It’s About Connecting

Posted on October 1, 2023 by SusanG

Last time I said I had two topics playing in my head to write about. I wrote about the one last time. About doing that “hard thing” and I said that this time I would write on the other topic. The other topic is about connecting. I know it might sound a bit ‘cheesy’ but hear me out. And then I’ll fill you in on some of my art adventures from the last couple of weeks.

I saw something recently that was attributed to Carlos Santana, he supposedly said something about ‘music should touch the heart of move the feet’. I’ve also seen a video of Dave Stewart from Eurythmics talking about his purpose in life is to connect with people and he does that through music. He said, roughly, that ‘a hit record just means you connected with that many people’. Absolutely. Music and Art both are about connecting.

My neighbor’s way of connecting with the rest of the stairwell

I could go on for a very long time about music and its ability to connect people and I probably have in another post at some point, if not, it’s probably a good thing because that is a soap box I have to be dragged off of. So, let’s look at Art. Oh and before I get too far, I will argue that writing of all forms is the same, it’s about connecting through story.

We create art of whatever form to connect with others. We express our feelings, our emotions, our vision, our inner story through art. I’ve seen memes saying music is the language of the soul. It expresses feelings that we can’t put into words. Art, the visual arts, help us visually express those emotions, the sense of wonder or beauty. It lets us share the beauty we see in our mind’s eye or feel with our heart with others. And its purpose is connecting. We don’t connect with everyone. That’s not realistic. But we do strive to connect whether we recognize that or not.

Interestingly, when we choose to create a piece of art, be it from our minds eye or from a reference, it is because we connected with the image. The image we are striving to share, to produce, to bring to life, connected with us. It spoke to us, it said it needed to be shared with others and we responded to that and agreed to find a way to share it. So, we create it and hope that we were able to share what spoke to us in a way that it speaks to others. But we have no control over how others see it.

The first experiment. Using it to test pastel over watercolor.

I may want to create a piece of art from an ocean scene because the colors of the water sing to me, but someone else may see the shape of the waves, or the shoreline, or the clouds in the sky and something about that may be what speaks to them. Just as in a conversation, you may say one thing and the person listening may hear the words and take a different meaning from them. When we create art or music or a piece of literature, we create it out of a need to share that story, that piece of music, that piece of art. And we hope that it will connect with others. Because as humans we need that connection. We are not isolated islands in a great ocean. Part of being human is that need for connection. Some need more connections than others. But I’ve found that even those who “don’t like people” still have and need some connections to other people. So, yeah, art, music, writing, all of it, it’s about connecting.

Another time we’ll talk about how some pieces just have to be created.

For now, on to the art adventures. And I’ll try to be succinct. And hope it makes sense.

You might remember my wanting to paint water scenes, particularly ocean scenes and finding it a little bit of a challenge in watercolors and thinking that pastels might work better. I was working on the detail bits of my latest painting, the Daylily, using colored pencil and I got to thinking about how that might work for the wave soup that I was having particular trouble with. So, I pulled out my experimental piece and gave it a go. It is a solution. But as I was working it over, I was thinking that there had to be a better way. Since, I had thought about the pastels previously I decided to try them. Sure enough, they not only will cover the color beneath, but I can also get the effect I want so it’s a win.

Testing pastels with water. See how well they dissolve.

It gets better though. So, I ordered more paints, in liquid form instead of solid form thinking I was going to need or want to mix a greater quantity of a color for working in a larger format and it would be easier to do with tubes than with the pans (the solid form of watercolors). And then I remembered something I watched a few years ago.

When I was first looking to get more pastels I did a little research on a couple of the different brands, and in doing that I learned that some of the pastels, particularly the soft pastels can be used with water. Sort of like watercolor pencils. No, I’m not joking. But I had to try it. I was and am ecstatic to find it works. It works really well. It’s like the pastel is solid pigment just waiting to have water added to it. This explains why the colors seem to melt a bit when I spray my pastel paintings with fixative at the end. I wasn’t even paying attention. Wow.

