Wasting Away in Captivity, part 2

As part of my strategy for dealing with Covid-Adjacent Malaise [CAM], I am forcing myself to waste art supplies and just ABORTIVE ATTEMPT all over the place.

I recently learned there’s a name for my underlying condition: SABLE, which stands for stash acquisition beyond life expectancy. Hoo boy, do they have my number!

Just on my drafting table alone:

Colored pens, pencils, crayons; inks; brushes, pens; glues; art paper; scrapbooking paper; wire, mica flakes; yarn.

Not seen: a cabinet of paper/printing supplies; a stack of cardboard and drawing/painting tablets; a tackle box full of gouache. Downstairs: a wooden easel case with more gouache/brushes; another stack of tablets; small tubs of acrylic paints; drawing supplies; alcohol inks.

I could waste supplies for more than a year and never run out.

So let’s see what I vomited forth today.

First, a bit of my vintage mechanical drawing printouts, plus some white ink.

Here’s how this works: Go with your impulse. After gluing down the circle, I dribbled the ink onto the cardboard, then decided I should smear it. Do it.

And of course, after you ABORTIVE ATTEMPT, step back and GESTALT. What’s missing?

How about some wire?

Does it need more? More what? Let’s let it sit there and annoy us for a while.

I’m using these little pieces of cardboard for my wastings. Cecil the Pest™ gets urinary tract blockages if we feed him regular cat food, so he gets special noms; those little cans come packed with these pieces of cardboard between the layers—I save them for wasting.

(Again, do not be fooled into thinking he’s a cute, wee thing. He is a 20-pounder and is somewhere on the spectrum.)

With this one, I deliberately trimmed the text sheet so that it was not straight. Then the blob of black paint sort of obviated whatever I thought I was going to accomplish with that…

Not super pleased with this, BUT THAT’S THE POINT: I GET TO CREATE CRAPPY CRAP AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME, NOT EVEN — ESPECIALLY NOT — ME.

The straight lines became a motif.

First, leftover black paint:

Some straight lines later…

Very Gottlieb, that. Which led to this experiment:

I decided to explore the colored pencils a little more. One thing led to another and…

The lines of red thread leading to the corners was completely an accident: while pulling the one on the right tight, it snagged on the corner. Okay, I thought, let’s do the other one, too. Pay attention to your mistakes.

This one started on art paper instead of the waste cardboard.