Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday of choice. We had a nice Christmas here.
And, because it’s the New Year and it’s what people do at this time of year I’ve decided to set myself some resolutions…
The first one I’ve kept to quite well – mainly that I’ve worked on CJ daily (with the exception of the weekends) since the beginning of January. I’m loving the workshop space my aunt and uncle have granted me – my uncle even built me an additional set of shelves over the holidays so that I could house my various tools and supplies more easily.
Resolution #2 - I think I’d like to try and have all the sculpting done by a month from now (so by Feb 19th). We’ll see how that goes. I’m giving a number of costuming panels at Ad-Astra in Toronto in early April and I would LOVE to have CJ done for then (especially since one of the panels is on building puppets…) but as I’ve mentioned before for once in my life I’m not going to rush myself for what are effectively arbitrary deadlines. This is not a commission, it’s a labour of love so I’m going to take my time. In a way it IS a commission-for me. And as both patron and artist I’m going to hold myself to a fairly enacting standard.
Which brings me to my third and final resolution and the one I’m trying hardest to uphold- to not be so hard on myself! Being both a perfectionist and fairly impatient person I find it rather easy to start beating myself over things I haven’t finished yet so I’m making a concentrated effort to look at what I have accomplished instead of chiding myself for not fulfilling goals that may actually be unrealistic or unreasonable. For example I haven’t worked on CJ 7-8 hours a day , five days a week, since the start of the year as I intended. I HAVE however put in a solid 3-5 hours every day, so really, why should I berate myself for the missing time?
… It’s funny how things work out. I was finishing the rough draft for this entry yesterday during a follow-up appointment for my broken wrist (which is doing well by the way!). Anyways, on the way home in the car I happen to hear a reading of “The Chair Men” by Robert Fulghum (the “Everything I Learned In Life I Learned In Kingergarten” dude). In the essay Fulghum relates coming across two young men who, for extra credit in college, were eating a chair. Yes, you read that right – eating a chair (I found a copy online here, so if you have 5 minutes check it out. It’s short and cute.) But if you don’t have 5 minutes here’s the kicker:
For all the goofiness of the project, these young men are learning patience and perseverance. Some things cannot be had except on a little-at-a-time, keep-the-long-goal-in-mind, stay-focused basis.
I’d say you’re a lot less goofy than eating a chair CJ, but I’m going to stick with you all the same ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment