Updates, and some whining (updated)

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I complained on Twitter this morning that I had nothing about which to blog, and that’s basically true.

All my projects are awaiting further developments:

  • Lizard decoration: I ordered a bunch of fun paint from Culture Hustle, the blackest black and other stuff, and I’m waiting for it to get here before exploring the lizard further

    • I will say that I’ve decided on a wicked mini-art project for the burn: take a small cookie tin, paint it with the Black 3.0, and leave it on the altar in the middle of 3 Old Men’s labyrinth. Inside? Either one of the metallic paints or the phosphorescent, with some kind of LED light. Experimentation is called for — but this will be a great hippie trap: a container that defies human vision, with a brightly lit interior. Shades of Repo Man!

  • Fence art: All my supplies are in. I just have to wrangle some time at Backstreet Arts, which is closed for the duration. I have an in, of course, and I am not above abusing it to be able to use the long tables and decent sewing machine.

    • Our 40-year-old sewing machine is finally biting the dust. I went to look at replacements, and ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO NEVER SEWED BEFORE THE PANDEMIC NEED TO STOP BUYING SEWING MACHINES.

  • GALAXY project: I need the weather to turn sunny for a few days so I can get out to my work table to solder some more test loops in the 5mm EL wire. (I have no indoor shop.)

  • AlterAlchemy placement map: Just waiting on the hippies to register their fake camps. Bless their hearts, the Captivity has weighed their spirits down so much that their creativity (and their sense of the absurd) is thoroughly dampened. So far, I have been unable to jolly them up, but I will persevere.

Having said all this, I do have some tasks to take care of. For one thing, Boll Weevil Press is publishing its first young adult/middle grades book, a mystery from a British author (!), and I have to get that designed and laid out sooner than later. (It’s on my to-do list for today; let’s see how that goes.)

And of course I have finished the text for Lichtenbergianism for Kids, so I need to start illustrating that and laying my own book out.

HOWEVER. Let’s face it, we’re all swamped by the Captivity. We’re all missing our scenius, our social distractions, our friends. What does it matter if I don’t get Lichtenbergianism for Kids done? No one is clamoring for it. No editor is breathing down my neck. No publisher is threatening to claw back their book advance. Twitter is not screaming at me to get it finished. So if I don’t? Meh. Have another cocktail.

I’ve seen other artists — writers, musicians, visual artists — express the same kind of frustration online, and I wish I had a ready solution. It’s all well and good to say ESTABLISH A ROUTINE or WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS or JUST DO IT, but the reality is that reality sucks at the moment. It’s going to take a while for all of us to re-orient our souls to the new minefield.

The old minefield was bad enough.