I've been reduced to this? bollocks!

It's strange to think that it's actually been almost a year since I've given this blog any thought. Similarly, New Years came and went without my taking stock of anything that's happened during 2008, leading me to almost believe that I'd done nothing.

This couldn't be any untruer. Most notably and perhaps most quietly... I found my artistic voice again. I recognized it as the secret joy of feeling the creaminess of graphite scribble as I worked feverishly into wee hours of the night... it would have been since grade 9 that I'd felt so in love with just drawing for it's own sake. The rekindling of this was due to meeting a remarkable person who has since moved on and through my life to her own adventure, and while this person will probably forever BE 2008 to me, I move on to the other small areas of note.

I finished the 10-day Master Cleanse in the spring, and thus quit smoking. Okay, that one IS pretty big.

I published a few zines, including the relatively successful Underwater Cigarettes #3 that got reviewed in Broken Pencil. This led to a busy mail life that involved some packages and mail art and old school enveloped fun. I might dive back into it sometime, when the mood strikes.

I started an Etsy shop, which I had been thinking about for a while and made a little over 100$ out of stuff that was laying around in my drawers. Not bad!

I decided to minor in Religion, and join the ranks of all those with useless degrees and too much propensity to think about things that probably function better when they're not under scrutiny.

I became ridiculously skilled in the kitchen. woohoo!

Um... what did I not do? Talk to people. Take some risks. Say yes to things. Be open? And this is what the new year is about now. This is travel year, in whatever form that comes in. I haven't decided where or how (exchange through uni or WWOOFing), but I'm taking whatever skanky boring job I can get with the express purpose of saving up a plane ticket. Some places are really cheap! Ecuador, Japan, wish I could go to New Zealand... anyway. That is this year.

Not to mention drawing my wee heart out, as if I could ever put that pencil down.

Other things 2009 will bring:
* at least one date
* a table at Expozine
* a plane ride
* breakdancing
* a performance art class!
* participaction in an art show (crossed fingers for Art Matters)
* doing one thing that scares me every day. Today I called someone. :)

I'm back!

Hmmm... the layout needs work. Stay tuned...

Day 3 & 4

All the sketches are actually from today, I was bad and went to see the Cuba exhibit at the Musee des Beaux Arts yesterday instead of drawing. I found an Ideology Detector, though (*snicker*)

People smelled really wonderful there, like bubblegum and sunscreen. I almost didn't mind how ridiculously overcrowded it was. ALMOST didn't mind, I admit I skimmed over some stuff due to claustrophobia, but that's what a free day at a museum will get you, I guess. It was a good day to be outside and wandering in breezy downtown sun, at any rate.

["Ideology Detector" Lázaro Saavedra, 1989]

Day 2

This has nothing to do with anything, but I ADORE Jeffrey Lewis, is all. I'm listening him sing through the History of Punk on the Lower East Side right now, and he even threw the Silver Apples in there, and it's comprehensive and fun and full of his scratchy boyish monotone. Wee!

I had a day full of disappointments but none of them were that disappointing -- gross energy bar, gross diet blackcurrant soda, gross um... seitan dinner. Okay, it was all food disappointments. And I did find this awesome bracelet for a dollar.

My life IS the embodiment of excitation.

Day 1

All right. I cook too much and I don't draw enough... and it's time to switch the balance. For some reason I'm even getting sick of imagining kumquat cupcakes and goji toast all the time... so I'm hereby promising myself and the world one (1, uno, une, a) drawing per day. At the very least. I just need to get back into the habit of using my pencils as therapy, release, entertainment, and stress-free noodling. Like a kid in a sandbox.

Anyway, she's called leafbutt candlehead ---

Expect more tomorrow!

gah, no ideas, I cut and paste instead...

"the fruit is health and life"

"...one in a million"

Okay, I'm a lazy dreamer and completely without focus right now. Other people have no idea what they're doing, right? Should I run away to Malaysia? Send away for an apron and my choice of acceptable addictions? Continue on living... slightly mechanically? DROWN IN DIET CRANBERRY SODA??? This is only because I don't have an idea for my summer drawing project yet... I'm so predictable. *eyeroll*

And indulgent. :D

a spoonful of sugar...

We had to make trinkets for our last day of drawing class - a "useless accessory" to trade, while we drank from jugs of wine and basically reveled in the least drawing-y assignment ever assigned. I got my days mixed up and only just finished mine this afternoon, but they will get handed out later, during one-on-one evaluations. Aaaaanyway.... they're spoons. Printed with sobering thoughts, dipped in candy apple sugar coating and only slightly burnt. Medicine for the soul! Chicken soup need not apply. Did you know that plastic melts like a mofo if you're not careful about dipping it into boiling pots of sugar?

Sweeeeet.