Monthly Archive for December, 2004

Inspiration Central

Sketched
by
Dave
on December 8, 2004
in Inspired
. 3 Comments

You don’t really expect it to happen. One minute you’re working hard, trying to come up with a new design and then you’re out of ideas. You think “I need to look at some professional work to get me inspired,” and then it happens. You find yourself in that uncomfortable spot between pure envy and pure inspiration. You read about designers your age who are working with some big time clients. You visit websites where their art is flooding the screen and you think of ways to emulate that style without being a complete biter. There are testimonies and little biographies about them and you realize that should be you. There’s enough potential and creativity in you to get that far, to taste that bit of success. You’re creative juices are overflowing, you take out your sketchbook and begin to draw. Anything. Just keep drawing, keep writing. After five minutes you realize this new drawing is nothing to be proud of. You want to scrap it, but you decide to just keep it there, you might need it later. You look around for something else. Just then you realize you have a camera. It’s time to remember where you are. You live in the most urbanized multi-cultural center in the world. Variety is normal to you, there are over 100 countries represented in your county and you haven’t made an effort to document it. There’s a lot you haven’t made the effort for and it haunts you. You want to create something fresh, something that makes people stop and reflect. You want just the right look, just the right words in just the right font. Color. You need something clever, something hip, something not particularly comfortable but something that will make them stop turning pages. Something that will make their conversations fade into a silence as they marvel at your creation. When people don’t notice, you cringe. You kick yourself. But not today. Today you have seen success in the distance and you know you’ll make it if you just keep producing. Don’t stop producing. Let everything you touch become infested with your passion for art. Think of your portfolio, think of your accolades. Think of the next piece you’ll amaze them with.

Now do it.

Journal Entry from DASH

Sketched
by
Dave
on December 4, 2004
in Fun Stuff
. 9 Comments

I was cleaning my room when I stumbled upon a box of papers and folders from my high school days. I looked inside and noticed one of the folders was from my senior english class. One of my papers was a class journal entry in which the assigned subject was “The Last Thing I Ate Before Writing This Was…”

Well, here’s what I wrote:

The last thing I ate before I sat down to write this entry was corn, and the next thing I might eat is a wafer. This is because my mom has a whole box of wafers in her van. This afternoon, I’ll step off the metrorail, sit under the tree in the station parking lot with some of my fellow school mates, and await the arrival of the dark emerald Ford Aerostar, equipped with power steering and power breaks, side air bags and a two year warranty, no money down, C.O.D’s not accepted, price subject to change. The low hum of the van will approach and I’ll know to wrap whatever pointless conversation I’d be engaged in. I’ll open the sliding door, throw my heavy bookbag onto one of the backseats next to the white coat my mother has kept lying there for years on end. Close the door, open the passenger door, hop in, kiss Mom on the cheek, ask the routine pair of questions: Como Estas? Como pasaste el da? She’ll tell me how business in un poquito despacio as usual and I’ll recline the seat back. I’ll take off my sneakers, direct the air condition vents my way, take a pack of wafers, munch them down in about 2 minutes as my mom continues to describe the slow day and I’ll drift off into my peacefull rest.

Man that brings back some memories. I did the exact same routine for three straight years. I really enjoyed writing in that english class. I heard the teacher Miss McElrath left the following year and I couldn’t get in touch with her to thank her for being such an awesome teacher.

Well I’m going to get back to cleaning my room now. Peace, y’all.