Make a night of it.

My wicked awesome next door neighbour and I were hanging out the other day in her driveway with our babies.  It was a hot sunny day, unusually so for late September.  The visit was short, only about half an hour or so, but it was SO MUCH FUN.  Not kidding you, it was the highlight of my day.  Last night we were hanging out again, contemplating how something so mundane could be so much fun.  She noted that when we were kids, fun was measured by how long something lasted, how much action there was, whether or not you were up past 2 a.m.  She thought it was funny that now, a quiet evening at home with her family or a 30 minute chat on an otherwise busy day could bring the same amount of enjoyment as an all night house party, or a long night of dancing at some bar downtown.  My spouse thinks that perhaps as you get older, any respite from responsibility feels like so much fun.  Like, wow, I'm not in an office at 9 a.m. trying to teach some old guy how to send an email.  Or, wow, I'm not cooking while doing the dishes while trying to comfort a screaming baby who just.won't.sleep.  Hell yea, sitting on hot asphalt with a great friend sounds a LOT better than that. 

While I love relaxing and getting a bit of down time with friends, sometimes I wish I could be productive at the same time as I'm being social.  Turns out, there's a great way to do that!  Well, depending on what you consider productive.  It won't work if you're a welder, but works great if you're a writer.  I'm talking about a writing jam!  Or a drawing jam, knitting jam, excel spreadsheet jam (if that's what you're into).  I'm so excited I've finally found a friend here who wants to go to a coffee shop and hang out and write.  Not talk, just do some productive work for pleasure.  I used to do this all the time in Newfoundland with my fellow drawers and writers, but since I moved here I haven't really found anyone who enjoys working while hanging out with friends (I know right, wtf? Who doesn't love to work instead of converse?) 

It's not for everybody, that for sure.  There are a lot of people who either need alone time to work, or are just too into chatting to be able to get'er done.  However, when you find someone that it does work with, the results can be fantastic.  Not only are you not being a social reject, isolated and alone with your pathetic ideas, you actually have a second mind to bounce said ideas off of.  I'm never as creative on my own as I am when I'm working along side others.  Eskimark, //d, Jackie, Bekki, Lacey, I'm thinking of yous guys.  The creative energy that develops when two (or more) people are involved is so inspiring, so motivating... I can't wait to be at it again on a regular basis.  It's one of those things that makes me feel like my "old" self (pre-Myriam), and it's also a wonderful way to keep the creativity alive.  Less like a shriveled old raisin in the back of your mind, more like a juicy bunch of grapes, where each grape is a different idea.  Right? Right?  (This is one of those times where I need a second mind to bounce my pathetic ideas and lame jokes off of).  Does anyone else love to do this, or is it just me and my anti-social friends?  Here's an antique photo of me when I was like, 23.  My friend //d took it one night when we were having a design jam.  Thanks D!!!

on creativity

 So, there's this awesome video of Thom Yorke dancing to "Lotus Flower" that came out this week (I think?).  Both myself and Myri really enjoyed watching it the other morning when it popped up a bunch of times on my facebook news feed.  As I was watching it again this morning, it got me wondering about how people get to moving like that, and then how people get to making music like that, or how people get to drawing the way they do.  I asked myself how people get to be creative in general. 

It's a pertinent issue to me, as I myself am pretty creative (and working on being more so), and I want to foster my daughter's creativity as she grows.  It will strike me as odd if she turns out to be a world class Muay Thai fighter, and never touches a Staedtler or a Micron in her life.  Though I'm assuming that her impressive musical and visual arts lineage will impart some type of creativity to her, I also want to know how best to augment whatever it is in her nature to be.

When I think back to my own childhood and what might have made me the way I am (besides my awesome genetics), I recall spending lots of time alone.  That's it.  Except for a few months of gymnastics when I was 6, and piano once a week for a few years, my time was all my own.  I can't imagine a life where every day of the week was a different class, along with homework, studying, and family time.  After all that, when is there time to think and develop one's own ideas?  It takes more than 15 minutes of free time before bed to become a Kahlo, or a Dostoevsky.

