September 21, 2008

Four years have passed since I bought my 30 page sketch book. Today, I have finally reached the last page. I’m aiming to finish the next one in three years.

I drew myself last night. I was literally jumping up and down as I was drawing. I felt fantastic. I am really happy with the outcome and that’s pretty rare, but I honestly feel that after four years of occasional drawing, I am finally getting close to the point where I can start tapping into my creative potential. That door has been closed till now, but I nudged it open a bit. I am off on an exciting journey.

September 18, 2008

I was planning to do a portrait a day, but I’ve only done two so far. Two in five days it’s not bad. I still plan to draw all of my facebook friends, so 3 down, 121 to go. I might be done by the end of next year.

Here are two of my Friday (now Thursday) lunch buddies.

Jenn

Kelly

I love the library. Not only do they have a great collection of BBC ‘corset’ movies and wonderful books, of course, but I have found movies there that I might not have watched if I would have had to rent them.

I have just finished watching Water.

I didn’t cry, but my throat is burning.

I confess I know little about India, though I love the food and the culture bits that I am familiar with. When I think of India, I see rich colors and smiles. I know India is not just that, but that is the image that presents to me when I think of it. The movie Water by Deepa Mehta lacks the color I’m familiar with, replaced by the soft water of the holy river and gray pastels of poverty.

Chuyia, is just a child when she becomes a widow and thrown into an ashram. This is her story intertwined with that of the other widows, among which are one young and beautiful, and one wise who questions the ancient religious laws.

I loved the details in the movie, such as showing Chuyia’s toes curl under her feet as she’s getting her hair cut when her husband dies. It is a gesture of impatience that also indicates her lack of understanding of what’s going on. The movie is filled with moments like that, where nothing is said, but so much more is seen.

Of course the ending is melodramatic, but full of hope.

September 13, 2008

I spent Friday evening drawing a portrait of my cousin Alex. I need the practice and I decided, because I think it amuses people, to try and draw someone every day. Thank god for facebook and its photo galleries.

I don’t know how I came about reading "Vampire Kisses" , but it was like watching a movie that I have obviously outgrown. I might have liked this book when I was 10, but at 29 years of age... well, at least it was short. It’s not the worst book of the year that I’ve come across, no, that prize still belongs to "Breaking Dawn", but it’s certainly the book I’ve enjoyed the least besides "Breaking Dawn". It’s not really the book’s fault, it just wasn’t meant for me, though there are plenty of books for younger audiences that I love.

I’ve read "Stardust" too because I liked the movie, which wasn’t as good as "The Princess Bride", but it still had its charm. Well, I think I liked the movie better, even though the book had more magic in it than the movie showed, I do believe that the final ‘epic’ battle from the movie made more sense than having no fight at all. That witch was evil, I can’t believe she’d just walk away, just because the star fell in love and her heart rendered useless as far as the witch was concerned. She’d want revenge. And shouldn’t have Tristan revenged his uncles and killed the witch first before becoming ruler of Stronghold? Most often I like the book better than the movie version, but in this case there are bits and pieces that I’ve liked better in the book and bits and pieces that I’ve liked better in the movie. As far as the romance between the star and Tristan is concerned, it’s not obvious that it’s going to happen, it’s just suddenly thrown at the reader in the last few chapters. I find it that often the reader knows that two characters love each other before they know it themselves. That’s true in real life too, you first fall in love and then it takes you a while to realize that. So far, I think women are better at writing romance, or maybe they write it in a way that appeals to me more.

September 6, 2008

"It’s interesting" he said.

"Interesting" is a replacement word for "I don’t really like it and I don’t want to tell you that". I agree. It sucks. I’m disappointed myself. It was not supposed to look like a leopard shed its fur on it! Well, this should be my lesson that without continuous practice, I’m never going to get what’s in my head on paper the way I want it.

At least I read a fun book yesterday. I wonder what I bought that Amazon recommended to me "The Year of Secret Assignments" by Jaclyn Moriarty. Anyway, I trusted the Amazon’s software suggestion and I had a great evening. I laughed out loud! It reminded me of the time when I used to have international pen-pals, though my letters never got that outrageous as in the book. They were funny, I have a few I didn’t send because in Romania the one dollar that would cost to mail a letter across the seas was quite a fortune. But my letters were not offensive or shocking because I wanted to write them and of course they were also not part of an entertaining book; I wasn’t forced by an English teacher to write them, so I had no resentments when writing. E-mails and all the social websites that exist nowadays are nowhere near as exciting and romantic as a plain letter with a stamp that takes two weeks to get to destination. I used to wait for the mailman, now he only brings bills. It’s not his fault. If I don’t write letters anymore, I can’t expect to receive any.

September 3, 2008

I have been very slow working on this drawing. I must be waiting for something before I can finish it, but I am not sure what. It has been sitting on my desk for four months now. Here are some of the latest pictures. There are multiple things that went through my mind while working on this. Initially I started on it when I reconnected with lost family. It was an expression of my broken connections and of how much they can hurt. Blood is not always thicker than water. I also tried to integrate in it the wish and the idea of a perfect family that I’ve had as a child. Later on, I also thought more about the hard work involved in building a family and like every house that doesn’t have a solid foundation, it will fall apart.

In looking for books for my book club, I read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Birth House by Ami McKay. I am not sure which I liked best. An interesting thought occurred to me that all the books I’ve read so far for this club, including The Witch of Portobello, were about women who challenged the views and beliefs of the society around them. This was completely unintentional. The Witch of Portobello was picked by the club, the other two books I bought at the same time based on their cover and title because I don’t like reading the back flap before reading the book. I like jumping straight into the story knowing nothing. I think that’s why I also try and keep from saying too much about the plot of these books. I’d hate to ruin it for anyone.

When I started reading The Secret Life of Bees, I thought I was going to have to pull an all nighter. The first 100 pages were a rollercoaster ride and I had a very hard time turning off the light and going to bed. The book slows down, but it’s filled with so many beautiful details of home, love, companionship and of course bees and honey that it’s mesmerizing till the end.

I didn’t cry reading The Birth House, but I silently suffered, hoped and laughed along with the women in it. Books like this make me wonder what my life would have been like had I been born a century earlier. Something tells me that I probably wouldn’t have gone to school and unless I were a spinster, would probably have had a few children to care for already. I was amused by some of the ideas the characters had on how to get pregnant or on how not go get pregnant.

I felt cheated by the ending in The Witch of Portobello. I was hoping for a Jesus like ending, but now that I think about it, it kind of was like that, but in a 90’s kind of way.