Urban Fey Friday Update

… its still Friday somewhere.

Page 20 of Vol 2, Ch 5 is now posted.  The fact that Bodymod and Subway are becoming way too cute together is not the reason there’s been delays this week.  We, alas, cannot attribute this to cuteness overload.  Rhea was sick Tues and Wed but is much better now and even caught up.  She also had a test Thurs which I’m sure buys her some level ofleniency.

And to add to the Friday the Thirteenth insanity, both Rhea and I blogged today! Really, this isn’t a sign that the world is ending.  We both just happened to independently feel motivated to blog. I know, weird.

We sincerely hope you enjoy all our creative weirdness.

Horizons

I just finished reading  The Magician’s Elephant by Kate Di Camillo* with my eleven year old son. It’s a fantastical story of horizons, of bringing the impossible into the here and now. It’s a story of promises and of undoing what has been done, though things never fully return to where they were. It is a children’s book from which adults can learn.

And as my son played while I read the last chapter to him, I found myself thinking of horizons. We ask children, “What will you be when you grow up?” I have children who take this question very seriously and have always fumbled with an answer, careful of committing to a course of action far too soon. Each of them have, on such occasions looked at me with puzzled expressions as if to say, “How can I make such a promise now? I don’t even know what all my options are.”

I’m glad we’re not held to such statements. At ten, I declared in a school assignment that I would become a secretary just like my mother. My world was very small then and the options were not at all clear to me. Secretary, teacher, nurse. My horizon was limited and close. As I grew older, I learned of women doing so many other jobs and pursuing so many other options. My horizon expanded. I trained in science. My heart secretly held the desire to be a writer. Science could, in theory, pay the bills so it seemed so much more practical. I chose to do graduate school in New Mexico – a place of very broad horizons – not because it was the best school to offer me a position but because the desert vistas and mountains called to me, whispering incessantly that there is more to life than one hat, the horizon is broader than I knew.

I am now midway through my life’s journey and I realize the horizons are even broader than I had thought when I was in college. I have worn a number of hats over the years, none of them fully capturing and defining who I am. I look at the horizon and I see more possibilities, more hats to try. While I will never be able to try them all, I do think that I have many more things to be. Writer is one, photographer, mother, wife, friend, minister, organizer, listener, defender, lover … who I have been, who I am and who I will be changes and flows across the landscape of my life towards horizons I cannot yet imagine.

When someone now asks me or one of my children, “What will you be when you grow up?” I suggest the following answer : ”Many things, all of them wonderful.”

From the book, The Magician’s Elephant :
“Magic is always impossible,” said the magician. “It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between.  That is why it is magic.”

May your life be magic.

*The Magician’s Elephant, by Kate DiCamillio, Candlewick Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7636-4410-9

Thursday Art Mania- Ninja Bread

There are many ways in which my perception of myself doesn’t match who I actually am. You would think realizing these things would at least allow me to adjust my expectations of myself and have a more realistic self-image but there are some things I just can’t seem to let go of.

For example, I like to think of myself as an observant person. It only makes sense that an artist and illustrator would have an excellent ability to discern small visual details. And while I can be fairly observant when I’m actually TRYING, I seem to spend most of my time being impossibly oblivious.

Case in point: Earlier this week I realized what was left of last month’s bread had gone bad and had to toss it out. This made me sad because I’ve been craving bread and jam all week and had a brand new jar of delicious blueberry jam. Unable to get to a grocery store I spent days moping about my lack of bread, lamenting the unopened jar of awesome blueberry goodness in the refrigerator.

Then last night I look over and suddenly realized there is a brand new, perfectly good loaf of bread sitting right there on the counter. How long has it been there? I must have bought it last weekend. How did I forget I bought bread? How did I not notice it sitting on the counter all week, perched between the cereal and crackers? Mysterious indeed.

Other examples include not noticing when I pass friends on the street, being oblivious to street names and addresses, and generally being perceived as a space cadet.

I think the problem is that I’m always trying to observe things, and as a result I end up NOT observing a lot of things. “Sorry, I didn’t notice you there! I was busy looking at the light between the trees across the street. Isn’t it pretty? Ooh look, a bunny!”

… that still doesn’t explain the ninja bread thing.

Urban Fey Monday Update

Page 19 of Vol 2, Ch 5 is now up.