Perhaps in the end it's all genetics.  Maybe some kids, when left to their own devices become shiftless hooligans, out dealing crack at all hours of the night.  I won't say I wasn't a shiftless hooligan, it's just that I was up drawing or writing poetry by candle light at all hours of the night (I was such a tortured soul when I was 15) instead of pushing drugs on street corners.

No art classes, no summer camps, no weekend creative writing groups.  Just me and my sketchbook, which never left my side from the age of 13 onward.  I guess what I'm trying to get at is that even the most well intentioned structure can be stifling for creativity, especially when there's a lot of it.  I guess I'll wait and see when it comes to Mimi.  If she wants to take kickboxing after school, I'm not going to stop her.  But I'm certainly not going to force her into classes she doesn't want to take.  I mean, just think of how Thom Yorke would dance if he had been sent to dance classes after school?  Or if he was also in Cadets, Boy Scouts, and the Chess Club? Not like he does in that video, that's for sure.

The long and (very) short of it. And by "it", I mean sleep.

My glass of lemon mineral water I enjoyed by candle light while writing this entry.

It's been my first official week back to work.  All I can say is wow.  I'm tired.  Well, it's not all I can say, otherwise this post would be over now.  I've been up working in the studio and running errands since 7 this morning, and 12 hours later I'm finally sitting down for a rest.  What I want to talk about is reality, or at least MY reality.

I thought that working from home with a baby would be easy-peasy.  I had this vision of myself at my drafting table, baby on my back, working the day away like I used to.  In reality, I can only work for 2 hours or so at a time, because I have to stop to nurse the baby.  And, in reality, I can't seem to get her strapped to my back without her throwing up on my neck.  Twice (something about the bouncing to get her up high enough on my back).  Also, one requires a certain amount of rest in order to function the next day.  As awesome as night feedings are (who doesn't love to snuggle a tiny baby in the dark?) they are depriving me of something integral to my performance:  more than 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  The reality is, I have no idea when I'm going to sleep again, since I have no intention of moving Myriam from my bed any time soon.  I though that my life would continue on just as it was,  more or less, except I'd be carrying a baby.  Not so.

What I'm discovering is that things are different than they were, and they're different from how I thought they would be.  This reality is both new and unexpected.  Toss in a pressing need to work, and each day starts feeling like more of a mess than the last.  It's not the work, or the baby, or the bio hazardous kitchen that throws me off.  It's the things that I'm not doing, like watching a movie from start to finish, doing yoga in the evening, or drawing late at night.  It's the loss of the non-essential activities that I feel so profoundly.

So, here's my secret to dealing with a new reality:  give in and accept it.  Ohhh, you're more tired than you used to be?  Ohhh, you don't have as much time to spend on yourself as you did before?  Too bad.  Life is change.  Time passes, and each moment is different from the next.  I don't mean to settle into a life that's less than what you want and give in to defeat.  I mean in order to move forward in life you first have to accept it the way it is.  Then you can start to prioritise, find out what can't be helped, and learn to work around it to be happy.  I MUST work, so sometimes my house is gonna be a little...filthy in a way that the rats won't even come in.  I MUST take care of my daughter, so my late night drawing is gonna have to wait for a few years.  Instead of clinging to what I used to do, I'm accepting that things are different now and all I just have to do something else.  This evening, my yoga is replaced by cradling a baby and writing this blog entry.  That's a change I'm willing to make.

Don't be so stupid with your time, dummy.

You get used to living your life a certain way, then things change, and you have to find new ways to do things, create new habits, develop new routines, drop all your old ones.  I used to crawl out of bed around 9 or 10, relax around the house for an hour or two, then work as I pleased at intervals of my choosing.  Now I'm up at 7 or 8 in the morning to feed, change, and play with the midget for 2 hours, after which she goes back to sleep.  That's the magic time when most moms eat, bathe, check emails, smoke crack, etc.  That's what I've been doing too, up until now (minus the crack.  I'm a meth girl 'cause I love the way my face looks covered in scabs).

