Almost broke a promise!

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I'd entered into a local art project hosted by the Rozelle Artists Guild. I was really pushing the deadline on getting my submission in time for the book & exhibit. After a few late nights, I finished. It didn't take me so long because I'm just that good of an artists but because I'm a manic perfectionist. I just couldn't decided on what I wanted to draw & then if I wanted to keep it in pencil or color. After doing most of my sketches in pencil, I went to Walgreens to buy crayons and colored pencils. I had to basically, erase everything except the outlines just to recolor everything. Crazy, I know! I tried to scan the final book but the copies were all wacked out but I did snap a few on my trusty BlackBerry during the process. I promised you pics so here they are. Enjoy!

I took this as I was racing to the post office before it closed at 7:00pm on the last day to have it postmarked to be featured in the book.

Confessional is now open!

I don't boast about it but I'm a bit artsy fartsy when left to myself. I don't have a particular medium that I like to work with. I've tried a few different techniques over the year. My job doesn't allow for any creativity so I escape by way of quick pencil sketches. My mind gets so cluttered with random idea that a few years back I started carrying moleskin notebooks in my purse. Fairly quickly, more than half of the pages are littered with random doodles. I never show anyone because they're never anything special. It's my little secret! Once I've finished a book, I throw it into a pile and rarely do I ever go back to look at them. I picked up the drawing bug from my dad. He's the most talented artist that I know. Sadly, it's not a talent that he uses often; if ever. He's a secret doodler like me. In high school, he was granted an Art scholarship but he didn't use it. He was pushed to focus on basketball because of his height. (He's 6'9"!) When the basketball thing didn't get him into college, he just started to work. I remember the first time that I discovered he could draw. I was working on a project and asked for some help drawing a horse. In minutes, he'd sketched out the most perfect masterpiece. I contemplated signing my name on the bottom to turn it in as my own work but he wasn't having it. He took me through the steps on creating my own. And that's when the art bug bit me! I've drawn all kinds of things & recently branched out to photography. I get super excited at the opportunities to get outside to take pictures or lay out & draw. Doesn't happen too much but it's a treat when I get the chance.

I'm sure you're wondering why this qualifies as confession worthy! Well, I've been wanting to discreetly put together a collection of sketches and photos. I've been putting it off & making excuses about time and my lack of professional training. I received a random e-mail from a childhood acquaintance and wrote a super-charged motivational e-mail reply just to realize that I should be taking my own advice. Dawn Okoro's recent blog post pretty much reinforced that little voice that was telling me that I have no more reasons to run from it. I'm entering a local event where random citizens are asked to fill a small sketchpad with their creativity. I should get my book by the weekend. I'll share the final product before I turn it back in at the beginning of September.

Could it all be so simple?

I'm a mixed bag of emotions today! Instead of going into it, I thought I'd leave you with this picture of a small indulgence from last night. Thank goodness for cupcakes & Sprite!

~Tree Hugger~

The result of a cancelled lunch date & nothing else for me to do!

Now you've got me wondering!

True to my cluttered tendencies, my inbox is a disorganized mess! I have over 1600 e-mails in my Gmail inbox. This is after deleting the millions of Facebook & foursquare notifications. Sadly, I can't bring myself to delete any of these. Most include files or info that I don't want to send into the interwebz black hole of deleted files. Some are just random & funny so I keep them around for a quick laugh. I was combing through them this morning looking for a picture when I ran across two messages from someone that I was kinda-sorta dating. (I use dating loosely because so many people have their own definition. We'd gone out semi-regular basis but there was a failure to launch anything major.) Both were random pictures of me that he'd taken when I wasn't paying attention and initially I hated them both. I have no idea why I kept them. Crazy how he sent one to me while we were literally in the midst of a disagreement. I was giving him my best riot act when my phone started to vibrate in my hands. I looked down to see a message from him. I opened it and saw a picture he'd taken of me sleep on his couch exactly a week prior. I remember that exact moment because I felt like someone was standing over me but knew that he was in the other room getting ready for a meeting. I was too exhausted to wake up but I guess that I was right, huh!?!? Now that I'm looking at the pictures a couple of months later, I can't help but wonder why he took them. To me, they are pretty unattractive and boring. But I wonder what they meant to him. I want to believe that in those moments he saw effortless beauty or something magical like that. Like life's many unanswered questions, I guess this would just be another one added to the list!

*The header picture is not one of them! Thank goodness!