Anyway, as a result of this revelation about the pastels I ordered more so I would have the water and terrain colors I need to try to render one of the ocean scenes I took a picture of while I was in Australia. I have a few and I just love the color of the water. And right now, I have a bigger piece of paper taped to a board sitting on my easel. I’ve started the piece, using pastels on watercolor paper so that I can apply the water to the pastel without the paper totally buckling and becoming unworkable.

The new experiment. Pastels dissolved with water.

I have already learned something about the paper I’m using. Which leads to a slightly different conversation about paper in general. I had found some paper that I really like working on but at first, I only found this small-ish sketchbook. The paper is about 8 inches by 8 inches. I’ve since been able to acquire some of the same paper in a larger size. It’s great for watercolor. I love it for watercolor. It’s not what I’m using for the pastel. I’m getting to that.

Because the paper I love for the watercolor is the size it is and I wanted a larger size for some stuff, I found something sort of the next size up and the same weight or thickness. And it’s been working well. But since I’m ready to work just a little larger I decided to purchase a different brand of watercolor paper. I’ve never bothered with it, to my knowledge, I think because I might have thought it was either too expensive and high a quality and I really didn’t need anything that great, or I thought it wasn’t really that great. I think it was the first to be honest. And that gets to a whole different discussion that if I haven’t written about it, I probably will.

Anyway, the new paper. I’m using it for the newest watercolor painting I’m doing as well as the stippling. Oh. I should explain that. They paper comes in both a cold press surface and a hot press surface. The hot press surface is very smooth, and the cold press has more tooth to it. The large paper for my experimental ocean scene is standard watercolor paper with the standard texture. It’s absorbent, sort of and has a texture but not a lot of tooth, so it doesn’t grip a lot of pastel.

New painting on new paper.

I really like the new cold press paper and will likely switch to it and order or go purchase more. I have only done the sketch for the piece that is using the hot press paper, I haven’t started with the ink, so I don’t have an opinion on that yet, though it’s promising.

And for those who care or want to know. The paper I really love for watercolor is Shinzen, I think it’s from India and it is recycled cotton. The paper I have been using is the Fabriano 1264. The pastels and watercolors are from Sennelier though I also have Rembrandt pastels that I may supplement with if I don’t have the color I need in the Sennelier. I also have some Derwent pastel pencils that I will likely use because they also take water. And the new paper is Arches. I think that’s the fun details.

And now that I’ve got you all updated, I’m going to get back to painting. Oh. And working on learning songs for my sister’s holiday playlist. Cheers!

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Do The Hard Thing

Posted on September 19, 2023 by SusanG

Sort of. 

I say sort of because, they aren’t all hard things. They aren’t difficult. They aren’t big. But we have a hard time doing them.

I had, have two topics that come to mind this week. One about doing those things that are hard or scare us, and the other about connecting. As you might guess from the title, I decided to go with the first one. 

Several months ago, maybe even a year or more ago, I finished reading a book, I’m not sure which one now, and the message it left me with was to ‘do the hard thing’. Do the stuff you need to do but don’t want to do. The small niggly stuff. It feels good to get that stuff done and out of the way. And I could probably go on with that idea but this time I want to approach the topic a little differently. 

First, I want to share a quote, I came across in another book, just a couple of weeks ago. I even looked it up recently to share it with someone. The quote: “Do the thing, and you shall have the power.” It’s attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson in Essay on Compensation. I’d also like to share something I’ve seen Olivia Newton-John say. Or roughly. She used to say that the two things she was most worried about or afraid of turned out to be the biggest and most impactful and successful of her career. Those things were the movie Grease and the song Physical. 

I think a lot of times there is something we really want to do or try but for whatever reason we’re afraid to do it or we’re intimidated by some aspect of it so we maybe don’t ever try it. We decide it’s something out of our reach or just too hard. Or maybe we think the effort is so big that we don’t have the time or the money or the stamina or don’t know enough to do it. Ok. Maybe. I’m not going to judge. I’m going to tell you a couple of things I’ve done. And even what I learned. 

