Friday!!!!

Friday's aren't nearly as exciting as they used to be. When I was in school it was almost my favorite day of the week (Saturday was truly the best day of the week when in school, let's be honest); then once I started working at a movie theater in Dallas it became the most hilarious and joyful day of the week if I worked a shift...the theater alternated between playing Rocky Horror Picture Show and 3D Porn staring John Holmes. With Rocky Horror, it was fun to see all of the people show up in costume (it was not fun helping to clean up the theater afterwards); and with the 3D Porn it was hilarious to see the many ways people tried to hide their shame when they had to get their 3D glasses from me (also, not fun or hilarious to help clean the theater). Once I joined the desk job task force, Friday's either became the day that nothing was accomplished or the day that we scrambled around like mad, attempting to get everything done before we sprinted to our cars and pretended we didn't hear phones ringing on the way out of the office. Hell, even when I was at Moroch they did a First Friday's drinking afternoon on the first Friday of every month (but those of us in billing usually had to pass on drinking to finish up month end billing).

Friday's when you don't have a job, feel like any other day. Which, to be quite honest, is getting pretty boring. I've always said that if I didn't have a job, I would make use of my time by working on art, or knitting or writing. I have done a little bit of all of that. Probably more knitting than the other two. But for some reason, my creativity seemed to die when the last job ended.

...I kind of feel like my whole life has been a lie. That the "I'll be more creative if I don't have a job or have to go to school" mentality was so far off. I think the sheer boredom of not having to do repetitive bullshit, day in and day out, for some manager who doesn't give a crap that you aren't being able to express yourself the way you want during work hours; the sheer boredom of not being tasked with some of the dumbest shit you have ever seen in your life; the sheer boredom of dealing with people you would rather throat punch than listen to for another second, but fear jail time so you keep your hands to yourself...it's the sheer boredom of not having to deal with the shit end of life that makes me uninterested in being creative.

That sucks.

I need a little mind numbing pain found in the monotony of a desk job, in order to find the pleasure in my creativity? That completely sucks. To realize that at the age of 33, sucks even worse.

Don't get me wrong, if I could find a job working with creative types, that would totally stoke the creative fire that is dying inside me...it's just, in a town like LA...getting your foot in at these places unless you are a complete badass from the get-go is like being Jon Snow and not getting killed at the end of season 5 of Game of Thrones (spoiler alert...heh)-it's just not going to happen.

That's the end of my really long rant on how I used to like Fridays...and then it, some how, spiraled out of control and into the depths of why I don't post more art here. My bad, guys.

Happy Friday? 

Completed and blocked Clairmore

Remember the Clairmore post I did a little bit ago? Well it's been blocked.
I'm still new at blocking knitted items, so this one didn't turn out as pretty as it should have (sorry Jess!), but I couldn't leave it unblocked because then you wouldn't have been able to see the lace design.

I'm wearing it here to demonstrate how it should look when worn, not entirely sure how to feel about it. It's soft and would probably be great at blocking the cold winter winds of Wisconsin, but probably not something she will use as an accessory in every day life...but I could be wrong.

Anyway. I've got a blue one knitted for my mom, I just need to block it, I'm going to review a few more blocking techniques before I do that though- to make sure I'm doing it right.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! 

New Art

While attempting to learn my surroundings, I came upon an art store in Glendale, CA. It's called Swain's. Hopefully the locals will forgive me if this is a place that is common knowledge. I'm used to the typical Hobby Lobby's, Michael's, Joann's and even the Dick Blick's of the area. So to find a new place that I can shuffle through isles at, was exciting.

Since I've been having a bit of an artists-block recently I treated myself to a new sketchbook. A new Strathmore 5.5 x 8.5 in sketchbook with Toned Gray pages. Hopefully I'll get a lot of use out of it.

Since I went with toned gray pages, I also picked up a set of Woodless Colour Pencils (note the spelling of color...these are manufactured in Czech Republic). Yes I do own a ton of Prisma Color Colored Pencils, however I have developed an allergy to them...not sure if it's the wood or the lead itself, so I tried these. No allergic reaction.

While my creativity is trying to come to the surface I decided to do a zentangle to loosen up. It didn't look right in black and white so I took out the new colored pencils to see what would happen.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

I've still got a realistic pencil portrait drawing to work on; I want to work on my digital painting skills some more and I've got plenty of knitting items to work on (I'll probably post progress on my friend Jess's fully blocked Cowl/Shawlette soon).

We're still attempting to locate a different living situation as this apartment has worn through my last nerve, so I'm sure there will be a bit of non-activity here soon...once we get something and start moving. Until then, though, I hope to get off my lazy butt and post more.