“Now, son of man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it.
-Ezekiel 4:1-3
Sometimes Bible verses taken out of context seem to apply to me quite a bit. I have decided to keep working. I didn’t lose my hands for a whole year to not use them once I am pain free. When I think about how I felt back then, I was in a state of utter desperation. One of the biggest reasons why I was healed was because I started to shift my thoughts toward what I wanted in life again – making art being one of my biggest goals. I have a lot to be thankful about because for a long time I did not think that I would ever get my hands back again. Even though my life is far from perfect, having working and pain free thumbs, elbows and wrists is really amazing.
I’ve got some new things coming up to be excited about too. April 11th is the SketchCrawl and I’m going somewhere pretty awesome this time. My class at Snow Farm is at the end of April and I just got the itinerary and materials list. It is going to be a lot of hard work, but I know it will be a blast, and I know I am going to meet some amazing people there. Roz announced that April is International Fake Journal Month and I am thinking of keeping my own fake journal. Also, I have decided to work on a project that has been at the back of my mind for the past five years at least. This involves quite a bit of inking, double sided photocopies and a long neck stapler (which I already own for this purpose). It is quite an ambitious undertaking, but I think it will be worth it. In May I am going to start on a new series which will be made outdoors. If it goes as planned, it will take me until the fall to finish, but definitely worth it. I have too much to lose to give it all up now just because of my own frustrations and someone else’s insults or oversights – so I am persevering, and will try to have fun while doing so.
And because I don’t like to post without putting a picture up, I will show you what I did last night. Self portraits are the best subject when feeling introspective, and I don’t really feel that a sketchbook has been made mine until I make a self portrait in it. Now my moleskine is one of my sketchbooks! I was not upset when doing this, even though I might look like it. I was very tired, hence the blank stare and the watering eyes. I made it while sitting on my floor with a mirror on my knees – a very awkward position (notice the wonky proportions).
3 Comments