I'm realizing, however, that this new routine is going to have to change if I ever want to get any work done.  I've discovered that those magic hours in the morning when Myriam is sleeping are the hours during which I have the most energy.  By the time my next chunk of "me" time rolls around in the afternoon, I'm ready to crawl under a rock somewhere, never to be seen again.  Like an idiot, that is the time I normally allot for work.  Can you guess what happens?  That's right, NOTHING.  Nothing ever gets done.  Well, an old Will and Grace DVD gets watched, some potato chips get eaten, but that is all. 

So, here's my third tip for solving my time management issue mentioned here.  Don't be an asshole with your time.  Sounds obvious, but it's taken me 28 years to figure it out, even though I'm sure I've been told before.  Decide when your most productive hours during the day are, and reserve that time for working and nothing else.  If your productive hours are on Friday night from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., then you'll have to spare your social life and be a freaky shut in if you ever want to succeed.  Luckily for me, my productive hours occur when the rest of the world is unconscious.  Too bad I'm the one who's unconscious on Friday nights, and I'm the freaky shut in.

Oh well.  I'm sure it wont' be long before my habits change again.  Maybe one day my afternoons won't be filled with Will and Grace, and potato chips, but Flight of the Concords and Cheetos.

I'm your private illustrator, your illustrator for money, I'll do what you want me to do.

One of my favorite people to work with is my cousin Becki.  She's a rad graphic designer, photographer, and screen printer.  The only thing she can't do is draw (her words, not mine!).  Luckily for her, the only thing I can do is draw (that's a lie,  I'm awesome at everything).  Thus, we have formed this great symbiotic relationship where she gets me to do line art for the stuff she can't draw, and I get money and exposure.  Recently, she needed a bunch of people drawn (including herself, she's the one laying down).  Here's what we came up with!

2 People relaxing by a tree.

Becki, looking mega asian.

A dude at a picnic table.

Here's what she did with my drawings:

It's great for her, because she can offer another service to her clients, and it's great for me because I love getting paid to draw!  I also love how little comittment it takes.  It's different than illustrating books, because it doesn't require me to devote 1/4 to 1/3 of a year to one project.  It's finished in a matter of hours or days, which allows me to work on my home business while still illustrating here and there.  So, if any graphic designers out there are looking to engage in some symbiosis, I'm always here!  You can be the shark and I'll be that shitty little fish that eats the crap off your teeth...

My daughter the tsunami.

Anyone that follows this blog is probably aware that I move at a glacial pace (as can be seen by the frequency with which I post on my blog).  Change in my life is usually slow and steady.  Well, this time change has been monumental, flooding into my life and rearranging everything, more like a tsunami than a slow moving glacier.  I'm talking about a 6lb 4oz baby girl named Myriam.

Thanks to my cousin Becki for taking an awesome pic.

Now that 6 weeks have gone by, it's safe to say that I'm eager to begin working again.  Easy to say, tough to do, when an 11lb midget would rather I spend all my waking hours (and sleeping hours) with her.  Seriously, I have to plan my bathroom breaks around when my spouse is home.

My new challenge, which I am keenly interested in overcoming, is learning how to manage my time with a house, a baby, and myself to take care of, as well as a business to grow.  My first tip is this:  Get or make a sling!  Here's a picture of me hand writing the first draft of this blog post with my angel on my chest.  I actually made soup while wearing her in this thing last night.  So convenient.

My second tip is to have a spouse who can take 9 months off work so you can work at home while he cares for the midget. 

All right, reel it in.  Do not make this blog into a mom blog.  I promise I'll still write about business, but you're going to have to put up with the odd "working mom" post.  I will leave you with a couple of pictures of my new studio spaces in the basement of my house.  They're coming along!  The only thing that I desperately want to change is the little blue room.  By all rights, it should be green, no?

My printing area.

The dry studio, for drawing and sewing.

Little blue room.

