Day 9 NaBloPoMo

Today, Today, Today

Let’s see, what to blog about, hmmmm.

I could blog about how I joined my friend Bethany again to go to the High School Invitational Art Show at NIU. She had students who had work in the show. We went to a workshop where we talked about Site Specific Installation, Relational Art, which was another HUGE sign from the world telling me to get on my project. Yes, the same project I’ve been thinking about for years. The same project where I took the Foolish Project class in hopes that it would finally make me execute my project idea. The same project that months later still sits in my studio and not in it’s site specific spot, encouraging relational art. Bethany and I walked around our old stomping ground where we took college art classes together many, many moons ago, peeked in rooms we learned in and even talked to a teacher we both had.

Or, I could blog about how afterward, Matt and I drove out to Naperville and met my mom and sister for dinner and a movie (Red Robin, and About Time). I could talk about how other people’s pet peeves affect me so much that they become my own distractions. For example, during the movie, there was a person who was snort laughing behind us. To me this was funny and endearing but almost immediately I could tell it was grating on Matt’s nerves, ruining his movie experience, which then made me hate that person and made me shoot them dirty glances twice and started ruining my movie going experience. Still, the movie was SO GOOD. Please promise me you will see this movie. Immediately afterward I wished I could have gone back in time just to watch it again. Yes, it was that good. The message spoke to me so strongly, and at the end I actually missed a minute because I had to cover my face and try as hard as I could to keep my heart from breaking open. It wasn’t said in the film, but I was left with the message “It’s Later Than You Think“, a message that needs to be constantly pounded into this worriers brain. The kind of movie that makes me want to live life to fullest and appreciate every second I have, as well as kick myself for forgetting this and just going through life grumbling and complaining. Why can’t I ALWAYS appreciate and take advantage of every moment in this amazing life that I have? Oh, and the music, perfect.

Instead, I think I’ll blog about how I finished my last sketchbook and I am beginning a new one and how I always start every sketchbook the same, with 8:26 p.m. written on the first page. I don’t think I’m alone in the phobia of starting a new sketchbook or journal. A blank book is a beautiful thing with a great potential for becoming either an amazing thing or a complete flop. Is a book ruined if the first drawing inside is a flop? I’d often just keep the first page blank so as not to ruin that blank look. The 8:26 p.m. thing started when I was in college and I was required to keep a sketchbook for college classes. At the same time I was also at the age where I found myself, for whatever reason, needing to know the exact time I was born (probably for some stupid horoscope type things). I’d look it up, but then forget it, so finally one time, for ease I wrote it on the first page, smack dab in the center. Next time I needed that information I could check my handy resource. But then I realized it was also this great ice breaker to my sketchbook, and removes the pressure of what the very first thing in my sketchbook will be. 8:26 p.m. It’s my beginning, and the beginning of my sketchbooks, the beginning of many ideas and creations that will follow on consecutive pages.

Also, I went with a square book this time. Normally I go for your standard 8.5×11, black, hardcover. I went for a little change this time around. Ooooh, fancy.