The week has been kind of weird. What I thought was a cold turned out to be some kind of sinus problem, which at least has a lower recovery time than a full-blown cold. I usually read on my trolley commute to work, but this week I did a daily comic instead. There appears to be a correlation to the amount of makeup I put on and my mood for the day. Friday was a pretty good day. There were a few minor bumps, but I came home and had that aforementioned can of Pinot Grigio and did a "drawing": It was a little difficult to wind down. I had a hard time falling asleep. I woke up around 7 am with that feeling that I hadn't slept at all, like I had just laid there and blinked and suddenly sunlight was there to interrupt me. (I also forgot to mention that before I made this "drawing", I pretty much cleaned the entire house.) My only appointment of the day was a phone call with Dr. Cath, my advisor from undergrad. I told her that I was okay and she said that I was unconvincing. I think that "okay" is, however, a pretty decent estimation of how I'm doing at the moment. Not great, not terrible, just okay. Writing "I hope your kid spits gum in your hair" inspired another composition in the yellow legal pad: I think I might do a shortened version for the zine. With bigger, blacker thorns. Hexes are a good time. Your brain can always come up with a really good way to curse someone. I think one time I wished for someone's baby to wake them up every night for a year so they'd never get a full night's sleep. I hope it happens to them, too. They deserve it. Funny skeletons courtesy of Ed Emberley's Big Orange Drawing Book: I can't wait to draw a massive haunted house. Also, how genius is the witch driving a ROCKET?
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I had set for myself a pretty ambitious{ambitious for me, probably extremely easy for Normal People} to-do list today, only to wake up and think, "Royal, I don't want to go to the laundromat today," so I rescheduled everything for Friday. Instead, I spent my time before work straightening things up around the house - I swept and mopped the dining room, cleared off most of my desk, made my bed, straightened my room. I put rice in the rice cooker - this list has been really helpful for me, because I've noticed that I've lost a lot of interest in cooking and eating lately. What that usually translates into is not eating because I don't feel like doing anything other than unwrapping something and shoving it into my face, and then once I realize that I have to eat or I will start feeling Even Worse, I'll just buy something at Rite Aid, which defeats the whole grocery shopping thing. Washing rice isn't too bad, but yesterday I couldn't even do that. Luckily for me, the little voice inside me that tells me to get it together said, "Why don't you put rice in the rice cooker and shut the fuck up." All that I look forward to every day is coming home from work and putting on my Pigs Are Haram! t-shirt: It's so comfortable. Only 9 left!
On Saturday, I went to the Westmoreland County Fair with my friends. By the time we got home, I knew I was going to wake up sick on Sunday. Generally, when I'm about to catch a cold, I get this slight sore throat first, which then leans into the full-blown cold. This time, I only have the slight sore throat thing in addition to getting tired VERY easily. On the plus side, I had two nights of 10+ hours of sleep. I wasn't sure how sick I'd feel today, so I went ahead and dropped my Monday shift - thankfully, someone picked it up. It absolutely wiped me out just walking to the store for a few things today - I can't imagine standing up for six hours right now. Last night I watched some favorite episodes of The X-Files(it's on Amazon Prime!) and cracked open Ed Emberley's Big Purple Drawing Book. I haven't looked at this book since I was in grade school. I remember sitting in Mrs. Bailey's fourth-grade class and deciding to draw the "Sea Hawk", the big ship in the middle of the book. It was definitely time-intensive. I think that these drawings lend themselves so well to Posca markers, which is what I used for all these drawings. I really love the Swamp Creature. He's my favorite. Every now and then, I think of something from my childhood that was so instrumental in things I do as an adult; for example, Harriet the Spy was one of my favorite books, and to this day I try to write everything down and keep a notebook. I did a lot of drawings from these Ed Emberley books when I was a kid, and nowadays when people tell me they can't draw, I tend to shrug and say, "It's just shapes." Ed Emberley has completely proved that drawing is just shapes. It's kind of amazing how you can draw these cool things with the simple shape "alphabet" he provides in the introduction of his books. Also, I know I'm sick because I bought movies today: I haven't seen The Craft since I was a teenager. I'm kind of nervous to watch it again. I have fond memories of seeing Jennifer's Body alone in a movie theatre - I started laughing when she started puking up black stuff, and I didn't stop laughing until the end. In spite of finding these two gems on my trip to the store today, I might not watch either of them. I might just watch The X-Files instead. There will be other sick days, I'm sure.
We had a really fantastic thunderstorm before I left for work today. There's nothing like a thunderstorm. Unfortunately, they always end by the time I get to work.
I'm a native of Florida, so what I really miss is hurricane season. A thunderstorm is wonderful, but the air changes in a way I can't describe when going through a hurricane or a tropical storm. This can of rosé is ALLEGEDLY the equivalent of 2.5 glasses of wine. I'll be the judge of that. Aside from the thunderstorm, the most wonderful part of the day is that I have a new cousin! My cousin, Nicole, had her son today. My mother texted me some photos. My favorite part of these photos is that Cousin Nicole has a fresh manicure. That's how I know we're related. Today was otherwise a bit frustrating. However, I may be called upon to ride for a classmate. I await my further instructions in this regard. I have called upon friends in the past to ride for me, specifically for my sister, so I am ready, willing, and able to ride, as friends have done for me. ("Friends" in that last sentence almost turned into the typo "fiends", which I also support.) Regardless of whether I have to ride tomorrow, I have many errands to do, so that's all for today. I haven't had anything to really write about since I made this lil' blog, but lately I've been reading some really good books, so I thought I'd share them here. The library has been indispensable for this - I don't know how I could manage without a library card. I waited for a little while so I could read Heather B. Armstrong's The Valedictorian of Being Dead. I saw it in Target, wrote the title down, and waited for it to show up after I requested it - the waitlist was longer than it was for City of Girls! I can't stop talking about this book. I often have to ask my friends if I have already told them about it, because I just loved it. This is the true story of Heather undergoing an experimental procedure for her treatment-resistant depression. It's funny and sad and I've already bought a copy to share with a friend.
I had only read Elizabeth Gilbert's nonfiction - Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic - but I did request City of Girls as soon as it came out. I wound up reading it on the Megabus on my way home from vacation. It is such a fun book that I was nervous about approaching the conflict in the story - I knew that soon the fun would take a dive and I was afraid of it. The conflict, however, was so unexpected for me that it also was just a grand good time in the scheme of things. I don't think that I was anticipating anything in this novel. It's a very quick read - I had to pass the time elsewhere on the rest of that bus trip! - but it's many things that I want in a novel: glitz, glamour, showgirls, sex, and wit. I think I went directly from this back into Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I don't care much to watch movies, but this would be a great movie just for the spectacle alone. If I hate movies, why read a book by a filmmaker? Because John Waters is a national treasure. I think I'm halfway through his latest, Mr. Know-It-All. It's so funny and just full of the most amazing and hilarious stories of test audiences, pitching to Hollywood executives, and the fine arts world. Every page is just an absolute joy, even if, like me, you would rather do anything else other than watch a movie. These last three are some books that I just picked up yesterday. I just recently read What It Is by Lynda Barry, which had some really lovely collage work, and then the library had Picture This, so I grabbed that up. I haven't finished this one yet. I really enjoy how similar these books are to one another - Lynda Barry has so many good pointers on how to keep going when you get stuck on the page, and drawing the alphabet is one, so there will be tiny alphabets throughout both What It Is and Picture This. (I keep trying to adopt this in my own sketchbook, where I'm also often stuck, and alphabets are so fun. You can make so many kinds of alphabets, or make yourself a little Ouija board in your sketchbook.) I love looking at Lynda's brush lettering, also. It's just gorgeous. Many of her books have some element of the yellow legal pad in them, and I remember doing a lot of comics on yellow legal pads when I was in my early 20's, so I went out and bought some legal pads last night. Sometimes you just need a little change in medium to break through artist's block - that's what I'm hoping for, at least. I love all of her little creatures and characters and her very astute observations on drawing - for example, that we all draw, but at some point we become afraid of it and stop. I picked up Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia on a whim. I think I saw the font on the spine and just took it back to my library carrel and I am so glad that I did. The cartooning is just stunning: very clean lines, great use of negative space/black and white. Even though the style is different, it reminded me of Jaime Hernandez's Love and Rockets. It's very slice of life - there are larger things happening in the world Liz Suburbia builds, but you're just kind of figuring things out along with Ben and her best friend, Otto, as they go through life in their strange town that is absent of parents. The ending gave me chills. Jillian Tamaki's Supermutant Magic Academy is just a total joy. I had a comic book of it from a Free Comic Book Day years ago, but it's better to just read the strips all at once. They are SO fucking funny that I was envious. I was taking pictures of pages and sending them to my friends and trying not to laugh too loud in the middle of the library. Well, that's about it for me. I've got to go get ready for work, but I'm glad I took yesterday off so I could go to the library and look at comics. |
AuthorArtist, essayist, divinity school dropout. Here for a good time, not for a long time. Archives
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