Friends doing their thing

I’m going to start with something I did a few years ago. Well, it started even before that. When I moved to the Charlotte area, I got involved in a local group called the Charlotte Blues Jam. I participated once or twice a month for several months, possibly close to a year. Then I took a break. I had reasons at the time. To be honest, I might have been scared. After playing with them a time or two, and not getting completely lost, because at the time all I could say for myself was that I knew a basic 12-bar blues, for the first time I actually felt like I could say I was a musician. Fast forward several years and I decide to join up with the group again. The very first day I returned, with a guitar, to play, I ended up also singing. I’d tried that once before and it hadn’t gone well. So, to decide to try it again, that was a bit of a hard thing. 

I’ve probably told the story how this happened, but for a refresh. I had learned a Christmas type blues song to play, thinking someone who normally sang might know it. Someone did but they weren’t in my “band”. When we got on stage to play, I was given the opportunity to sing it if I wanted to play the song. I could easily have said to the singer, ‘no let’s just do whatever you want to do’. I didn’t. I said ok. With my hands and knees shaking I took a deep breath and opened my mouth to sing. And it went quite well. 

Getting up on stage with the blues jam the way it is put together in and of itself turns out to be pretty intimidating for people. I find it invigorating. But, to get up and sing. That was a different thing. There’s a little more putting yourself out there when doing that. It wasn’t just making sure I played the right chords and stayed in time. I now had to be on pitch and remember the words and really pay attention to where I was. And then hope my voice didn’t crack and that I didn’t completely suck. That was nerve wracking. But the reaction I got from the drummer, who I’d known since my first outings with the blues jam, said everything I needed to know about how it went, and it felt awesome. And yes, I continued to sing and play and get better at both. And I had a blast every time I did it. 

Current painting Work In Progress

Recently, I’ve been working on my art. And I’ve been working on things that might be a little of a challenge or a bit different, but they are things that when I sit down to work on them as a watercolor painting or as a stippling painting, I am reasonably confident I’ll be able to do it. To create a finished piece that will look something like what I have in mind. There is one subject that I would really like to be able to paint, whether it’s in watercolor or something else. Water. Particularly the ocean, however I’ve got some waterfall and stream pictures I’d like to paint from as well. 

Many years ago, I did a couple of pencil drawings of some fairly tame water. It wasn’t the main subject. So, I’ve tried it sort of. Now, I want to paint it as the subject and in color. That’s turned out to be a little intimidating for me. I know it might take more time to do or might not come out right and so I haven’t really given it a try because, well I needed to work on things that I know will be good enough to post on my art prints store. 

That all changed this weekend. I finally tried it. About a week ago I roughed in an outline of the key parts of this image with the idea of trying to paint it in watercolor. This weekend I sat down with my watercolors and the roughed in sketch and tried putting color to the paper and creating a painting. It went about as well as I expected. Which is to say, it didn’t result in even a beginning of a possibility. However, it was still successful. 

I know. Wait. What? 

I had to try it and let it go not right. I had to try it and“fail”. We learn so much from failure. Yeah, we learn to get up and try again. But not everyone does learn that. Some just give up. 

Nope, it didn’t go well. Sigh

Even though the attempt did not end with something I think is salvageable and worth continuing to work on, I was still energized by finally trying it. I no longer wondered if I could do it, or if it would be as bad as I thought it would. It was. And it’s ok. It’s like being afraid of forgetting the words to a song you’re singing on stage. Once you forget some of them a time or two and learn to keep going, it’s not big deal. In Taekwondo we tell people all the time, if you don’t fall down at least once doing some of the kicks you’re not doing it right. When it happens, we applaud, ask if you’re ok, and help you up. You have to get past failing, falling, forgetting in order to go on. So, yes. It isn’t worth salvaging. I’ll post a picture of it with this. And I will be trying again. 

So why would I try again? Seriously? Have you not been reading this? I want to paint the ocean. So. Of course, I’m going to try again, just not the same way. 

