Monday, January 14, 2013

Sun on snow

SOUNDTRACK : Go by Jónsi


It’s amazing how big a difference some sunlight makes. It’s been quite glum and dark in my neck of the woods (that is suburban Stockholm). The snow on the ground does help a little, but the sun’s late rise and early fall does not help at all. I try remind myself that days are in fact getting longer and longer (can’t wait for those almost-24-hour-days in mid-summer) but it seems quite futile when it’s dark when I leave for work in the morning and dark when I leave work in the afternoon.


I think Swedes are especially doting of the sun. Possibly because of the long winters and the quite compact darkness that come with it. But possibly just as much because Sweden really does show off its best side in sunlight. Thought that’s really true for most…myself included.


This past Sunday offered up the most amazing winter sun. The snow glistened, kids were rushing downhill on snow-racers and “stjärtlappar”*, and I enjoyed some peace and calm leaning against a dark wall, face tilted up toward the sun, smile face-wide and music in my ears.


It was a good shot of vitamin D, and great reminder that the sun is really the star of the show!

*Internet says the translation of "stjärtlapp" is "bum patch". So, there you have it.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Purpose and Intent

I keep my promises.
Actually I'm quite anal about promises. I once shut a friend out and ignored her (I was young) for a month because she said she promised and then she didn't (she was young).
But then I let it go, it all involved a stuffed animal (a cow) and some tears. There are always tears with broken promises.

So, since I want no tears to be shed and I promised I'd tell you what this blog is all about, here goes:

In high school art class we had Research Workbooks. They were black (until we covered them with paint, silly/pretentious quotes, fabric, and rose petals (really!)) and quite large and bulky. We were asked to fill them with inspiration and research for our art projects. For example there were at least five pages of different kinds of linoleum and soft prints of varying quality and aesthetics (I went with the soft print option; cutting linoleum is hard!), approximately 2 billion print outs of art work by artists who were influential to me during High School (Dalí, Pollock, Mueck, Öst, Emin, Kruger, Mann, etc) as well as scribbles about processes, colors, projects and diary notes.

I miss that.

I’m hoping this blog will be to my present self what the research workbook was to my high school self. A record of my creative endeavours, in and out. Perhaps you’d like to come along on the journey? I’ll be sure to post ideas, thoughts and tips that may be of help to you if you decide to try something similar yourself.

Welcome to my Online Research Workbook! See you around!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

What to accomplish 2013

1. Get over my dance anxiety.

2. Learn simple pattern construction and how to sew.

3. Find a way quit yo-yo exercising and start really exercising.

4. Start blog

It's a good start to a year when you've managed to accomplish 25% of your set goals 2013 in the first month. Either you're really good at accomplishing things or you set your goals too low....But let's not linger on that thought because Yay! I'm a blogger!

A couple of comments on the three first things to accomplish:

1. I have a complicated relationship to my swing dancing. I love it, but it gives me a lot of grief a lot of the time. Or rather, my performance anxiety gives me a lot of grief when I'm too critical about my dancing, so really I should be getting over my performance anxiety....

..or just get better at dancing.

2. I've signed up for a sewing and pattern construction evening course! The excitement is basically indescribable! This means by summer I'll have 50% of my 2013 accomplishments....eh...accomplished.

3. I am a firm believer in "shock starting" rather than "soft starting". Easing into projects have never been my kind of melody, instead I will throw myself in head-first, and then manage to prioritize other things when the intesity of the shock start begins to subside...NOT GOOD. So, this will change. At least once I week I should be able to exercise. That is a minimum I set up for myself. And it does not mean that I can exercise four times one week and then go three weeks without (not like THAT ever happened or anything..heeeeeh..)

This is my promise to you myself, 2013.

Tomorrow I will tell you about this blog.

Toodle-pip!

//a