Day 150

'Son Of A Gun', Pen and Marker on Paper

I've noticed that every so often things seem to get a little heavy with regards to the writing and subject matter, so it's always good to break things up with something a little more light hearted. I know I've spoke of it before, many a time in fact, about how the same series of words can be interpreted in other ways visually is highly intriguing to me. My reliance on idioms, homonyms and colloquialisms over the past few months though has sort of become of increasing importance as I find they are the perfect bridge between the image and the writing that accompanies it. The short title for each drawing immediately gives the impression of what today's drawing is about or why it came about. It helps create an understanding where in some places there may be slight confusion as to what exactly is the point of what is right in front of your eyes. With today's drawing it actually came about when thinking of another sketch that I never actually finished as I became distracted by a new train of thought. The issue was that although the concept vaguely fitted around the title of today, the image that was constantly in the back of my mind was something more in line with the drawing that I ended up doing today. While in some cases we have preconceived associations with a series of words, an occurrence, a sound or a taste it is something that can be easily disrupted. It's similar to that notion where something can go unnoticed for some time, however once you have seen it, it can then not be unseen. Once a new realisation comes around it is near impossible to focus on the old association or the original thought that you had. Instead you find that every time that you experience that same stimuli from now on you'll think of it in a completely different way.. well that is until something else comes along and alters your perceptions again.

Day 149

'The Weight is unbearable', Pen on Paper

It is easy to let things get a little too much sometimes and let the weight of a situation bear down upon us. It is at these times that we we often find ourselves at a loss, unable to comprehend the magnitude of a situation. It can be the overwhelming sense of responsibility or the complete and utter lack of control we now have over the unfurling events. In which ever way you are affected it is difficult to shrug off that feeling of inadequacy, to alleviate the cloud that hangs over us and to overcome the intense pressure that we have allowed ourself to become a victim of. Whilst pressure is something that is necessary to spur us on and keep us challenged, the problem is that we often allow the pressure to build by taking on more than we can handle. The result is that we create the perimeters by which we are more likely to make a mistake or allow things to fall apart. The realisation of which only adds to the already unbearable gravity of the situation that has already caused us to fall into deep despair. The only answer sometimes is to seek help and it is in these moments that we realise the people that we can count on the people that no matter what they will drop everything and come to your rescue. The best thing about those times where the weight is unbearable is when we are finally able to overcome what ever left us in that state in the first place, the sense of relief that washes over us is euphoric, So it is important then to remember that allow it may seem as if everything is crashing down around you the experience is one that will eventually pass, one that will eventually dissolve.

Day 148

'Snake', Pen on Paper

Trust is very important part of any relationship and one that is easily broken or lost, yet is subtlety bent on numerous occasions by all those involved. We all have secrets we'd rather each other never find out, we all blur the truth to save some ones feelings or spare our own and more often than not we tread a fine line that could see a friendship deteriorate should our deceptions be found out. The thing that is most beguiling though is that whilst we know that our actions can be devastating we still take advantage of people's trust whether it's due to jealousy, temptation or for whatever reason we still proceed to risk everything. We often know that what we have done is inconsiderate or just plain wrong too as we become racked with guilt, so much so that the desire to make an omission is much too overwhelming. The result being that we often share our deviances with someone else, the issue then being that should the cat be let out of the bag there is now more than one person entangled in the web of deceit that we have woven making the damage more widespread as the possibility is that more than one friendship can be ruined. What this then generates is a dynamic where whether you are the righteous, the deceiver or the confidant it is difficult to know how to proceed. Do you own up and weather the storm, do you tattle and break someone else's trust and do you have it within yourself to forgive someone for their deception. The notion of trust then is one that is vague as sometimes it is necessary to keep things hidden for the sake of someone else. It is complicated in that whilst honouring one person's trust you can be breaking another's and it is something that is all to easily abused and usually is.      