We also changed the homepage so the current page posts on it again.  We figured that would work better since we’re now doing updates three times a week and only one page at a time. It’ll mean fewer mouse clicks for you – I wouldn’t want to be contributing to anyone’s carpal-tunnel problems.

Urban Fey Friday Update

Page 18 of Vol 2, Ch 5 is now posted.

In other news, you can follow us both on twitter : @paradoxarts and @kimlongewing

Thursday Art Mania: How to Make Art and Not Be Crazy

Scheduling is, admittedly, not something I am good at. I have a mix of spontaneity, rebelliousness, and anxious perfectionism that causes me to make elaborate work schedules and then completely ignore them. This is my current schedule (that I am completely ignoring):

Schedules like this help a little in that they make sure I’m not trying to do anything blatantly impossible (like work 120 hours a week), and making schedules relieves my occasional problems with anxiety. But following them doesn’t help me be more productive; it just makes me restless and procrastinate which in turns makes me stressed out and crazy. I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out what DOES make me more productive, and what makes me productive AND sane. Here are some things I’ve learned:

1. Don’t go it alone. Find other creative people in your area. Meet up with friends that are also artists or writers. Being with other people that are excited and committed to creative work is incredibly enriching. It’s reassuring to know you’re not the only person who cares about creative work (whether that be comics, or art, or writing…) It doesn’t have to be a group for critiques. For me friends that just hang out and work on projects together is enough, and I actually find that groups specifically geared towards critique can hurt rather than help my creative process.

2. Get out of the house. Go outside, walk around. Work in a coffee/tea shop for a while, or go to a friend’s house and work there. Working somewhere else for a while can help keep things from getting boring and keep you motivated. And, going back to point 1, working around other people will make you stay focused.

3. Keep track of your hours. Set a goal every month for how many hours you’d like to work and record your progress. This keeps you in the mindset of “I need to work on art now” without being too restrictive like a schedule. It’s also satisfying to be able to tell exactly how much work you’re putting into your projects so you don’t get caught in a “why aren’t I more productive ahhh!’ tailspin.

4. Share your work. Seriously, get it out there. I know it’s not perfect yet, but sharing is the best way to get over performance anxiety and realize that “perfect” isn’t the goal with art (or with anything).

5. Know what’s reasonable. This is a tough one. I always feel the drive to do more than is actually possible (remember what I said earlier about working a hundred hours a week? Yeah…) But figuring out what can reasonably be accomplished is tricky and can mostly be found out by lots of trial and error. My rule of thumb is: figure out the MOST you could possibly do, and then try to do no more than 80% of that. If I THINK I can draw ten pages this week, I try to draw eight. If there’s time left over, I take a break or do something unrelated to my creative work. If I can’t get that done then I know I’ve overestimated myself and try for a smaller goal next time. Accept that you are human and there are limits to what you can do. I find that when I work within my limits I get more done than when I’m trying to be superwoman.

6. Take at least one day off each week. Rest, read a book, go for walks, hang out with friends, clean your house. If you must do anything creative, just doodle or write some silly poetry. One thing about working from home is that you can never get away from work, so forcing yourself to take a day off is very important to avoid burn out. This particular piece of advice, by the way, is the one I’m worst at following myself.

There are other things you can do too, of course. These are just the ones I follow, that seem to work for me. Does anyone else have any good advice for working creatively and staying sane?

PS.  I know it’s been forever since I last blogged here guys, but twitter is actually helping me get more into the blogging groove.  Weird, since everyone acts like twitter is somehow going to destroy longer blogs.

Urban Fey Wednesday Update

Page 17 of Vol 2, Ch 5 is now posted.

Rhea says that tiny subway in panels 1 and 3 is adorable but a lot of his cuteness gets lost in the image resize.

I say you should consider that a reason to buy the print version next Spring so you can appreciate all his adorable concerned expressions.

Urban Fey Monday Update

Page 16 of Vol 2, Ch 5 is now posted.

Urban Fey Friday Update

Page 15 of Vol 2, Ch 5 is now posted.

If I had thought ahead, I would have had Rhea do a Halloween bonus of the cast going trick-or-treating or carving pumpkins. I can just see Bodymod in a bunny costume or Neon as the Sandman.  Maybe Subway could dress up as a transformer.  *grins*  What costumes do you think they’d wear?

Urban Fey Wednesday Update

Page 14 of Vol 2, Ch 5 is now posted.

I love Shade’s expression in the second panel.  It looks like he wants to say, “Wait! This isn’t how the script goes! Rewrite!!”