It is not May 28th

Hello reader. I know this seems an odd title for my very first blog post, so I will clarify by saying that there is no f*cking way to delete the (incorrect) date “May 28th,” which sits stubbornly at the top of this page. Trust me. I’m not tech savvy, but boy have I tried to change it. For the record, today’s date is November 19th, 2022.

Anyway, welcome to my blog! Take a seat. If you have ever met me in person, you will likely be expecting this to start out on the topic of art and my process of making pretty pencil sketches, but then you’re likely also prepared for some fast turns and wild tangents. So strap in and I’ll do my very best to color within the lines while making absolutely no promises.

Drawing is really tough for me, which is partly why I do it. It’s an emotional process and sometimes my drawing, much like my brain, gets stuck in a loop. I’ll see a shape, then make a line, which is very wrong, so I erase and try again, and that’s even more wrong, and so on and so forth. The end result is usually quite smudgy and I will have spent sometimes hours on the tiniest, most insignificant speck of the page.

Then sometimes it really fucking flows. Usually it’s after a night of sufficient sleep, a strong cup of matcha, and a complete lack of hangover (ie: zero drops of alcohol in at least two days). Only then do I catch the illusive wave. On these mornings (and its always morning), visual information moves from the photo to my brain to my hand to the page in a steady and uncomplicated way. These beautiful bursts of productivity last only a few hours, but it always feels like I’ve caught a wormhole in space. By the early afternoon when my matcha buzz has faded with the day’s light, so much graphite has made it on to the page. And then there is some kind of peace.

Despite knowing all of this, I still can’t always rely on these magical wormholes of productivity to be waiting for me every morning. Some days, I just don’t see it. For reasons that are out of my control, my eyes don’t always deliver and I have to walk away.

Anyway, this is just one little snippet describing one of the many battles I wage in the pursuit of my crazy dreams. I guess this particular blog post stayed on topic. The next one may or may not follow suit.

Until then, thanks for reading and for visiting my website.

Goodnight,

-Julia

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