Five questions from Mamishka

[avram]

1. What do you think is your greatest deterrant to you doing artwork?

Me. I’m my own worst enemy.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I’ve been thinking it’s just laziness, but I’m not really any more lazy than I was fifteen years ago (less, probably) and I got more art done back then. I’ve been thinking it’s a lack of inspiration, but I’m still getting ideas, just not acting on them. I’ve decided it’s probably just bad habits. Back in school I was in the habit of drawing a lot, and sometime in the early ’90s I fell out of it. Now I’ve got the Net here, beckoning to me in spare moments. I think I need to develop some new habits.

2. What do you like best about your new living space/arrangement?

That the place was wired by an electrician who was somewhat less insane than the one who wired up the old apartment, meaning that I can have an air conditioner running while my computer’s going and other appliances are on downstairs.

Runner-ups: Less clutter (though I seem to be working on that), and the stairs are giving me amazing calves. And the company’s nice, too.

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Aw, do I gotta?

What I’d really love, more than anything else, is to make comics, but I doubt I could even come close to supporting myself on that. Especially given how un-prolific I am.

4. What is something that you’ve always been interested in learning/doing but have never tried?

Playing the guitar. ladymondegreen has offered to teach me, but we haven’t gotten around to it. I’m also tempted towards the harmonica, for its portability.

5. Name five things that you own that you really and truly love, and explain why.

This is a tough one. I tend not to invest my emotions in physical objects. I have lots of things that I value, for practical reasons (like my computer), or aesthetic reasons (many of my comics), but I can’t think of any that I love.

Since I read John Crowley’s Little, Big last winter, I’ve been thinking about objects and magic. In that book, there’s a powerful magician who works through memory — she’s got a memory palace, and she often finds unexpected connections between the memory-trigger object in her mental house and the things those objects represent in the real world. Anyway, I’ve been wondering about memory palaces and the virtual or fictive portions of our selves, and what it means to invest emotion and meaning into objects, and whether I’m missing out by not doing this. I haven’t come to any conclusions yet.

Comments

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I have a reasonably good memory, but I don't use a memory palace. I've toyed with the idea of doing so. I'd like to learn how, but I'm not sure I want to get locked into that. Also, I've been told by someone studying that that a) one should be working with someone else, as a basic reality check, since what one is doing is playing with one's head. It's on the same theory that one should have an instructor for martial arts or other physical exercises to say, "Hey, don't do it that way, or you'll strain something" and b) One ought to supplement serious mental work with serious physical work for an overall balance.