I had a good art night last night. Didn’t even stay up all night. Sat on the floor with my large newsprint pad, my box of conte’ crayon bits, and my one surviving charcoal pencil, and I did one very large sketch. So I didn’t get a whole lot done, but I did finally “go back to the beginning” –something I have been trying to do all year– by revisiting a motif from my early works. This has had the effect of setting my muse on fire, and provided Lin gets home at a reasonable hour, I will likely be running to the craft supply store to get a few things, most notably a new sketchpad, drawing pencils, and more charcoal (maybe). Oh, and fixative spray. Maybe even some new canvases. Yes, it looks like I will be spending a chunk of my iPad savings for art supplies.

I wish I enjoyed working in charcoal more than I do. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, because I do (a lot), but it’s the scratching sound it makes on the paper that drives me insane. I just can’t stand that sound! I do like the getting dirty aspect of working with charcoal though. Has anyone noticed I like making a mess while making art? I have. So have the cats and the husband … and my kitchen floor.

Also, I’ve been thinking about the drafting table. It was my dad’s, and I always meant to keep it (and use it) forever, but … I don’t use it. I don’t like using it. I like that it’s my dad’s drafting table, but as everyone may have noticed, I don’t actually make art at a table. I like to be able to moved the piece anyway I like or to crawl around it. I like coming at it from above and flat. In fact, I think trying to use the drafting table has been the very thing holding me back in my artwork. So while I don’t want to get rid of it, because it was my dad’s and holds a lot of meaning to me, it’s huge, and I don’t have a lot of room in my house for huge things without purpose or use.

I won’t just sell it either, because I am incapable of selling things that hold meaning to me to just any old stranger. What I’d like to do is pass it on to some struggling artist or organization or school, where it can really do some good and help someone out. I don’t even know how I’ll go about finding such a person or group, but I guess it’ll come to me when it’s time and I’m ready. As much as I would like it gone, to reclaim space for the way I like to work, I am going to have to work at letting it go. It really does mean a lot to me, and I am afraid I’ll be sad when it’s gone … which is why finding just the right home for it feels so important. I know, it’s crazy. I’m going to play the “she’s an artist (and therefore weird)” card on this one. Who knows, maybe once I can get it out of the kitchen I’ll change my mind and want to keep it.

UPDATE: Drafting table problem solved. That was quick, huh? One young artist in need found, right in the group of people I call family. Now I have until August to disentangle my emotions from the object.

No real plans for the day. Since it looks like it’s going to be hot, humid, and possibly raining –it’s quite dismal and gray at the moment– I imagine I will putter around the house and do a little cleaning, and then I have a couple of logo ideas I am playing with for a couple of friends. Today seems like a good day to do that, since I can’t really work in the garden, and I hate doing housework when it’s so dark and nasty.

But first, breakfast.

And there will undoubtedly be a nap. There’s almost always a nap.