Have conviction (not a conviction, the character trait)

An important lesson I've learned over the years is that you should choose your challenges wisely.  You aren't going to win every argument you get into, so only get into it when it's something you feel strongly about.  My mother got it right.  She didn't care for the way I dressed as a teenager, but knew it wasn't important so she didn't fight with me about it.  There was, however, one pair of size 36 second hand beige wool old man pants that she hated.  She felt strongly about it, and refused to be seen with me in said pants.  It was important to her, and she stuck to her guns, thus she was never seen with me in public wearing the old man pants (she would use her knee high horse-decorated upholstery riding boots against me, and we would both end up changing outfits as a truce). If she had fought with me over every ugly sweater, or every time I wore hiking boots with a dress, she would have been one tired lady.

The same is true when agreeing to do things for others, whether it's a favor for a friend or a job for a client.  If you say yes to every piddly little thing, you're going to be one tired lady too (or a tired gentleman).  Don't accept any challenges that you don't know for sure that you are able to, or have the desire to see to the end.  To be respected as a professional, it's imperative that you put as much effort into every job you do as you put into fighting for your right to party.  The more half assed jobs you do, the more you look like a crapsack who isn't worth hiring.  Don't take chances pumping out sub-par work, you never know who might see it and how it might affect your reputation!  In my past, whether I was working as a filing monkey (hate) or a screen printer (love) I always put the same amount of effort in: all of it. 

Some important things to consider when deciding on whether or not to say yes to the request are:

• Do you have time for this new project as well as other projects you're already working on?
• Can you finish it by the deadline set?
• Is it worth your time? (i.e. will you be getting paid enough for the time you put in)
• What does your gut tell you?  Do you really want to do it or not?

If the answer to the last consideration is yes, then all the others might not matter much to you.  The final question is usually the most important to me.  We've all thrown common sense out the window at least once to help out a friend, or do something really fun right?  If the answer to ANY of the considerations is "NO", you should seriously think about saying no to the request, or else you better have a really good reason for agreeing to the task.  If you do end up accepting the challenge, then see it to the end!  Just think, if my mother lacked the conviction to continually say "No, Jillian, those pants are ugly and you look like a homeless 68 year old man who crapped his pants" then she would have had to be around a 15 year old girl who looked like a homeless 68 year old man who crapped his pants.  It would have slowly chipped away at her happiness and life force, just like doing a job your heart isn't in chips away at yours.

What I've been up to.

Well, it's been a busy busy winter! There's been lots of creating going on chez moi. I've finally gone ahead and put up an Etsy shop, and I've also been working on ANOTHER book. This one is a kid's coloring book though, so most of the drawings are really simple and don't take more than an hour or two to complete. It's based on Newfoundland, so it makes me really happy to work on! Here's a few images of what I've been up to this past winter!

Working in the studio,



Illustrating in the kitchen,



Making cute headbands, (view them all at http://www.etsy.com/shop/lestudioelephant )



and making a hybrid clone of myself to help me in the studio!

Not everyone needs to know my life story, but I tell them anyways!

Of all the lines I have difficulty drawing, by far the worst is knowing where to draw the line on disclosing personal information to people. You know that person that's always telling you way more than you wanted to know? That's me. My pie hole is constantly flapping. I usually end up sharing far more information with others than I intend to, and frequently leave conversations with people I barley know with my hand firmly slapping my forehead thinking "why did I tell them THAT?!". Sometimes it's irrelevant information, like how no matter what I do I can't seem to enjoy the taste of grapefruit, which is unfortunate because my fruit cup came with 2 pieces in it which ruined the flavour of the whole thing. Other times the information I share is not so irrelevant, like how much money I make illustrating a book. I was taught that it is inappropriate to talk about one's finances, or ask about anyone else's. The ease with which I open up to people about my life leaves me wondering if I'm repeatedly crossing a line that I can't see.

The problem gets even more complicated when you throw more standards into the mix. I have a number of business contacts who I deal with on a regular basis. Not only do I have to try to be appropriate on a personal level, but now I have to learn how to be appropriate on a professional level as well, which is even more formal than personal. Here's where my life turns into a swirling pit of confusion: I have a really friend-like relationship with one of my editors. When I go home to Newfoundland, I visit her on "business" but always stay and talk to her for an hour or two about other things. We shoot the shit. We canoodle. In this circumstance, all my rules are thrown out the window, and my yapping maw runs on its own.