Day 147

'Use some force', Pen on Paper

There is a time for tact, a time where one should tread lightly be careful and above all conscientious and understanding, especially when dealing with a delicate subject. There is however a time where this approach only lends to exacerbate the problem and allow things to continue to spiral out of control. It is in these occasions where we must ignore the soft approach and be much more direct in order to get the required results. I understand that it can be hazardous to forgo tact in lieu of using an element of force as there is the aptitude for unparalleled failure or worse. It is then all about deciding the appropriate moment when we should hammer a point home and shock someone into a realisation or epiphany. Alternatively we also need to know when we need to avoid confrontation in all it's forms, so I guess it's that we need to use some force and only when it's necessary.

Day 146

'On the Sauce'. Pen and Marker on Paper

There is a common occurrence that we experience on most of the excursions that we partake in on a weekly basis, that being bumping into a long lost friend. The immediate outcome of such an interaction is dependant on firstly how long we knew the person and secondly how long it's been since last we met. In those instances we tend to handle each in much the same way, with an intensely euphoric embrace and a sense of disbelief and amazement. Unfortunately this is a feeling that is short lived, especially when the dreaded and unavoidable inquisition starts and we must stumble our way through a myriad of questions that although seemingly generic and innocent, prove only to insight panic as we try and maintain our composure and allure whilst being cross examined. The worst of these questions is the open ended, 'what have you been up to since I last saw you?', in the aftermath of such a statement we spend the immediate moments before the words reach our lips attempting to conjure up something that will make it seem like the time that has passed since our last encounter hasn't been wasted. We aim to prove that we have grown and developed as people, experienced life to its fullest and added a further layer of interesting into the very fabric of our persona. The inconvenient truth is though that our days have actually been filled with mediocrity, a banal existence that revolves around work, television and the occasional evening spent on the sauce trying to forget about the week that has just past. What we then do is latch onto any minor achievement, any small victory the most minuscule of accomplishments that they are unaware of to show that we have in fact been very busy. Failing that we feed people a few lines about how were still working non-stop in the job that we can't stand so as to get the money together for any number of ideas, notions and crack pot schemes that we intend to follow through on in the near future, when the likely hood is they will never come to fruition. In these moments though is it a case that we are trying to convince the person we are speaking to of our own self worth or ourselves? 

Whilst it is an uphill struggle to come through this kind of interaction what normally makes things worse is when that question is reciprocated by your old acquaintance, who then proceeds to rhyme of a list of their latest conquests making us feel microscopic in comparison. The thing is that no matter what it is that they tell you another person's life always appears more interesting than ours, when in fact they are in much the same boat as us. They still embellish ever little achievement, highlight all the positives whilst meanwhile polishing over all of the negatives. The problem is we're an enviable bunch so no matter how things are going we always assume that someone else has got it better, as such we covet those we believe to be successful. When on the other side of the looking glass they are doing exactly the same. So whilst it's always great to catch up, it is also the cause of so much uneasiness as we worry about appearing like a failure in front of someone that we were previously very close to. The important thing though to take from these encounters is to realise how little headway we have made since we last parted ways and use this as a means to drive us forward... that and to realise that we are all as full of shit as each other so the likely hood is what they are saying and doing is much the same as you.

Day 145

'365 Draws', Pen and Brown Paper on Paper.

Leading on from my statements from a few days ago I've started to think more about how to keep things fresh and push it that little bit further. I figured I'd start with something I've been meaning to do for a while was update the logo, as the initial one was only meant to be temporary until I took the time to redraft it. The thought being that I was looking for something a little more stylised and something that I could use to print up some publicity for the blog to try and increase awareness of what I'm doing. So today's drawing then is a rough draft of that, which I'm going to work on over the next while until I have something new and hopefully improved. Specifically when I talk of promotional material I'm thinking primarily of having some cards made up that I can leave or pass around so the drawing is also how I would envision the basic elements of that should appear. It's just down to a process of adapting and refining the aesthetics over the next few days until I'm happy with it, that means that this post will probably have a few more updates in the future whilst I do this.

'New Logo Draft 25/05/11'

Day 144

'A couple of loose... screws?', Pen and Watercolour on Paper

They say that the only things in life that are certain are death and taxes, well I would like to offer a further certainty to add to that list, that being that there are always going to be people that have a couple of screws loose up in that old head of theirs.