Mumas (moo-mas)

These are the things that live in my head.

There were dark things that lived in the nooks and crannies in my room as a child, and they only came out when I would go to bed at night. I couldn't see them, but I knew they were there. They were faceless and gray, covered in dust and lint, coming and going from dark and desolate places.

I would lay as still as possible in the hopes that I would dissolve into the blankets and bedsheets, become one with my pillows, because I knew they were watching.

Always watching.

Just watching.

And as they watched, I'd fall asleep in my frozen state.

In the morning my grandmother would come in and find me still in bed, afraid of getting up because there might be a muma under my bed, ready to snake out and grab at my bare foot. She'd look under the bed, swatting the floor underneath with her hand, and cheerfully declare that there wasn't anything under there except dust bunnies as she'd pull one out to show me.

I on the other hand knew that those weren't dust bunnies. That was the stuff that the mumas left behind, the stuff that rolled off their gray cloaks.

For Illustration Friday: linked. Three linked figures representing my childhood fear of dust bunnies.

The Rescue (in progress).

Still a ways to go, but figured I'd post it anyway.

Close up to show some of the gold detail.

(Low light and no flash, so color is a bit skewed.)

In progress scan.

Blackline.

Illustration Friday: Expired

The sketch after it was scanned and the line-work darkened.

Ready for transfer to a larger surface.

Snapshot taken with my rinky-dink camera.

I figured I'd better post this now or it would never make it into this week's Illustration Friday. I haven't done an IF post in over three months (look at me talking like I've done sooo many of these when I've only done one before). Plus I figured that since I'm such an absentee blogger.... well, you get the gist.

I actually drew this for Expired thinking I would sketch it so small, and so simple, that I could complete and create a color version all in the span of a few days. Of course, I didn't consider my schedule of many, many other important things that I had to accomplish this week, nor the fact that my right shoulder was still trying to heal up and that any movement within the length of my arm, including the hand, would just set me back another day of being an invalid (more on this shoulder nonsense in another post since I know how much all of you enjoy hearing about my misfortunes).

Of course I fell into the same pit I always do. I started on a small, scrap-sized piece of paper. This not being adequate enough (I had no room to think for goodness sake!), I moved up to my medium sized 6" x 9" sketch book, making a huge jumbled mess of useless sketches. I then realized that I needed even more room to think, so I moved up another size to my 12" x 12" book. Gah!

Gah!

And I still thought I could complete a stained and colored version (still disregarding the ever-all-important to-do list).

Well, I had to give in to the more important things. One has to be an adult sometimes - really - sometimes. (I mean, you can't be an adult all the time because then life would be really boring. How droll.)

I'm actually really excited about this sketch.... so many ideas for this running through my noggin. This was pretty dark stuff coming out of my head (so dark it was blinding! hehe ( ....ok... that was cheesy)).

Goodbye studio.

My studio on the last day.

Most of February I spent packing all my worldly possessions that I had stowed away in my studio (more like strewn about my studio), and began cramming them into my tiny car. It was a great many trips to and fro. I would squeeze about six boxes into my car and some loose items and that would make one full load. I would need many hands to count the amount of trips I took.

I'm tired of moving. Reaaally, reaaally tired.

(I'm doing this to myself, aren't I? So I really should quit complaining.)

The final week of moving was sabotaged by bad weather. The day before I was to be fully out of the place, it looked like this:

This is not picturesque, or New England-y.

This is crappadoodle for drivers.

So. Didn't do much art during the month-long move. But, I did work on getting my taxes prepped and ready, took Preston to the dentist (oh how traumatic! for me anyway! listening to a yowling cat in the car while maneuvering snowy, slushy streets), and started on a freelance project (I think there were a few drooling, catatonic states dispersed in there somewhere).

Wait, wait... I did do some art... I finished five drawings.... (see, I can barely remember that I did this, much less when, and how).

Crazy friggin month that February. Hey, at least I made it a full year in the studio (that's longer than the last two places I lived in).

Zodiac update.

A few of the zodiac pieces are finished. Some that I have started I completely scrapped, and I'm planning on revising the drawings for those (woooo, I get to stain paper again...wooooo). I'm wondering if I should wait till I have all of them completed before posting them here, but at the same time, it may be fun to just post them. Hmmm. Not sure. Hmmm. Well, I've at least posted the revised sketch for Gemini. Actually, I completely scrapped the old sketch and came up with a whole new fancy one. (I just can't keep things simple.)

I'm keeping this post short, not because I don't have anything to write about, but quite the opposite. I could tell a great new story about the lemon, but I won't because then I would be up all night trying to compose it. There would be a crazy hurricaney snowstorm, and a whole part about being stranded, and then another part about being stranded again for a completely different reason (it all has to do with the lemon, yes it does). It would be quite an exciting story, but much too long to recount (at this late hour). So a picture of a sketch will just have to do for this post.

No picture. Not today. Nope.

No pic today. I haven't done a "no pic" post in a long time. So without further ado:

No picture! Ta Daaa!

So, thank you all for giving me a kick in the ass regarding that last post. I have to say, between emails, texts, Facebook messages, a few posts here, and contacts from out of the blue...

I hear YOU ALL. Loud and clear. I mean, my bum hurts. From your kicking! ;0D

(Oh look, an emoticon, on my blog, how'd that get here? How inappropriate!)

Well. The holidays have come and gone. I'm not sad to see them go. Preston is doing very well. He's had his million dollar treatment and now he has turned into a semi-calm, fluffy, ball of fuzz. The stress of my cat being sick really got me into a downer, and I fell into a puddle of stress and constant worry. As soon as that was over, some freelance work appeared out of nowhere, and that is where I have been all this time: worriedly busy, or busily worried (not sure what I'm trying to say here, but I hope I got it across).

I've also decided to quit my studio (that sounds very British "quit my studio"), or dispose of it, release it, etc. As spaces on my studio floor have been rented out, it's become much noisier, and I miss the quiet solitude of the building. It was so still and silent, that the air was almost heavy with it (but not quite). It was the perfect place to hunker down and work. My other reasons for quitting the place: it's absolutely freezing right now, and the electric heat does not warm a single molecule in that cavernous space, and over the summer, the heat killed my plants! One by one! That was more upsetting than anything else. I love plants!

I'm having a tough time concentrating right now. I brought my speakers home from the studio and hooked them up to the computer. Instead of causing pleasure to my eardrums, they're making mishy-mashy noise. They're picking up a radio signal, and as I'm trying to listen to Brian Eno while I'm typing this (you, know, trying to stay relaxed yet in the moment), I'm hearing Michael Jackson's slightly squeaky voice shouting out... Beat it. Just beat it. No one wants to be defeated...

It's really hard to focus. It really is.