Advent-urous Artists Day 20 and 21

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that I didn't post yesterday so it's a double whammy today! 



Life drawing by Richard Savage

Occasionally I stand in (although I much prefer sitting or reclining!) at life class when the models can't make it or are snowed in as was the case with last night!  It's a surreal experience at times...there I am, on the other side of the drawing board, in front of friends I know well, in the buff with just a wisp of fabric between me and my dignity... my thoughts, while modelling, range from "what's on my to do list for tomorrow?" to "why the fuck am I doing this?" and everything in between!  It all smacks of a serious split personality defect as I whack between feeling empowered and liberated to feeling fat, hideous and a waste of any ink/paint/pencil/pastel expended in drawing me!  Weird.  Overall, I enjoy it though and try to squash the negative, insecure shit swimming through my mind.

Moving on...lists!  I'm an inveterate list maker.  Some folk who know me will be surprised to hear that I used to put "organised" on my CV and job application forms.  Honestly, I did!  I don't when I became the rather less organised individual that I am now.  So, lists are important to me, very important.  I make lists on my phone, on scrap paper, envelopes, serviettes, in Word documents, in art journals, you name it I've probably made a list on it!  Does it help?  Well, yes, my head is so crammed full of stuff that I forget things all the time but if it's on a list it's out of my head and made real.  ;o)  The spiral bound journal you can see in the photo is a journal I began on my birthday earlier this year, all the lists in it have 44 items on them (I was 44 this year, go figure!) and are many and various, some useful, some thoughtful, some ridiculous.  The hand written list is my ongoing pre-Christmas to do list, it's nearing the end of it's useful life and will probably be replaced tomorrow with a brand spanking new version!  Lists in art journals are often work related or, as in the glimpse of the one above, self exploratory.  In addition I also love using mind maps, both on paper and with some software I have.  Life with lists.... ;o)