Art

Art

This one’s been stuck in my head for a few days. I sing it to myself when I’m biking to work, which can sometimes confuse other bikers–“You’re my sweetheaaaaaaaart.” Oops. Sorry. It’s such a short little sweet song that this automatically means it’s destined to be featured in many an ill-advised post college wedding. Actually, that would be a really fun playlist to make. Yep, will do that tomorrow.

I have a love/hate relationship with this new folk movement (mostly due to being confused by the frathouse reality that is attending a Mumford & Sons concert), but I’m liking what I’ve heard of the Lumineers so far. This is annoying because they were playing at the huge free bluegrass festival last weekend (hello, late to the game), which is the first year in five that I haven’t gone. This year I’m skipping out on a lot of must-go San Francisco events, and I feel just fine about it.

Art

Closer

I just found out about the new Tegan and Sara single (a couple of weeks late). It took me a few listens, but now I’m a bit obsessed with this song. It’s so darn… optimistic and fresh. It’s been a tough week so far, but this helps.

Art

Daily Doodle: Bits and Pieces

I’ve been drawing at least a little something everyday, but have been lazy about posting. Maybe I will just corral my doodles together once a week because I hate posting everyday. 🙂

Saturday: I was burnt out from four nights out. It felt something like this. Did you know that there’s a bar with a bocce ball court in Oakland? They have space out there!

Sunday: I had dinner at Shanghai Dumpling King. Two orders of dumplings + a clay pot for under $20 and BYOB??? Cheapest meal in a long time. Worth the trek.

Monday: Random

Art, Craft, Life

Courage?

This is my latest linocut. Because we all need a little encouragement…  

I’ve never thought of myself as particularly courageous, but lately people keep telling me that I am so brave. I’m pretty self deprecating, so my knee jerk reflex has been to say “No! I’m really not. I’m just doing what I have to do. You have no idea what I’m going through right now, I’m just muddling through and making it up as I go along.” Then somebody mentioned this quote to me:

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” — Ambrose Redmoon

Hunh… It stuck with me, and after a while I realized that ok, this comment, hokey as it sounds every time I hear it is in a way true. I am scared, yes, but figuring things out so that I can live the life that I want is way more important than being scared.

In my mind I imagined holding the word “brave” in my hands, and rolling it into prickly ball of letters, then pressing the jumble against my chest until they passed through to my heart and became a part of me. I’ve been trying out this new identity for the past week or so-this brave person- and I like it.

It got me wondering why I am so quick to brush things off when people say nice things about me, quick to add a qualifier, quick to say “Well it’s complicated.” Also, if people are right about this, what other obvious truths have I been missing out on?

The next time someone says something nice to you about yourself, why not skip the self deprecation and just say thank you? Why not just believe it? You are beautiful. You are capable. You are lovable. You are going to figure it all out. Things are going to be ok, really. Things are gonna be great.

 

Art

Daily Doodle: Quicksand, Monsters

Nosferatu drowning in quicksand. Did this yesterday but forgot to post it since I was really busy all day.

 

Today: Scribbled this while I was chatting on the phone with my therapist. A cheerful woman surrounded by monsters?  Hm… you could do a little psychoanalysis on that I imagine.

I am interested in eyeballs/veins/plant roots, so I’m definitely going to do a little digging online for some cool images to study. I guess if I find a goldmine I’ll make a pinterest board for it. I can see it now: “Eyeballs.”