When I got done painting for the night, I realized that I could probably do that same painting I was trying to do if I did it in pastels.  And frankly, I’m sure it can be done in oil paints or acrylics as well. Neither of those are mediums that I work in right now. I’ve dabbled in oil. And ultimately, I may try it in oil. However, I really prefer the look of watercolor, and maybe pastel. So, back to the pastels. I know that because of the layering that can be done with pastels and the texture I can get; I can make it work. And that was my first thought for the solution of how I was going to paint this image. So, I started thinking about, and plotting how I wanted to try again using pastels. And then…

After the idea of using pastels to create the painting simmered in my head for a while, I remembered that I have a compound that repels water, and therefore watercolor. And it could work for the areas that I wanted to keep clear of color, because that was one of the big challenges I was running into with the watercolors. There’s a lot of white foamy wave soup in the image. However, there are some limitations and challenges to using the compound. So, it may not be the solution for watercolor, but it is an option. And, with a bit more thought I may come up with a way to use it to make it work.

A piece I’ve been working on for a while, for fun, that I finally finished.

For now, I’ve decided to start from a different image, and I will probably use pastels to do it. It’s exciting for me, the idea that I may have a way to create some of the art I want to and wasn’t sure I would be able to. Do I expect it to be as big a deal as Grease or Physical? No. Not at all. I have no illusions. And it’s not the point. 

The point is that I did the thing that was intimidating me, the thing that I was unsure of, that I was afraid of. And by doing the thing, look what I learned. Look at the options I came up with. And I’m excited about trying again. It’s energizing. That’s the point. That’s the power of ‘doing the thing’. 

I’ll leave you with that and hope you have a good week. Cheers!

A quick announcement: I recently made a change to the site that may cause the ‘read more’ option in previous emails to not work. There is a link at the bottom of the email that should take you to the article.

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Writing Assignments

Posted on September 12, 2023 by SusanG

And other things to be inadvertently avoided.

Yes, today’s title has a tagline. Because, well it’s needed.

And yes. I am still avoiding something by sitting down to write this. But first. The cool thing is that the wasps are gone and I’m sitting on my balcony enjoying some “fresh” air and sunshine, and sweating on my keyboard, while I write this.

As you may have read a few weeks ago, I’ve opened an online fine arts print store for my art. As part of the marketing for it I’m supposed to do a giveaway of a piece of art. Technically I was supposed to do it right away once the store went live. However, as I didn’t have many pieces to start with, I have been holding off while trying to get more art posted. I recently posted my 10th piece and have decided it’s time to do the giveaway. Except.

You knew there would be a catch, right?

When I started the site and the technicians called to help get everything setup I wasn’t really prepared. I needed a picture of myself, and some biographical type of information. For the picture, I texted my sister in consternation, and she had an immediate answer. She sent a photo from our trip to Paris. And while it is a good shot, it isn’t my favorite, because of me. But that’s a whole other story.

For the biographical information I came up with something as best I could for the moment. The thing is what they were asking for I had never really thought about. I just make the art that needs to be made at that moment.

One of the services I added when I signed up for my sight was logo creation. As I’ve said before, I’ve tried for years to create my own logo and I get all caught up in the minutia of me and what I want it to represent and what is and isn’t accurate. So, it never gets done. By having a third party create it I hoped I’d get something more to my liking, and that I could not only live with, but I could also live up to. And that is what I got. I love my logo.

And now I have a new “problem”. My page with the photo and biographical information, not to mention the profile pictures on all my social media, don’t match my new logo. I’m not changing my logo. I love my logo. Which means I now need to make everything else match my logo.

My sister solved the profile picture problem for me while we were in Savannah for the Doobie Brothers concert. She took a bunch of great pictures for me to choose from. And I’ve already changed out the profile picture, nearly everywhere. I have one more to change but that one is a different project. With the picture problem solved, it’s time to move on to the biographical information and one other piece.

