#6 Soft reset
Where did the time go, am I right? Actually I know where time is spent. But, I've been conditioned to equate 'doing something' with goals quantifiable, a physical object in entirety, or an activity with a hashtag.
The week for me was really in two parts. Early week, I dropped myself midway into the #marchmeethemaker hashtag game(?). It felt like a fun party I self invited myself to, only to realise midweek, I've been explaining myself to different people at the funky there's nothing of me left for myself.
The second half of the week was spent doing that-something-not-quantifiable—a soft reset. The goal is to amass energy lost. That involves a lot of hard work of not-doing. Not-reacting to sounds, notification or fears. Not reacting is not the same as ignoring. I was aware of what surrounded me, but chose to always return to where I was before the interruption. It wasn't always a success of course, I was often distracted, disrupted, and got angry at myself for allowing it to happen. And then I brought myself back from anger, to neutral again. I take comfort in my effort.
Despite the energy-zap, the meet the maker thing wrecked my brain to illustrate the themes, and here are two pics—otherwise wouldn’t have been taken—that pleasantly surprise me.
In progress
Didn't make much art, un/fortunately. Tool maintenance is part of the art, is it not? And, I am the tool.
Besides writing a story for Astrid the Ostrich (which you can read here), I started with this.
The fishes don't look as startled/ grumpy/ annoyed as the photos I sketched from. As usual my own emotions got into them.
There was so much of it, it affected another beakie in progress.
Read
Talking about energy, love this poignant article on Paul Curreri. To me, it's an account of someone chasing memories, and what happens when one stopped.
Corona news is everywhere this week. Amid all the horror stories of inadequate measures, stupid policies and horrific self preservation, I like this piece that reads less like doomsday - Stop making points - Rome coronavirus dispatch.
Watch
Stumbled upon a long saved note and started watching Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress the movie. It is a compilation plus continuation of the 2016 12-part series, which I've watched, and remember enjoying. The series is like a mash up of train to busan (or snowpiercer), the walking dead and attack on titan, but a good one at that, with top notch audio visual, great pace and usual anime style heart warming apocalypse. What was clearly fantasy back in 2016, now feels strangely real.
Sending this letter by the pool, letting the sun melt away the calluses of my mind, while watching a pigeon that can't walk straight in the wind yet refuses to fly, marn.