Here's an example of a confusing event. I recently had to ask for time off from one of the series of kids books I illustrate. I need to put more time into my business, I want to develop and produce a line of accessories, and I'm trying to save for a house. What it all comes down to is that I need more time and money, and the books are stripping me of both those things. When I do a book, I basically work for free, living well below the Canadian poverty line for 3 to 5 months, and collect nickles and dimes a year later. I can tell this to my close friends, but it's not cool to whine about money to your professional contacts! But, I did have to give her a reason for needing more time, and that reason is money. It was really difficult trying to find a tactful way to say "I can't work for you because I'm poor".

My favorite book about freelancing, My So-Called Freelance Life, by Michelle Goodman, states that when dealing with a client, one should not divulge the the stupid banalities of one's life. If you need more time, say it, but don't go on and on about how your dog got sick, and you had insomnia for a week, and last night you had a bad dream, and then this morning you had diarrhea so you can't get the work done by Friday, and could you maybe pretty please have a little extension. At the very most, you could say "due to personal circumstances", or "family emergency". Such vagaries convey the sense of urgency, without making you seem like an amateur hack job who sucks at making up excuses and at life as well.

Being perceived as a professional isn't just about how efficiently you perform the task assigned to you, but also on your attitude and the manner in which you present yourself. It is hard to keep all this in mind when you aren't sure whether you're talking to a friend or a business contact, but perhaps it's best to err on the side of caution and talk about your gastric emergencies with your mom instead. As for my dealings with my editors, I'll just try to keep the business emails businessy, and the personal emails...um... less about diarrhea and my taste preferences regarding citrus fruit.

But all my friends are doing it!!

Lately I've been thinking a lot about peer pressure, and the way that other people influence us. It first dawned on me that peer pressure can be really useful when I was in university, when spending time around my awesome friend Lacey turned me into a photo-machine. Lacey and I would do elaborate photo set ups, spend hours in the dark room, and fill our year end portfolio twice over the requirement. This was not my usual way of working, but when I was around Lacey I always pushed myself a little harder (to keep up with her amazing standards, no doubt!)

When I finished art school, everything died down. I relaxed, drew a picture every now and then, but that was it. Then 6 months or so out of art school I started dating a graphic design student named Mark. Over the course of our 8 month stint, we ended up forming a small design group with 2 of our other graphic design friends, put out a run of 8 (or was it 6?) t-shirt designs in collaboration with Living Planet (a screen company in Newfoundland) and were on our way to reaching the stars! (Until the relationship ended, of course). My time spent with Mark opened me up to a whole new part of the art community; graphic design. To this day I still go to Chapters and check out Computer Arts magazine, Juxtapose, Beautiful Decay, and other design mags and think fondly of all our creative times together. And whenever I talk to him online (which is somewhat often) I still feel creative and inspired after our chats.

Then this past Christmas, I was spending a lot of time with my wicked cousin Becki (who, incidentally, I had met the Mark through!). Feeling stuffed from Christmas dinner, her and I sat in the hallway at her house hunched over her laptop. She was showing me all the design work she had been doing, I was bookmarking my favorite fashion blogs on her interwebs. We got to talking about design, screen printing, fashion and business and I left her house feeling crushed that I no longer live in the same province as she does. Being around her made me explode with ideas, in the same way that Lacey and Mark made me feel.

The point that I'm trying to get to is that being around creative people who inspire you is one of the best ways to be creative and inspired yourself. That old "no man is an island" bullcrap is actually true! I read an article this morning about how happiness is contagious up to 3 degrees of separation! So if your friend's friend is happy, then you're more likely to be happy...I think that's how it works. I firmly believe that the same can be said for creativity. My other cousin Jackie is a great case in point. For a couple of years she worked at a crappy insurance company. She hardly ever painted or drew, and in fact she wasn't enjoying herself at all. Then, she started working at a creative arts community center (she's the exec. assistant or something, but I like to think she runs the whole show) Now, she's working on a new body of work (that's right, not one painting, a BODY of them!) she's organizing events, and she's having chair racing derbies when there's no one around. She's living the sweet life! The lesson to be learned here, comrades, is to always keep yourself surrounded by creative, like minded individuals. You can keep the flame (of art-love) alive, but you have to stoke the fire with your friends... (not by throwing them in, just get them to help you fan the flames.)