And now we get to the writing assignments. The assignments are the three sections on my ‘About the Artist’ page on my store, the story of the piece of art I am giving away, and this blog post. Not too bad, right? I had every intention of having the three sections completed by the end of this last weekend. I had one written, well maybe two. I’m still working on the third one, in my head while I write this. I know. Please, don’t look in there, it’s got a lot going on. I’ve also got the story of the piece of art complete. Or I think I do. I’m going to send them all off to someone for a bit of input and then get the About page updated tomorrow.

See what I decided to do, when I realized I needed and wanted to revamp what I had for my store front, is to use the giveaway as a ‘Grand Opening’. I’ve had the soft open, and now I’m ready to really announce it and focus on it because not only is it something I really want to do, it’s also something I can live up to and I think that makes a big difference.

And if you are wondering about what I was doing to avoid my writing assignments and what I am now avoiding while working on them, it’s my office. As you might know, or not, my day job transitioned to remote work on March 18, 2020. It started as a test to see if the whole company could work remote in the face of work from home and lock down recommendations. We were successful and essentially never went back. Sort of. There’s more to the story but it’s not relevant for this. Because of that, I have been working from my home. And the room I use is the room that already had my personal computer as well as books and such. At one point it also had my art stuff, but that changed earlier this summer.

I’ve had issues with the room over the years that have included the way I had it laid out, the amount of stuff in it, the temperature as it can get quite toasty in the summer months, and the lighting, it’s dark in there. Or was.

Yep. You guessed it. My avoidance project for the weekend and first part of the week was repainting the office. You’d think this wouldn’t be a big deal. It’s just four walls. Right. See the mention of the amount of stuff in the room. Yeah. I’ve said before, I have so, so much stuff. And it had to be moved out in order to move the bookcases away from the walls so the walls could be painted. Just moving enough stuff out to get started took half a day. The good news is that the painting is done. I went from two walls painted rocket purple and two walls painted a Charlie Brown sky blue to now having four walls of a gentle “Apple Slice” green. Talk about a change! The room is so much brighter and lighter feeling.

Now, what I’m avoiding by working on my writing assignments is the tedious task of dealing with all the stuff that I pulled out of the office. I was going to say ‘putting it all back’ except that’s not quite what will happen. Oh, a lot of it will go back. Some of it, it turns out, won’t. As I was taking stuff out, I found there were things that I was ready to let go of. So, hopefully, the task of returning stuff to the office will also involve some letting go of things that I no longer want or need. But yes, I’m writing to avoid doing that. Later, you will probably find me working on a painting just to avoid tackling the disaster sitting in the floor of my living room.

So, what else is going on?

Well, the giveaway to launch the grand opening of my art site will be going live this week. If you are interested or have friends that are interested in getting in on the giveaway, sign up on my store(susanmichelleartist.com) with your email or send it to me and let me know you want me to add you. I know the marketing sends out emails periodically, so you’ll get notices for things on my store as well.

I’m working on getting back to playing more guitar. My sister has sent me the set list for the holiday season. She sent the Christmas songs she is working on learning on the cello so that I can learn an accompaniment to them on guitar. A couple will require transposing for me as the key she’s playing in isn’t the key I have them in. Though, I need to do a little research there, that might not actually need be the case.

And of course, I am working on more art pieces for my store. I have a lovely flower on the desk right now and several other pieces lined up and in mind. And I’m finally going to try something I’ve been wanting to do but haven’t had the courage to try yet. I have some great pictures of water, particularly ocean. I love the colors, and some of the waves. I’ve been wanting to paint them but have let the idea intimidate me. I finally sat down and started the sketch in of the shapes and I’m going to give it a go. I also got some larger paper to work on.

Oh, that leads me to possibly solving a small problem I’ve had. To get my art on the store I have to have a digital file of it. I have a scanner that will handle the sizes I’ve been working in so far. However, for some pieces I’d like to be able to work a little larger, but I haven’t worked on those because of needing to find a way to get a good quality digital image of it to go on the store. Thanks to my friend Shan, who is an amazing artist and who has a bit of experience with getting good quality images of her art for prints. When I reached out to her to find out what she did, and where she found someone to do the work, she graciously responded right away even though she was headed out the door to dinner. Shan you rock!

