offline

For the first time in about 12 years (man, I feel old all of a sudden), I've spent the last month without ready access to the internet. Now obviously, back in 1996 I wasn't doing much online beyond using webcrawler to find dorky chat rooms, but regardless, I had access to those dorky chat rooms whenever I wanted.

This past month has been a struggle and has proved to me a few things, mainly how reliant I (and honestly, the world) have become on the internet - which is scary in it's own special way - but also how much creative energy I've wasted online. I'm not at all saying that I don't love the internet as a source for creative inspiration, not in the least, but in the past year or two I've really begun to notice how all of that accumulative time online has really started to weigh me down.

I kind of stopped doing anything creative. Drawing. Writing. Taking photos. Nothing.

So while for the past month I've been pulling my hair out because I can't check what's new on design sponge at midnight, I've also been spending a lot of that time drawing. I've come to realize that when you don't have someone else's work to look at, you start to make your own again.

I will still undoubtedly throw myself on the floor kicking and screaming tonight because I won't be able to puruse etsy in the wee hours of the morning, but for now, I've found the beauty in my time offline.

What It Is

I attended the *very* informative Lil' Biz Seminar on Saturday, put on by the lovely ladies (and gents) of Puces Pop. Needless to say, I was very impressed by this day-long event, and walked away with my little brain simply chock-full of great stuff. It also gave me the opportunity to meet some fabulous makers - Black Betty, Baby Burrito, Squid Boy, and Finigan Belle. Most of them will be at Puces Pop so be sure to check their stuff out! Support your local crafters, I say!

I'm the first to admit that I'm a *huge* fan of freebies. I love getting a deal, and I'll take most anything that's shoved my way, so long as it doesn't smell of cat urine (and even there I have made exceptions). So needless to say, when Peggy Burns of Drawn and Quarterly gave us all a copy of "What It Is" by Lynda Barry, I was ecstatic. While I'm familiar with Lynda Barry's work from the "Ernie Pook's Comeek" series, I admit that I'm fairly new to her fabulous world of flying squids and near-sighted monkeys. I was aimlessly flipping through her book back at home after the seminar, and found that I absolutely could not stop reading it. I was so touched by her descriptions of drawing, and found her experiences so parallel to mine that I read the book cover to cover. For anyone who has ever felt "that strange floating feeling of being there and not being there" when drawing, or for anyone who has struggled with their creative self, this book is worth a read. And while I haven't completed all of the writing exercises in the back, I can already sense their value. So great.

I don't know if it was intentional, but the gift of this book was the perfect compliment to a day filled with small-business inspiration. I can't wait to dive in.

Mushroom Study #1

pins

Dreaming of new fabric designs...

The Scariest Poodle

Whenever I find myself in Saskatoon, I attempt to hit up as many garage sales as humanly possible. Saskatoon garage sales provide a bounty of pre-1990 goods, and for someone who is obsessed with anything not of this century, that's pure heaven.

One of my latest trips landed me with this very scary poodle illustration, from a copy of Judy, circa 1971.



AMAZING.