Plague and prompts

Finally, covid happened to me, going into the new year. The family sort of passed the baton as we visited. The silver lining is all of my medication for pulmonary support. My symptoms remain worse, on average, and it could be months before my voice returns to whatever the next normal reveals itself to be.

Somehow, I'm not too sick to be angry. At work. From the disrespect. So I picked up my art supplies, again. The hour is too soon to predict the direction I'll take, so on my first leg of the journey, I seek structure. One staple is via a book of prompts. Meant to be taken on daily, I've had to adjust my relationship with it. I've encountered a few entries that have gone beyond the exploration of the concept to a finished sketch, to be retooled, and possibly overhauled at the conceptual foundation, to find my way to works with subjects far removed from my comfort zone.

For the moment, I'm revisiting skipped pages and prompts glossed over where there's room still to draw. Right now, my current, and final catch-up page is the theme of "psychedelic." Having never experienced that state, truly unable to relate, I chose to model "the sketch" after paper marbling, the kind you see just inside the covers of sone books. I managed to find one very acidic with as much repetition as chaos to use as a reference. My focus is on the distortion and the nature of creating art itself an portal to an altered state. (It's why we unintentionally drink the paint water.)

It was a small challenge to map it out. I think I started it pre cataract surgery. The colors I chose aren't wrong, but dull. I'm hoping this will be a foundation to move from a colorful sketch to something more bold.

In the end, I don't think the final result will have much weight. If folks like it, spectacular. I want to gush about it where I won't get the attention of people who already know me and want to see me making art. The encouragement would defeat me (in the most positive and satisfying way), and I'd be done before I could allow myself to start.