With her information I was able to do a little online research, and then place a call to get some information. And the result is that I think I have found a place that can get images of larger artwork for prints, as well as high quality digital images for a variety of things. I haven’t used them yet. I don’t have anything ready at the moment. The process will require a bit more organization and planning on my part. And that’s ok. That’s all part of figuring out how to make this work, and work well. Now, I think I’ve finished this writing assignment. I’ve got one more to go before I have to find a new thing to do to avoid my office and messy living room. Cheers! 

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More Travels

Posted on September 6, 2023 by SusanG

It’s been a busy travel year for me. So far, I’ve been to Orlando, Florida, Paris, France, Houston, Texas, and Savannah, Georgia. And I’ve got one more trip in the planning stages for November. That will be New York. It’s a lot of travel for me, not for my sister who has traveled more than half the summer this year. In addition to taking me to Paris.

I enjoy traveling. Though I get lazy and don’t think to do it. Or I get some stupid idea in my head about it being too much effort or whatever. It’s really silly. This last trip helped me see that. We, my sister met me there, just got back from a quick trip to Savannah, Georgia. We went because I wanted to see a concert, the Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald. I know, not everyone knows who I’m talking about. We just went for the concert, really. We drove in on Sunday for the concert Sunday night and left Monday. Initially, we neither had much interest in spending much time in Savannah. She had been and wasn’t super excited. And my visit, a long time ago, when applying to SCAD, really only left me with memories of US Civil War history and sweet tea, neither of which I am fond of. The river front has changed a lot and it was a nice trip. In fact, I told my sister I might make a whole weekend of it so I could take my time visiting the cool artistic shops along the river front.  

One of the great things about traveling is how it has a way of broadening our views. It can also remind us of who we are or who we are working to be. It gives us a chance to return home and have a reason to make changes that maybe we wanted to make or were working on making so it provides addition support and inspiration. Those changes are sometimes outward facing changes, and sometimes inward. Either way, travel can be the catalyst.

For me, this trip changed my point of view about visiting a couple of places that I have neglected to visit though they have been recommended to me. I’ve been in the Carolinas for 12 years now and have still not visited Asheville, North Carolina, or Charleston, South Carolina. I’m not quite sold on Charleston yet; however, I may have to make a quick trip to Asheville soon. It was the artist type shops in Savannah that got me to thinking about a visit to Asheville. No, it’s not a big trip, but it is still a trip away from my home and that’s the point.

There are other side effects from the trip to Savannah. One is coming home excited to work on some art. Since that is where the bulk of my focus has shifted to, this is a good thing. And exciting. I had been trying to decide what I was doing to work on for the next piece and by the time I got home I’d made the decision. Can’t beat that.

Another side effect was more a result of the concert than the trip. The concert was great fun. They played for about 2 hours and 15 minutes. My sister said something along the lines of ‘dang, not bad for a bunch of old guys.’ She is right. Though, as a musician, who has had even the smallest of opportunities to play on stage with other musicians, that in itself is sustaining and nourishing so yeah. The side effect: man! I am so looking forward to getting to spend some time with my guitar. I’m excited to get to work on songs, to practice, to get to play. All of which will be driving some of what I do for the next two weeks after this week.

I was talking to my sister, as you might have guessed we’ve talked a lot recently, and she was mentioning the challenge she was having with practicing her cello and that she thinks it’s partly the space she has for it. And I realized that that might be my issue as well.

Since I swapped the spaces for art and music, I’ve been working on a lot of art in the space for it, but the space for the music, and the guitars in particular is now, not ideal. It’s dark and sort of has the music as not the focus. It’s also the office where I do my day job. So, as you might guess, some reorganizing and rearranging needs to happen to either make it more music friendly or to find other places in my home that might work better. No. The music can’t have the art studio back. That’s not realistic.

