Make Due

The perfect conditions don't exist. Waiting for them to manifest has long been my go to excuse for procrastination. I just need this one more thing, a better night's sleep, to get over this cold, more time, etc. I guess part of it is trying to mitigate the likelihood of failure or more accurately putting off the inevitability of failure. Failing tends to reinforce the huge, unspoken, number one fear: maybe I'm actually not very good at this and I never will be. But it also precludes success.

I think I have finally accepted that doing things is the only way to get good at doing things. All the planning, preparing, contemplating, scheming is not going to get it done. Over the last year I've slowly produced some work (a lot, really) that I'm relatively happy with. Who would've thought that a consistent, sustained effort was the path to good results? Well, why not? I've tried everything else.

As to wether I'm actually any good at what I'm dedicating my time and effort to, that is yet to be determined. I do know that I am a lot happier when being creative than when I'm not. Teaching is not going to fill that need ever. It usually falls some where between an insult and something that is at least easily forgotten when five o'clock rolls around.

Now if I can just apply this new found "work ethic" to writing, learning Japanese, learning to drive, making music, exercising… sigh.

Million Dollar Idea #179

Hot Dog / Cold Dog

Everyone: Hey, Dave! Tell us what we should like/dislike, please!

Me: OK

Hot Dog 
Haw-lin

A "mood wall" is something a lot of designers and artists maintain in some form or another. It's just a collection of interesting photos, objects, or whatever has caught their eye and been stuck on a wall. They either draw direct inspiration from them or just use them to work out a general mood they are hoping to convey in a work or a series of works. I have always had something like this in my studio just as a reminder of what has been exciting me aesthetically.

I found a website created by a couple of guys who decided to have their "mood wall" on the internet for all to see. They definitely have a specific aesthetic view point and the photos fall into a few different categories: design/art, clothes/fashion, interesting looking people, quarries/rock formations, and naked ladies. The last one makes the site unsuitable to be viewed at work.

It's updated regularly and is a good way to pass some time and treat your eyes without any words to get in the way. There's no information on any of the photos (although I do occasionally find photos that have been plucked from other websites I frequent) and this adds to the allure. Purely visual.

http://haw-lin.com/

Cold Dog

Dust / Sand

Once in a while, usually in spring, the winds whip across Mongolia and Northern China stirring up the dessert sands. The sand is then caught up in the prevailing eastwardly winds and eventually drifts across Japan. This week we had a rare fall visit from a cloud of super-fine dust which, once inhaled, is as unpleasant as you imagine it would be.

Add to that, there is heavy construction going on where I work. They are tearing down concrete walls and rebuilding more earthquake-resistant ones. A good idea since we had a big earthquake a few years back, but it has filled the air with pulverized concrete dust. Not to mention the futility of holding a conversation class over the sound of jackhammers.

Add to that, I have had a string of colds that have turned into bronchitis this year.

Add to that, multiple other daily airborne attackers I face as a weakling nerd.

Bad times for my respiratory system. 

I've Got a Reason

The ridiculous idea that I could move to Japan, get a job that pays adult wages, have a studio and make art making the center of my life again is seeming slightly less ridiculous these days. Pictured above is my studio overlooking Nagasaki harbour. It's pretty much in what you'd call downtown. I feel a bit more in the mix than I did when I just walked back and forth between work and home - both in residential neighbourhoods that are shut down after six o'clock. Now I also take the bus downtown almost every day!

Nailing down reliable places to buy wood, canvas, paint, etc. is turning out to be a challenge. Nagasaki has no real art supply store so I've turned to the internet. It's been hit or miss in terms of quality but I hope I'll find that one decent place and stock up.

I hope to have an artist site up soon (no really) to show off what I've been doing, which is nothing worth showing so far. If you are keeping track, that will make a forth semi-neglected website. A mini internet empire of procrastination.