New Englanders are fortunate that we have a lot of lakes, and I am lucky that I got to spend some time at one for the Fourth of July. I think I will be finding excuses to be there often.
We built a fire right next to the water and watched people shooting off illegal fireworks from their docks and boats. We hollered and cheered them on. We planned how we are going to outdo them next year. We had our first gin and tonics of the summer. I fell asleep smelling like campfire smoke.
This was, by far, the best Fourth of July that I can remember. I have never had a combination of spending time with the best people at the perfect place, all the while being emancipated from mental slavery of one sort or another. It was a true blessing.
I was recently reading this article which discusses two types of creative individuals. There are the “Conceptualists,” or artists who create their best and most innovative work early on in their careers. Afterwards, they often seem to burn out and fizzle, never matching their early success. The other group is made up of “Experimentalists.” These people tend to make lower quality work in the beginning of their careers but improve over time, creating their best work at the end of their lives, often right before they die. They often tinker and experiment, learning as they go along.
When thinking about myself, it’s clear to me that I’m an Experimentalist, as I tend to be a late bloomer in general. I am also getting much more confident as I keep working, so I think that my art will only improve over time. At least I hope, because otherwise, what would I have to look forward to?
Also, if you’re American, please have a happy Independence Day. This year especially, I have been thinking a lot about my independence and it is definitely something to be thankful for!
Having just finished my mid year review for my regular job, I knew it was time to write my art mid year review as well. So far this year has been one of my best ever, and I am very excited about the rest of it. For the first time in my life, I feel like I am truly in control of my destiny, and I like being a free agent! I started the year off with a long list of goals and a lot of pressure, which you can read here. Since then, I have decided to make a dramatic shift. I stopped caring about the goals I originally set and started thinking about a new set of priorities. The two original goals that I ended up doing very well were finishing the sketchbooks and practicing daily sketching. I finished four sketchbooks so far and will finish my fifth this evening. As for daily sketching, there were a number of months I took over five days off, but it was because some (much needed) social things came up. I don’t consider that a failure at all. I did work in a series as well in my Series of Men. I am actually considering starting this back up because I got a few more ideas since then and I got a lot of good feedback.
I think my shift in attitude started when I spent that week at Snow Farm at the end of April. Spending hours upon hours working on my artwork every single day made me realize that I can hack it better than I thought I could. This year I started blogging at Cathy Johnson’s new blog Sketching in Nature, which was a real honor for me. Recently, I have also started work on the Moly_x_Portrait6 moleskine exchange. You can see my first entry here.
Even though I revised my goals, I am not going to discuss them quite yet. Epictetus sums up the reason perfectly:
Most people only know how to respond to an idea by pouncing on its shortfalls rather than identifying its potential merits. Practice self-containment so that your enthusiasm won’t be frittered away. -Epictetus
I’m in the process of going through my possessions, deciding what to keep and what to purge. I made this sketch showing some books I’ll be holding on to and some that I’ll be forgetting about. Books are special objects to me and I often connect their ownership to certain people and circumstances.
It was difficult to scan because it took up the whole 9 x 12 page. You can click on it to enlarge.
I’ve had a lot on my mind lately and haven’t felt very coherent. I made this sketch of an old woman deep in thought while deep in thought myself.
Here are some odd tidbits that I’ve been thinking about:
My friend Kimberly Shaw of Kimberly Shaw Graphics had her lovely teacup designs ripped off by Fabri-Quilt, a company who makes printed fabrics for quilters. I think it’s appalling that this company stole her copyrighted designs without any remuneration. Now their lawyer is claiming that there are no similarities between her work and their fabric. Take a look at her blog post and judge for yourself! I’m personally not into quilting, but if there are any quilters out there reading this, keep this in mind when shopping for fabrics.
Yesterday I said goodbye to the house where I’ve spent most of my growing up years. It was bittersweet because my parents are off to something better, but sad because I will always feel like a guest when I go to visit them. I took the last of my stuff out and now I have a massive sorting, organizing and donating job to do.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the chaos currently ensuing in Iran. Besides the violence and the oppressive government, I’ve had an incredible desire to pray for the Christians in that country. You won’t hear about it on the mainstream news, but the underground house churches are growing thanks to many passionate young Iranians spreading the Gospel. I’m praying that this will be an opportunity for an even greater revival there.
Blind Contour David. Ballpoint. 2005.
It’s not normal that I post a book review here, especially a non art related book. I recently finished reading The Power of Less by Leo Babauta (author of the famous Zen Habits blog) and I found it so helpful that I thought someone else out there might appreciate it as well. It focuses on how to achieve your goals in life and improve your effectiveness (not the same as efficiency) by single tasking and eliminating the unnecessary. I’ve read a few time management books before, but always walked away from them feeling inadequate and knowing that I’d never be able to achieve what they promised. What I loved the most about this book was that it was incredibly encouraging. His writing style also exemplifies what he’s talking about. The book is short and sweet. His writing is concise and he doesn’t waste time with many examples and entertaining intros.
These are the most helpful nuggets that I got:
Single Task. If you focus on one thing until it is finished, your work will be better quality because you’ll be paying attention to what you’re doing. You’ll also be doing things without constantly jumping to other tasks, so you will get things done faster too.
Focus on one goal at a time. I tend to become very energetic when first beginning a new endeavor and then quickly burn out and feel bad about myself when I fail. By only doing one thing at a time, it becomes easier to actually do it and make it a true and lasting habit. Going along with this idea, he suggests making daily goals very easy – too easy – in the beginning so that it keeps you motivated.
He gives a lot of helpful tips for how to come up with a system for dealing with common issues, like email and Internet addiction. His chapter “Simple Internet†really made me realize how addicted I am to the Internet and how much time I waste on it. I have already started to spend less time online, and have become more aware of my habits when I do. Since reading his book I have been able to keep my email inbox at work empty, which is pretty dramatic. At home I am working on keeping my bedroom clean. It is something I have been struggling with for years so I will be sure to report back on how this is going for me.
Recently, I’ve been sorting through some possessions that I’ve had stored at my parent’s house. I found a treasure trove of finished sketchbooks and also many loose drawings that I did years ago. I found this drawing that I drew from a photo in a magazine in 1999 when I was sixteen years old. I remember being very proud of myself at the time. This was my first portrait that I made that I wanted to show other people.
Unfortunately, most of my early portrait drawings have been destroyed (by me) when I was seventeen or eighteen. I regret that, but I’m glad that this one survived.
She is Real, as in not some Bollywood actress. I was unhappy with my first attempt and I tried it again here. I’m still unhappy, but am sick of it and will now move onto something else.
My drawings are feeling too fussy to me. Recently I found myself looking through some very old work and I’ve realized that I’ve only gotten more fussy over the years. Also, a variety of (mental) distractions have been keeping me from my art, only making it worse.
To add to the distractions and time wasting activities, I have begun to spend time on twitter. It is a good place to find nice links, if nothing else. I am here, if you’d like to follow me.
All of these glasses belong to the same person, not me. They are of all different prescriptions, and most of them aren’t even used anymore. I wandered around the house collecting these and there were more than could fit on one page.
Confound the nose, there’s no end to it! (Thomas Gainsborough)
-aged 13, at the Vatican Museum…
There must be a cave somewhere with all of the noses. (Nicholas Brown)
You can find a massive collection of art quotes on Robert Genn’s Resource of Art Quotations.
I’ve been thinking of starting to make some portraits again, and these were some practice drawings I’ve made recently. Noses seem to be the hardest thing for me.