Oh, and the reason it could drive some of the activities of the next two weeks, after this one, is because I will be on holiday from the day job and have more time to work on art, music, and tearing apart my office. It will be interesting to see what gets done because, I do have a couple of other things in mind to do while I’m on holiday. There is a possible trip to a zoo, and now, a possible a visit to Asheville. In addition to all the art and music I want to do.

A quick update on the art front. I have finally finished the Koala. I’ll be getting it posted to my store this week. I’m starting the next piece this week as well. It will be a watercolor. And as of right now, it will be a flower I came across on my daily walk. I had a request for something with more depth or more than one subject in the piece, I don’t know that this will meet those criteria. However, I do have something I might work on later down the road that would meet that. I am excited to get started on the next piece. There is a little more, finer detail for this one. I may want to take my time and a bit of extra care getting a few parts just right.

The first few pieces I’ve done this summer have been fairly quick to create. I don’t think that will necessarily hold as the norm for much longer. Many of the pieces I’m considering have features that will require more care and likely more time to get right. So, my days of the two-week turnaround from start to post on the store seem to be numbered. At least for now.

And with that. I am going to start tearing apart the office and get started on the next piece of art. Cheers!

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Too People-y

Posted on August 29, 2023 by SusanG

I’ve been trying to stay off the soapbox and stick with art or music because, well, there are lots of soapboxes out there with lots of people hanging out on top of them with much more to say and most of what I might say would just be noise. However, I’ve noticed something recently. And it triggered a thought or two. So, I’m going to share that and then get off the soapbox and back to art and music.

Many people I know, would likely say I’m not much of a people person and that I definitely fall in with the people who complain on social media about it being too people-y and about having to deal with people. And not long ago, I probably would have agreed, and related to the memes and laughed at them or commiserated or related. I’ve seen in how I feel about them which is that I don’t relate any more. I don’t find them as funny as I used to. It’s not that my world has changed so much that it doesn’t matter anymore. I work in IT for my day job, and I do sometimes marvel at some of the questions I have to answer from some otherwise very smart people. And yes, there are times, after I’ve answered the same question 4 times that I would prefer to alleviate my frustrations with the person through a little violence. This is one reason I take Taekwondo and my manager encourages me to go to class. That being said, I don’t hate people.

I like people fine. I get along quite well with most people I meet, and I put my best effort into being a welcoming and pleasant person. I’ve got no reason to be nasty to people and I try to show some patience with people, and if the opportunity presents, offer a helping hand or kind word. I’ve even been trying to do a little more of this lately. I don’t always succeed. I’m a work in progress.

One thing I’ve noticed though is the overall apparent decline in civility in the country I live in. People seem easier to anger, quicker with a harsh word, and more likely to avoid, or to want to avoid other people. Now, there is some crazy going on, I won’t deny that. But I think we are in a vicious cycle.

People are angry, scared, frustrated, unhappy, lonely, short-tempered, and hurting on so many levels. They’re like a child who doesn’t have the words for all the feelings that are overwhelming them, so they lash out. And then, other people try not to go out and deal with that. But that just means the people avoiding interactions are making themselves isolated, lonely, intolerant, and letting their social skills rust. Meanwhile, the angry people, the scared people, without a calmer or more positive interaction, or even just a little understanding, are left to their own devices and to feed off each other which just makes them angrier, lonelier, and harsher in their judgement.

I’m not saying put yourself in danger, or harm’s way, or in a position to get hurt. Or even that you need to go out of your way to get out and interact with people. I am suggesting that maybe we all need a bit of practice. Social skills need practice. We have to interact with others to learn how to interact with others. And we have to practice that because it’s really easy when you don’t have to interact with others to forget not to roll your eyes, or make faces, and so on. It’s really easy to not take the time to hear someone out when they want to talk to you about something or express their opinion, or even share something they think is really cool. We get used to living in our own world and forget that other people have their own worlds as well and maybe they want to share it.

