today i took my journal in to my daughter’s speech therapy appointment so i could work on my drawing of the day while i waited for her. i turned to the next page to find a scribble drawing. so, like with the clouds, wood grain, and blankets–i found a picture in the scribble.
turns out it was a duck-billed dandy lion.
this is why i don’t do drugs. things like this are running around in my head already.
draw an ink picture for every day of october! that sounds more like a good time than a challenge. i am all over this. my friend for 40 years now (no…that’s impossible) told me about INKtober on facebook and i peed myself with excitement. i immediately tried to draw one of my dogs & failed. okay, realism is not my cup of tea. so then this guy came out of me. my sons named him “phil.” i wanted to draw him with a fencing sword but messed up his hand. i went & got a mirror so i could see how he would be holding his hand, but my minions went mad over the mirror (???) and left me unable to model for myself. i was feeling strangely self-conscious about it to begin with. i really really need a room of my own.
anyhoo! see, i am one of those people who needs deadlines & structure enforced by an outside entity in order to produce art in a timely manner. that is why school worked so well for me. when i have no demands for production, i wander off & do other things like dig holes in the ground and chase sheep. so that is why i was so excited to have a challenge that would actually be more like a vacation. drawing a picture a day! with ink!!!!
in other news, on the new moon, i had a break-through. my brain had been itching with an idea that i could not quite reach, and through a messaged conversation with my friend who is somehow in her 40s, i had an epiphany. it is going to be awesome. she instructed me to keep it to myself. i assured her that no one actually reads my blog (other than the truly devoted), however, i guess i will wait & surprise y’all with it. it will probably start emerging here in the #inktober excitement. also, more pages of moses jones can be part of my ink drawings a day! so exciting. so exciting.
a wonderful friend whom i have known since second grade (that is 1978 for those of you unaware of my timeline) sent me a book on chinese brush painting that teaches “the four gentleman” as part of its practice. plum blossom. bamboo. chrysanthemum. and orchid. this is my first attempt at painting them–and! a thank you set for my lovely friend who is also an artist and has her work here.
also! just a couple of quick sketches i did using ink & brush and the topic of stark raving whimsy.
and! because i have no minions to monopolize…er…i mean…enrich my time–i am able to do other projects i have thus far only done in my head. mostly with buttons. i love buttons.
i have a week with no kids!!
no kids!!
i have not had a week with no kids since the invention of my kids in 2005. that’s going on eleven years, people.
so i have all this nervous energy that i usually use to herd children that i now am using to see how much i can get done in a week without kids.
i started this experiment of ink on canvas about–what–2 months ago? now i am actually working on it. i like it.
plus!
i have an idea for a comic starring me & my lizard brain.
plus!
i am going to start on a series of steampunk chinese brush paintings using my stark raving whimsy storyline.
plus!
i am working on script for new pages of mojo.
plus!
i am doing this with the buttons i have been obsessively collecting from thrift stores:
do let me know if you have any button jewelry needs. i am your quixotic mama.
here’s a doodle from my journal.
i am working on a new page. i have some words…some panels…. now i wait for a break in the chaos to pencil in some interactions between mojo & dusty.
man, she is stupid for that man.
i know the feeling.
i hope to have it finished today.
okay, just kidding.
a page a week?
maybe i can beat that this week.
we’ll see.
the end of the month looms large and rents want to be paid…as well as a bill for internet, gas & electric, car insurance, credit card bills….
i am a broke-ass mama. dusty needs a raise. i need to make money. he won’t ask for a raise, and i let every injury cripple me and convince myself that there is no way in hell anyone would ever pay me for art…or writings…or, god forbid, art & writings such as moses jones.
i will keep creating whether or not i get paid for it. as i posted yesterday, i want to draw.
but wouldn’t getting paid be nice? wouldn’t it be nice to not lay awake at night wondering how i will pay the bills? wouldn’t it be nice to not have to borrow? wouldn’t it be nice to have enough money that i could, in turn, support other artists?
so i guess i will try. i am going to try to create single works that can be made into print. maybe try to sell small prints & cards with my artwork on them. i’m going to try.
any advice, encouragement, magic confidence powder…etc. would be appreciated on the matter.
