So…again I haven’t written in a while. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t had anything to write about. It just means that I haven’t written in a while. I’ve actually had tons of things I wanted to write about, but my old bane, inaction, has been at it again. Maybe if we tossed the couch and the TV, I might actually get something done. I blame some of my inaction on an uninspiring work location.
I moved my laptop to the top of our book-case in an attempt to create an ad-hoc stand-up desk. It works fairly well; however, I don’t have much room to work, and since I’m just standing there facing the wall, I feel rather anti-social. It’s not an environment that is conducive to creative enterprises. It’s conducive to checking email and Facebook, and that is all. My brother and father are both building me stand up desks…eventually. They both have plans, and they will both build something amazingly beautiful, but it may be awhile. Anyway, once I get my stand-up desk(s), I am going to experiment with a little rearranging, so I can position it in front of a window instead of a wall. I stare at fabric-covered walls for 8 hours * 5 days a week, and I can’t take the wall-staring a minute longer on the weekends.
I did find a way to alleviate some of my cubicle discomfort. I purchased a piece of original, amazing art from Ryan Hayes. It’s a small piece of art that packs a big punch. It’s funny; when I first considered taking watercolor classes, I was reluctant to do so because when I thought of watercolor, I thought of poorly painted, washed-out, sad little flowers. That wasn’t what I was interested in painting. At all. However, the more watercolor work I see, the more I realize how false my prejudice was. People create absolutely stunning work with watercolor. It’s ironic, though, that the piece I bought is a painting of flowers. But it has amazing movement in it. Check it out here. See what I mean? Anyway, I hung this painting up in my cubicle. It breaks up the expanse of grey & tan and provides my eye with a much-needed visual retreat. It also reminds me that I should be doing artwork of my own.
On that note, I signed up for another art class at the Figge. This class will focus more on technique, I think. I kind of jumped into watercolor painting without have any basics in it. Hopefully this class will strengthen the foundation. While looking up the colors that I need for this class, I ran across this website: http://www.watercolorpainting.com/index.htm. It has tons of good information and tutorials on the basics (how to hold your brush, how to do a wash, etc.).
My friend, Butterbrickled, is creating an animation involving pirates and ninjas. It looks great so far, and he has enlisted my help to paint some floaty/Tiny Wings inspired backgrounds for it. I’m happy that he has assigned me a task, as hopefully it will make me actually get my gear out and get to work. I lack motivation something fierce.
I read a good article from LifeHacker today, though. The article advised just DOING something, one thing that you’ve been putting off, to get yourself out of a rut. It’s so easy to fall into a rut of inactivity, and so hard to get out. But just by taking action – any action (cleaning off your desk, for example), you can start to lever yourself out. I have about 10 things hanging over my head that I know I need to do, but I keep putting off. So, my baby step today is to finally write a blog post.
