chronicled & illustrated

In addition to that fancy camera, I got a computer drawing tablet and pen for my birthday.

I KNOW it’s going to be extremely useful
—especially once I get the hang of it—but so far, all I can think to do is play with it.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

This is one of the things I’ve done. It’s a doodle. An experiment with letters and other marks that could be letters. It was fun to do and as such, it feels as if I’m using my new tool (“For the serious photographer, designer and artist” the package states) as a toy. At what point do I begin to feel serious about it? My husband often asks when inquiring about what I did on a certain day, “Were you working or playing?”

Whew. That’s a tough one to answer. If I enjoy my work, does that mean it’s always play? If I usually enjoy my work but am dealing with a challenging problem, then is it work? Or if I am doing art for no one and no reason, but am frustrated by it, does that mean it’s work? Is doing art for no reason ever anything but play? Where’s the line between a “serious tool” for serious creative types and a toy for someone who’s “just playing?”

Ahh, I don’t care. It’s just my brain playing with words, isn’t it? And some days, that’s what art and work is all about.

attention span,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

Summer isn’t good for concentrating. Maybe it’s the leaves rustling or the birds singing or the clouds rolling by. I’d say it’s the heat, but here in Nova Scotia, we haven’t had any yet. It’s summer’s long days of sunlight that can both seem to last forever and pass by in a flash. The on again/ off again activity level. Hurry up and relax.

This is a piece I did the other night after having put a big push on to get several end of the month articles published in the zine followed by the subscriber’s email update. I needed a creative activity that was involving without being involved. For several hours I immersed myself in my photos and photoshop. (I don’t really use Photoshop. For this kind of photo manipulation I use a super simple product called ArcSoft Photostudio. Easy and quick.)

I keep way too many of my digital photos. That’s because I use many of them in these layered art pieces and it’s hard to predict which will be useful later on. I’ve always enjoyed the idea that there are no failures—only the raw material for other kinds of art. I used to tear up paintings I didn’t feel were successful. Then I’d use the wonderfully torn fragments as collage material for others. This is the same.

For the next week all my attention will be with my childhood friends who’ll be visiting from Texas. We’ll laugh.

Tra la~~~

first sketchbook-sized gel pen doodle,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

This is by far my most popular piece of art work on flickr, and very close to the top of my most popular images. Just today another sweet person found it in the depths of my photostream and favorited it. I’m so surprised by the response to it.

I do not have good instincts about what people are going to respond to. Of course on an individual basis, one can never predict what a stranger is going to like. Because of this, artists—in my opinion—aren’t doing themselves any favours by trying to please others. But it does seem as if it would be useful to be able to predict in a broader sense what might be popular.

The only thing I’ve learned for sure on flickr is that cute animals will always rack up the viewers. Photos of my dogs are among my most viewed and most favorited though they are certainly not the best photos I’ve taken. Two golden retrievers of different shades are naturally lovable.

I suppose this drawing is popular because it’s accessible. I call it and think of it as a ‘doodle’ but of course, it’s an elaborate one and one that took many hours to draw. But most people can relate to doodling, so on a doodling scale, it’s probably *high end*.

The main thing I’ve figured out is that what people like has nothing to do with how much care and time I took with it or how much skill did or didn’t go into the creation of it. Sometimes I feel frustrated that I can’t get any attention for the things that I’m more proud of, things that I regard as having been more difficult. I need to get over that! It’s the finished product that matters. No one else can know or cares what kind of blood, sweat and tears went into to it. In fact, if the bodily fluids show on it, it is doomed to failure. It needs to look effortless whether it was or not.

I’m finding that the same is true in my writing. It’s just possible that I tend to over-think, over-complicate, over-work my writing. Unfortunately, there’s no flickr for the written word, but I should probably keep this image in mind as I write. The finished work needs to be accessible, at the high-end of what’s expected, and with no evidence of my personal DNA on the page.

Reading: Tales of Protection by Erik Fosnes Hansen
Planning: A short story about a computer game designer who avoids real people
Collaborating: On editing an anthology of short stories
Writing: Words of Paradise, a novel set in the 60’s
Suppose to be: Finishing the EPIC website
Travelling: To Maine for my granddaughter’s 2nd birthday
The Roller Coaster: Just barely on the way up

relic,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

For a person who’s always kept a journal of one sort or another, I’ve found it surprisingly difficult to maintain interest in personal blogging. However, my written journals have, in the last five years or so, fallen out of favor as well so I’m back online again with a new website, new format and new ideas about how this kind of journaling can be useful and fun for me.

This photo is an old train depot in Beaumont, Texas. The photograph was taken in 2005 with a LOMO LC-A. I then did quite a bit of digital doctoring to get the effect I wanted.

• Reading: Tales of Protection by Eric Fosnes Hansen
• Writing: Words of Paradise – a novel set in Canada, the US and the island of Tobago in the 60’s
• Working on: EPIC’s website — and this one
• Need to: learn how to tear myself away from the computer
• Want to: plan the construction of our front porch, plant a vegetable garden, paint, use our waste water to reheat our home
• Upcoming: a trip to Maine for Cadi’s 2nd birthday and to see Ty and Carson
• Mood: pensive, self-reproaching