Here's a link to the article about happiness travelling through networks.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/05/happiness.social.network/index.html

Cookie/work - a - holic.

I've always had a good appetite. When I was a kid I'd always go for a second helping of turkey dinner, I could put away a full bag of cookies in 10 seconds flat, and you don't even want to know what I could do to a lemon filled angel food cake. In recent years, it seems that my appetite has faded from its former glory (except for my appetite for cookies, which remains like a pillar of hope through the ages). I've now noticed that I have a different type of hunger: the hunger for work. Not work in the traditional sense. I don't stay awake at night dreaming about going to an office, filing for 3 hours, then getting on the phone to take calls from angry clients. But I am kept awake thinking of new projects to pursue, how I'm going to network, who I'm going to call (ghost busters), and I impose deadlines on myself to do these things. The truth is, I'm addicted to being busy, or at least feeling busy (the same as I'm addicted to eating 14 cookies in one sitting).

This brings us to the point of why I hardly ever write blog posts. It's because I've got myself up to my eyes in workering! Next week I will be working downtown at an office (which is where I am now, which is why I have time to post). In September I may be going home to NL for 2 weeks to promote the book I illustrated this past winter. Also in September, I hope to launch a small jewelry line, on which I work non stop while I am at home in the evenings. My boss is having one or TWO open houses, where she wants me to bring and sell some jewelry. Then in the first week in October, I'm accompanying her to Delaware for a dog show. At this dog show we'll be selling her jewelry, my jewelry (so I'll be busy all September preparing for that) collars from fabric I'll design and print, t-shirts which I design and print, and possibly greeting cards or tote bags which I also design and print. In the beginning of November, I am taking a MUCH needed vacation with my mama to Florida to get some shoos (another addiction I'm afraid). On top of all this, I have also agreed to do ANOTHER kids book, with a deadline in November! I'm tired just thinking about all this stuff, let alone doing it!

It seems like creative people always have looong "To Do" lists, several projects on the go at once, and new ideas coming in by the day. This means that things are always being pushed onto a back burner (my back burner is so full it's gonna catch fire one of these days). This has always been the story of my life, except now I have people depending on me for these numerous projects, so the back burner is not an option! What's a girl to do? How does one stay motivated and focused with so many things that need to be done right now? How does one finish all the projects one starts? I'm sorry, I don't have answer. But I'll think about it, I'll persevere through the next couple of months and I'll let you all know how I managed to do it all, or else I'll let you all know how I dropped every ball and failed at life. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm off to get some cookies!

Working for one's self is very mysterious.

I'm sitting here at my temp job thinking about what my life could be like. Dress up nice every day, walk or bike to work at 7:30 in the morning, sit in an office sipping coffee and doing menial tasks all day, answer the phone, read a book... It doesn't seem so bad. Yet every time I've been in this position (and it has been many times) it never fails that I end up hating my life in less than a month. Instead, I choose to drive for almost 45 minutes in rush hour traffic to hunch over a sewing machine all day, or be on my feet cutting fabric for hours at a time. After almost 5 months as a seamstress, I still don't hate my life, in fact I still enjoy going to work and even get...dare I say, EXCITED about going in from time to time! It makes me think back to my days of screen printing at Living Planet. I didn't even realize I was happy until my mother mentioned to me that it was the first time I'd had a job that I didn't complain about, not even once. Apparently I preferred to bus in the rain at 7 a.m. and partake in grueling physical labour, leaving my body aching and sometimes injured. The real mystery here is that when I work at an office, I can usually make from 30% to 50% more than what I make as a screen printer or seamstress, yet I still run from the office like I'd run from the plague, or a musical *shudder*. That means I'd rather do work that is physically exhausting and live under the poverty line than relax in some office and make enough money to buy shoes, live, and save for a house all at the same time. What the hell, me? What's my problem?

