deadlines and projects. With generally two weeks in between where I just block it all out.

for now it's on to work that I actually get paid for.