As I let the dogs outside this evening, I was not entirely surprised to see dandelion blooms standing tall in the shaggy grass, gently bending in a balmy breeze. North Texas is a fairly temperate climate, and as my mother remarked earlier today: fall comes in December, which makes the winter holidays a little confusing, that is, if you are expecting a New England autumn in September and snow for Christmas.
Lately it’s been cool and breezy in the morning, and warm and sunny in the afternoon. Not too bad, after all. With temperatures cooler than triple digits, I note that Thanksgiving Day has past, and Christmas is only about three weeks away. Soon it will be time for holiday break, and with it the promise of time off of both work and school.
I will have finished the classes I am taking this semester in about two weeks. In the time that follows, I want to accomplish a few things, and I thought I would be good to put that into writing to try to make it more “official” in order to motivate myself.
To begin with, I have a few books sitting on my bookshelf. Well, let’s be honest for a moment: I have a lot of books on my bookshelf, and even added a few news one with a morning trip to my local Half Price Books. But I have several in particular that I want to thumb through and read.
I have been collecting “Art of” books for a while, and have a decent gathering. First unread among them is the Art of the Lord of the Rings which is actually the art of J.R.R. Tolkien as he originally illustrated his saga. In particular, I want to dive into that tome, but there are two Art of Star Wars books that I also want to investigate.
Another book that has caught my eye is a book on poetry, which will come as no shock to regular readers. This book showcases major poetical authors, and eras, in an exploration of forms. That particular book looks very interesting as a way to inspire more poems to write. I haven’t written but a handful of poems since I self-published my book, Whiskey Poetry. Might be time to get back into that head space for a while.
In addition to those four books, I am continuing to read the Lord of the Rings. I am getting closer to finishing the Fellowship of the Ring (currently the Fellowship is stuck in Moria), and will continue with the Two Towers and Return of the King after that. I would like to finish the saga before the new year. Maybe that is an unreachable goal, but I’ll see what I can do.
Beyond reading, I have a few action figures that I would love to customize, paint, or weather to make them look like they’ve lived in their worlds instead of being fresh from the factory. Action figure art and photography isn’t something I have done that much of recently, and I would very much like to get back into it. I have a list of figures to customize listed on a small white board in my studio. Along with customizing, I might try my hand at building more scenery in six inch scale, as I’ve only done a little bit of that, and would like to try walls or buildings. I did a few landscapes a while back, and while they aren’t bad, they aren’t spectacular either. So I may fiddle with scenery a bit, too.
Third on my list is infrastructure. I am always looking for ways to maximize work area and utilize space as efficiently as possible. There is some stuff in the studio that isn’t being used, and maybe could be put into longer term storage. Also, I might come up with a way to find more workspace, or more useful everyday storage. As with most things, this is a work in progress, but I find re-arranging and organizing invigorating. Plus, the more I can make use of limited space in better ways, the more I will be able to do in photography and other art. It also might make it easier to find time to create and get over the negative momentum I so easily feel with a lowered barrier to entry into the creative headspace.
Fourth, and this is pie in the sky a bit, my wife and I have two IKEA chairs that we use to hang out in the studio when we watch tv or read or work on art that doesn’t require a table-top surface. This is adequate when it is just the two of us, but if we ever wanted to watch TV with anyone else, there simply isn’t any other seating, other than desk chairs which work for work, but not for relaxing. This is a long way to saying I would love to be able to find a way to get a couch or something up in the studio. As I have mentioned, space is at a premium, so it simply may not be possible. I want to explore the possibility anyway.
Lastly, and this may seem contradictory, but I’d like to take time to just be at peace. This may include holiday events with my family, or just hanging out, but because I know I need rest, it will be vital to take time to be quiet. I don’t know if there is a way to accomplish all these goals or not, but this is what I have in mind for the month of December, and holiday break in particular.
I look forward to checking back in January sometime, and seeing how future me will do with present me’s goals. For now, I want to get through the next two weeks of work, the last two class periods for each class, and not rush through the holiday break. As much as possible it would be great to be able to relax and savor each moment as it arrives.
a simple man 