An even greater mystery still is why I'd rather work to find work, and then work even harder to complete that work (as opposed to having an office job, where the work is always handed to you in a neat little package and you are trained on how to complete it) Now, I'm gearing up to spend a lot of money that I don't have on setting up a studio. This may be the biggest mystery yet: I'm willing to pay money and go into debt to do work that I have to bust my ass to find, pays less (at first anyway), and is more physically demanding than all my office jobs put together.

I don't have any answers to these mysterious mysteries, except that I hate working, I hate schedules, and I HATE HATE HATE being bored (which is what office work is, boring with a capital "lame".) I've got my sketch book with me today and tomorrow, (I'm temping again tomorrow) and hopefully relaxing at this desk will turn into 2 days of being creative. I hope to be writing, drawing, and maybe taking a little reading break when my fingers start bleeding from all the typing and drawing. I'll leave you with a link (don't know how to embed) to one of my all time favorite songs. Rap and Opera?? Scandelous!! It can't be!! Yes it can, and it's amazing. Check it out :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7mToH61cUM&feature=quicklist&playnext=8&playnext_from=QL

How to keep the blade of creativity as sharp as a katana.

I love blank paper. I lose bladder control in the exercise book aisle of Business Depot. I feel weak in the knees when presented with a new sketchbook. My skin itches when I get to the end of a notebook, because I know it means I'll be able to go and pick out a brand spanking new one. And I know I'm not the only one (I'm serious, I've had entire conversations with some of my artsy friends about how thrilling a new pack of card stock is). I think this is because a blank page, for an artist, is more than a blank page; it's potential. It's a work of art that hasn't been made yet, or a story that's yet to be written. A whole book of blank pages, for us, is a bound collection of possibilities without rules or judgment. You can see why this would be exciting, yes? Sometimes, however, a blank page is not hopeful or exciting at all. It can be stress inducing and life RUINING if: you've run out of ideas.

One of the reasons it took me so long to even consider starting a blog was that I was sure I'd run out of things to say. I figured I'd write a dozen posts, then get bored and never do it again. But then I remembered something I learned in art school: ideas beget ideas. That means the more you have, the more you have! (Why can't cookies reproduce like ideas do? Or pizzas for that matter?) It never failed. We would be assigned a project in drawing class, and I would feel like the well had run dry. Then I'd think of something, any stupid little idea, and I'd write it down. Magically, after I put down that first idea, there would be another one. And then another, even better than the first two! This would keep happening until I would have to actively cut myself off, and just pick one idea to complete before I ran out of time. I'm telling you, it's like the theory of relativity for art.

Now, let's put two and two together. (Or one and one, or seven and fifteen, whatever you want to add). You have no ideas. Or perhaps your ideas are really crappy (it happens). The cure is to carry around one of those mystical objects, full of hope and potential, free from the opinions and influences of others: a blank book. As soon as you have one idea, no matter how crappy it is, put it in the book. You will have another, which might be crappy as well. Put it in anyways. Eventually you will have a book filled from cover to cover with ideas, and at least one of them has to be inspiring to you. Not only to ideas multiply, they also get better with time. This is why the comics you wrote when you were 9 aren't nearly as funny or interesting (or good) as the comics you write now that you're in your 20's. The great thing about blank books is that you can take them where ever you go, and be creative at any point in time. I can't remember all the ideas I have in the run of a day. So when I have one that I know is a good one (or I'm deluded into thinking is a good one, it happens) I always have some paper or a book and a pen to record it, and come back to it later. Whether you're on the bus, bored at work, or waiting for a friend to meet you for coffee, all your spare minutes can be turned into valuable creativity time.

Lastly, here's a photo of me holding my favorite book, a hand made sketchbook with a silver sea horse on the cover that my best friend/cousin Jackie made for me. Thanks Jackie!