or, if you are just feeling generous, i do have a “support an artist” paypal donate link on my sidebar. if someone were to donate, i would hope i could repay them with some original art. but i’m a mess right now…so i can’t make any promises.
i’m talking to you too, universe. putting it out there. i am more than wiling to support my family with my art–but a little seed money–a little encouragement–would be greatly appreciated.
i sit in a borrowed house that is home until the end of july. peaceful chaos abounds. not quite a room of my own but also not staying in a guest room. not being forced to “helicopter parent” my children for fear they will break, damage or be damaged in another person’s living space. parenting in someone else’s space has to be one of the most stressful ways to parent. parenting with an audience–also extraordinarily stressful. add in stressed out minions who are amped up on uncertainty and lack of familiar routines…it is a perfect storm of a parenting nightmare.
in the nick of time, before i lost what was left of my mind, a friend of mine abandoned her house, leaving the door open for us to squat here for a few weeks.
i miss moses jones. i think this journal page shows how much i miss her.
yesterday, at an impromptu birthday party for me, a friend of a friend who is involved with the michigan womyn’s festival asked if she could use some mojo for the back cover of the zine for the festival. i agreed–though i do worry about some of the politics–i mean, i am a feminist, but i am a very inclusive feminist…a feminist who believes that all the infighting among women should stop and we should be a united front…and that one of our best hopes for the future is to raise feminist sons as well as feminist daughters….. anyhoo, one of my early early moses jones pictures (done for an art class) is about to be used as the back cover for this zine. it will be cool to get some exposure.
speaking of zines, i am hoping to get the final pages of this episode finished & have two zines for the madison zine fest this year. hopefully, now that i have a space almost of my own, i will be a bit more productive.
here is page 35–which i completed at the same time as page 34. two birds & all that. i need to start working on the next couple of pages. i am also house hunting…does anyone want to rent to a very entertaining family of six? budding graphic novelist mom, superior chef dad, four brilliant and precocious children? high drama! action-packed! fresh veggies! (i love to garden and am hoping to find a place with a yard & garden to putter in.)
so there’s that. house hunting for an affordable but livable place for a family of six is challenging. to raise the stakes, we have waited until the last minute to do so. i am afraid we are going to end up living with dusty’s mom–sort of crazy; no space but near by…or my parents–extremely crazy; lots of space; in a different state.
can i combine my comic blog with a house hunt blog? ha!
i’m posting later than usual. in the week…in the day…all that. i just finished pages 34 & 35. i did the two pages together–which i thought would be faster…hmmm.
life is complicated. and…that’s an understatement. in addition to all my other challenges, we need to find a new place to live. like…right now. or by the end of the month. i fear we will be crashing at the homes of relatives. scary.
in other news, i started reading understanding comics by scott mccloud. by understanding comics, i am understanding why mine is so underwhelmingly received. ha! seems people prefer a more simple type of portrait with a more realistic background. something about the brain’s perception and how one relates to comics. as with most other things in life, i am weird &/or doing it all wrong. i have my comic posted at deviantart.com. one fan mentioned that due to my comic being “different” it would not attract as big a fan base. i draw what i like to look at. i write what i like to read. i don’t really write or draw to an intended audience.
oh well.
being unpopular & misunderstood is my badge of honor. ha!
but here is page 34! moses jones endures. we’re in the woods. looking for morels & hoping not to find zombies.
is that a star wars quote? “almost there?” is that what the bearded pilot is saying before he gets blowed up in episode IV? sometimes i wonder if it has gotten to the point where everything i say or think is a movie quote. i was writing a poem for my other blog and it kept sounding familiar to me. then i realized my poem was heavily influenced by horton hears a who.
ha!
anyhoo. i got some work done last night as dusty was off sorting things out with his hello kitty ex-girlfriend. i was able to work until poppy woke up and demanded that i come to bed. how is the nighttime weaning going, you ask? yeah. about that. the kid is a tyrant. it is still on my to-do list. things have been topsy-turvy round bouts here. nighttime weaning has fallen between the cracks. one day….
i inked in the rough draft of page 35 and started doing brush work. that is the next step after inking with a pen. i go in and do the ink brush in layers. i got the blacks done. now i will work on the lighter shades. maybe today?
moses jones: apocalyptic mama 