Turned on again…

30 minute design challenge

…if only for a moment.  I’m not promising myself any new changes or differences moving forward.  This time may or may not be any different from the recent past. But for now; for today, I sat down to a timed challenge out of a design magazine and in 30 minutes came up with a personal logo.  It’s nothing original, unique, or polished, but it’s a step in the direction I’m still trying to move, and today, I feel turned on to all the ideas and goals I want to keep working toward.

The Crux of Artmaking and Exercise…

I just got home from an afternoon in a demoralizing Senate hearing in St. Paul.  The room was hot, smelled of fried garlic and chives,  the mics were broken so you couldn’t really hear, there was no place to sit, and our issue was not on the agenda, although we had been asked to go there to provide testimony on it.  I left a tenant about to be evicted hanging without support just so that I could go and waste my time at the Capitol.  I’m exhausted and kind of angry. 

I have PT to do, and a jog that won’t happen. I have this blog that I have not been tending for the last two months. These things are all on my mind, but my real responsibilities for the time-being are continuing to build the husband’s website and research the legal requirements for contracts and hiring so that I can make sure he’s off to a good start.  And right now, I don’t really want to do that either. 

I remember how one of my college professors preached how art has to be made a priority, because if it isn’t it, then no time will be made for it, and it will never be made.  That conversation echoes loudly, everytime I think about the weekly drawings I have not been doing.  I have also not been getting to the gym or exercising very regularly. 

So that brings me to ask the question, How do other people manage their time; find balance in their lives; and do a little of all the things they love and are committed to?  How do they push forward to start the next job when the one they just got home from left them feeling drained and bitter? 

Ditto

The wayside is full of all the things that have fallen by it, including that previously passing wagon that I fell off of.  (Um, didn’t that sentence just end in a double preposition?)

Our first DIY add with DIY logo & flyer design

In any case, all this clutter has forced a refocusing onto the husband’s latest efforts, thus supplanting drawings about fitness, and fitness for drawings.  For his brand new business, I slapped together a webpage with “web builders for dummies” software, a “logo,” and flyers that we distributed in the hopes of drumming up some business soon. 

 Up until reality’s arrival, I’d fantasized about all the experimenting and consulting I was going to do to come up with an amazing logo that everyone would be drooling over, that would perfectly represent Mason and his new business to a tee.  Hmph!

It’s not perfect, but it will do in a pinch–namingly, this one.  So here we go on our new adventure, and I will be blazing our trail across the DIY marketing and development landscape, without a clue about what I’m doing.

Off the wagon

A print can be yours for a donation to my organization. All new donations will be matched by the Biggelow Foundation.

I have totally fallen off the wagon.  Not just the art-wagon, but the everything-wagon.  I won’t bore you with a long list of all the things I haven’t gotten around to, but instead, I will shamelessly tout the little bit of progress that I have managed over the last two weeks, and I will milk it for all that it is worth.

 My organization is doing it’s second annual fundraiser for tenants rights in June–a very fitting Treadmill-a-thon relay for renters rights in Minnesota.  The sweet part is that it will be streamed live online.   I am going to do a live relief printing demo while on the treadmill, and I will be giving prints from the block I use to anyone who donates to me here.  I don’t know yet if this is the block that I will be using for the demo, but I wanted something visual for my fundraising page.  I put a day and a half cutting as much as you see out of this hunk o’ plywood, and still need to cut out those glorious little treadmills and get the paper off the block.  I think I will add a boarder as well.

If you are clever, I bet you are thinking to yourself, “Hey–that’s gonna print backwards.”  Of course it is.  The image was flipped in Photoshop for your viewing pleasure. Once it is printed, it will read right-way as you see it here.  Only better.

All to’e up

Thanks to everyone who posted what you did for your 5k last week!  I am still excited about your stories–it sounded like there was something positive for everyone who gave it a shot.   

 Here is a drawing of my big toe–it got a purple spot on it during a six mile run back in November. It is still growing out and is getting caught on everything now.  

One of the most valuable lessons I took from art school is doing timed drawings.  This drawing is the first of what will be many 1 and 2 hour drawings.  This one was fairly easy, since it is a pretty monolithic object, so I didn’t have to exercise much thought or effort with it today,  although the colored pencils will take some time to get used to.  Hopefully, I’ll get better at building up color with them.

5k accomplished in Minneapolis and 11 other cities

I asked Facebook friends and family to participate in this event, and 18 people representing 11 US & NZ cities agreed to travel 5 kilometers however they wish.  I hope you enjoy reading comments here and in the April 4th post  from evryone who participated as much as I do! Yeah, you guys are awesome!

Saturday the 9th, one of my work-out buddies, Laura, and I ran our 5k around Lake Calhoun (3.1 miles in circumference).  Laura, ever so faithful, showed up to run sick. 

I was excited about the run, not only because of the 5k, but also because only one week ago, the lake was still covered in snow and ice thick enough to host people parasailing (or whatever the ice version is called).  Today, there is open water, and dark ice that will be gone long before next weekend.  This winter was one of Minnesota’s snowiest on record, so the signs of spring are welcomed now maybe more than usual (except for the flooding part).

Below are before, during, and after photos of Laura and me at the lake.

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Swimspirations

In the spirit of “Let’s hurry it up and move on,” this “sexy swimmer” is getting posted so I can hurry up and move on.  Not quite a horrendous drawing, but enough where I’m ready to call it quits and get going to the next thing.  Worldwide 5k or bust!!

Tonight’s swim at Master’s was great.  I got 1800 meters done in a little over an hour.  Much better than usual.  AND, the shed band-aid (you know the one I mean) lied solemnly in our lane’s deep end tonight; it’s a sight I never stop relishing, not even after 72 passes.

Worldwide WP 5k

Have you already done your 5k, or are you looking here for more information?  If you want more info, you can find it HERE.  If you already did your 5k, then you must be a super hero.  Tell all about it!  How did it go?  Where did it go?  What did you do?  Was it your first one, or your 1,000th?  Do you want to share your favorite outdoor activity instead?  I’m all ears (and eyes).

I’ll be posting my own story right back here Sunday, April 10th, so stop back by and see what other people posted too.

Sink or Swim?

Drawing in progress!

Well, I didn’t quite make my 1 week deadline on this drawing.  I gave myself a hand full of challenges with it, and they didn’t take long to kick in.  This will be my first of colored pencil drawings, and since the subject matter is a self-portrait in swim gear with no plan for anything but my head, it may get out of hand pretty quickly. It’s turning around, however, so if I stick it out, the worst it will be is a completed drawing. Right?

Scarred for life

March 1st will always stand out to me now as my first bike wreck as a grown-up.  I started riding a bike about five years ago, so not a bad track record, hu?  I always thought that getting a good fall out of my way would free me up mentally about getting hurt.  On the contrary, it hurt a lot and for a long time (even now, four weeks later my hip is still tenderized), and this has pretty much codified any “what if” types of concerns in my mind about bicycling. The consequences of falling are in fact far greater pain-wise than I had imagined them to be, and I came away with only a bruise andsome scrapes.  Still, I am  relatively whiney and jaded about the whole experience.