Don’t worry, I won’t complain as much as I did the last time. I mean, I don’t think I will, but I suppose I can’t guarantee anything.
My main complaint, if any now, is the time I haven’t had to make any art. Even when I find myself with some time to kill, I’m too burnt out.
The new books I’ve been working on have been sitting on my drafting table for weeks. My plan was to embellish and sew five at a time, but I’ve really only completed six altogether. I started the next batch of five, but it’s been slow-going. I think I might have a little more time during the week next week since this is the last six days of the summer semester. I completed my final paper, but you never know! I may have to rewrite it again if I get any more notes from the professor.
In the meantime, I already started reading the Intro to Sociology textbook for the class that starts in the fall. I love it! I told myself I’d just read the first chapter, but I kept going because it was so damn interesting.
It’s possible my laziness about art might just be indecisiveness. I don’t know what I want to work on next. I keep thinking about the abstract-painted wood shapes series, but my mind keeps wondering if those will be rather boring. I think they will be fun to make, but as art objects, I don’t know if they will be nearly as “exciting” as the last series of the family photographs. I know they won’t be as “important,” but oh well. I can’t make art that I think is important just for the sake of it seeming important. Sometimes there’s art for art’s sake, ya know? That’s what these will be.
The first couple of shapes I ordered were not symmetrical, so those are going to be test samples. I think, once I get started on them, I’ll know more about whether I’ll order more and keep it going.
Today, I ordered a new tool cart. It won’t be here for at least a week, and it’s a lot like the one I already use as an art cart, only I’m going to use it for actual tools. It will be kept in the garage—yet another thing we don’t have room for—but my tools are all over the place in various bags, small tackle boxes, and on the floor. It will be fun to organize them all in one place.
The one I use for my art cart is a Craftsman, but I don’t think I can afford one of those. I used to have a red Husky cart some years back, but I sold it to a kid who paid us in crypto. It was stuffed with old art supplies that I didn’t want anymore, and we were moving at the time, too. We held on to that Bitcoin ($150) for many years and eventually turned it into thousands of dollars. So, you’d think I could afford another tool cart by now, right? The new one that’s coming has one extra drawer that my Craftsman doesn’t have. I may switch them out, depending on how much room I’ll actually need for my tools.
I keep meaning to go through the garage and reorganize…everything! We have a lot of cardboard boxes, and over time, we bought some clear plastic bins. I need to put the things from the cardboard boxes into the plastic bins, which I’ve been doing very slowly over time while taking a thorough inventory. However, I’ve tried this before (taking inventory and numbering boxes), and I still can’t find my shit sometimes. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fix that. One day, I should just throw everything out since most of my crap stays in boxes in the garage, never to see the light of day. If it’s been seven years, doesn’t that mean I don’t need those things anymore? You’d think!
Speaking of which, those two paintings I somehow lost are still nowhere to be found! The gallery has been doing a full inventory, but they haven’t found them. Not to say they are definitely there. I only know they are definitely not here. There’s also a missing Houses book. I asked the gallery about that, too. That was some years back. It’s not there, I don’t think. Maybe I sold it and forgot to jot it down. I made eight of those books, and the missing one is the #5 book. Haven’t been able to locate it, but it could have easily been miscalculated somehow. My books have been shipped all over Timbuckto. Maybe I lost track of that particular one. Maybe it’s in a box. Or maybe I ate it.
Anyway, I guess I’ll start my weekend. I have big plans to lie around, watch TV, and chew on a bag of Starburst Fruit Chews. Or maybe Red Vines. Or ice cream.