I know it isn’t easy, especially these days. And I’m not saying I’m good at it. But when I see some of the memes on social media about not going out because of the people, or ordering online so they don’t have to go to a store and maybe talk to people, I’m not as inclined to hit the like button. Oh, I do share the occasional one that says I have a limit and now I need a shovel. We all have limits. But what if, we exercise our social skills a little more and get a little better at understanding and showing a little more patience and judging a little less. How might things change? Might they “go back” to a time when it didn’t feel so assaultive to be in public? Could we break the cycle we’re in? Could we then not feel as lonely, isolated, scared, angry? And what would that look like? What would that feel like?

Yeah, I get it. It’s a little pollyannaish. And yet, still worth looking at.

I’m going to climb down from the soapbox now and get back to some art.

I am still working on the Koala piece. I knew, when I started it that it was going to take a lot of work, so I’m not surprised to still be working on it. I’ve got a lot completed and it looks much more like the subject. There’s still plenty of refining to do and balancing which means several more hours of work. I’m really looking forward to seeing the end result.

I had planned, over this past weekend to spend time working on the Koala both Saturday and Sunday but it didn’t work out quite as I’d wanted, and I didn’t get to work on it Saturday. However, I got to spend several hours on Sunday working on it. I was really excited about that. It felt great to spend all that time on art and watching the piece build as I worked. I’m hoping to get more time to work this week and maybe a little at the weekend, though I have plans that will impact how much weekend time I have this week.

I have several ideas lined up to work on next, after I finish the Koala. I probably need to choose one and take some time to start the outline/rough in so I’m ready to go as soon as I finish this one. It makes it so much easier to keep the momentum going if I’ve started the next piece before I finish the current piece. The majority of the next pieces I’m planning will be color pieces, I think. One is a question. I’m not sure how I’m going to approach it. I also have another stippling piece planned, though I’m not starting it right away. And I’m still sorting through all the pictures I took in Houston to decide which ones I want to work from. I got some great shots, so I have lots of choices.

I only have a little music stuff to share this time. I had a thunky D string on my Les Paul, so I changed the strings this weekend. Usually, when I change strings, I don’t have music playing. And if I do, I don’t really pay attention to it. This weekend, I was listening to a playlist that I’d really been enjoying, and I did something, I don’t usually do, and haven’t done in a long time. I tried to play along with what I was listening to. I know this is not revolutionary. I know this is how you figure stuff out and learn songs from listening. I do know this. I just haven’t been doing it. There were two songs in particular that I was trying to play along with and as I was doing it, is when I realized something.

I realized, I hadn’t done that in a very, very long time and I was having fun with it because, amazingly, I might have been getting close to something that was almost the right key and maybe chords? That was exciting. It also hit me that one of the next steps for getting better might be to spend more time with the guitar and stereo than with the guitar and TABS. I’m not disrespecting TABS, or sheet music, or any of that. I just know one of the areas that I have always wanted to be better at, and that I’d have to get good at if I want to play some of the songs I like, is being able to learn to play from listening, or ‘by ear’. I’ve been intimidated by the idea of trying to learn from ear for so long, because I had the impression of it being long and tedious, and laborious. And that I’d never get it or be so far off that it was nothing like wheat I was trying to learn. So, to have sat there and done a little of that this weekend was a big step for me. And more fun than I’d expected. Now, to work that into some form of regular practice. It’s kind of exciting.

I probably sound like a broken record or maybe an over enthusiastic teen-ager when I say this, oh well. I am really excited about the current art piece, the Koala, that I’m working on as well as the pieces I have planned. I’ve got so much reference to work from with great shapes, and details, and colors. I can’t wait to get to them all. And on top of that, with the little ‘break through’, if you want to call it that, with the guitar this weekend, I’m super excited to take a new approach to my playing, learning, and practicing. It’s changed some of my mindset and I’m so looking forward to figuring out what I can do. I can’t wait to add more of that to my current routine. I’m excited. It’s going to be cool.

I’m off now to make art and music. And hopefully, someone’s day a little better. Cheers!

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