Hi, followers!
Just want you to know that I’m in the process of transferring my blog and portfolio somewhere where I can tweak and play around with it a bit more.
I’m not quite done yet, but I’ve already posted a brand new blog post, in which I muse over a temporary disability and the words that saved my sanity. Check it out here:
http://thatlazycrazylady.com/consequences/
Thanks so much for being part of my little nook on the internet.
Hope you all have a great day!
Hazel
So, as it happens, my latest obsession has been botanical art. This is partially due to the fact that some of my favorite artists are really into it as well. But I think that it’s also something that fits my personality well. While I do love creating loose, expressive watercolors as much as every other painter, most of the time I prefer to be methodical when it comes to most things. I’m still not 100% exact when it comes to botanicals, though. (Still too impatient for that.) But at least, it’s methodical.
Referenced from The Sweet Pea Book by Graham Rice
You can blame it on good old nursing school discipline, perhaps. Anything I do still follows the framework of assess-diagnose-plan-implement-evaluate. Yes, for everything. Even painting. And, as you may imagine, that’s not exactly something that flies when you’re trying to be loose and painterly. Basically, I have a stick up my ass. So judge me.
It’s taking forever to finish this one…
And while I do like getting messy with paint sometimes, I find planning and taking my time to put in tiny details just so meditative. This is probably why, nowadays, finishing a single piece takes such a long time. Painting is not any more about producing finished things to post online (although that’s nice when it happens, too). Instead, it has become about exploration, getting to know things in a way you never would otherwise. You can, after all, appreciate all the flowers in a parts. But drawing them helps you get to know every single leaf whether green or dry and every single hole carved out by a hungry insect. You don’t see flowers that are just white or red or yellow anymore. Instead, you get to know all the tiny little hints of purple or blue or deep gold. That’s the true joy of painting, I think.
In honor of R+L=J
And on today’s morning walk, I think I found myself my next subject. If anyone can tell me what sort of plant this is, I’d very much appreciate it.
(bits and pieces of the past two months because I’m so far behind with blogging)
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself so far this year, it’s that I’m super restless. I have a chronic need to always have a plan, to learn things, to make things, to have a purpose. And so I immerse myself in pretty much anything that sparks my interest. Which is probably how I end up places, wondering how on earth I’ve gotten here.
That’s pretty much how this year has gone so far.
Oh, and most of it is recorded in this really nifty planner which I have turned into a visual journal.
(As a side note: It’s obvious that this photo was taken on a really stressful day. There are very few occasions in which I’m willing to buy both dark chocolate and a cappuccino to calm my spirits.)
“Where to Next?” I like that. It implies a sense of completion and, at the same time, excitedly moving forward to the next new thing. Oh, and the great thing about this planner is that the pages are, for the most part, unlined. So I had a bit of fun documenting my life in small doodles inspired by the work of @naomi_zz_kuwa.
Sketching stuff I’ve eaten, and memories of a twice-a-week zumba dancing session I’ve been going to. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve really danced but it’s always nice to get the feel of your own body.
We spent the Holy Week at my father’s home town. So one day we went out to visit some relatives and they didn’t say we would be going to the beach afterwards. So I didn’t bring any beach stuff and so, instead, sketched the beach people.
Some more things I’ve eaten, running at Pelaez Sports Center, a Calligraphy workshop (which we’ll get into in a bit), and brush pens I bought on impulse after a tip from a fellow art supply addict.
I’ve also taken to sticking receipts, labels and movie tickets in the pages. Just so I know what I’ve done that day. Here, I bought a pair of sunglasses because of the goddamn summer heat.
And also: vandalizing unapologetically on the photo pages with a white ink pen. I am so in love with white ink right now.
(Poem credit to Nayyirah Waheed, who writes the shortest but most heartfelt poems I have ever seen.)
By the way, this one is a travel planner from Where to Next? which my boyfriend gave me (after claiming that he was keeping it for himself.) Admittedly, most of it is still blank because sometimes I’m too preoccupied with things to spare time for a doodle. (Or, more accurately, I tend to doodle pretty much everywhere and I forget to doodle on this one.)
So, those calligraphy classes I mentioned? Now, I must admit first that my writing has always been horrid. I was THAT kid in class whose papers got sent home with a footnote to “please improve your handwriting” much to the dismay of my mother, whose handwriting is pristine.
After a workshop by @sheilaleng, however, I’m convinced that if they had taught us to write with dip pens back in elementary school, my writing would be gorgeous af.
Nobody ever said that calligraphy was so addicting, but I couldn’t stop for a while until I ran out of paper.
I’m hoping I can snag a slot in a brush pen workshop during the summer, too.
Earlier this month, I also got a chance to be a Fellow at the first Cagayan de Oro Writer’s Workshop, which was so refreshing and eye-opening that it deserves an entire blog post of its own. Maybe soon. (Although do note that I have a habit of promising blog posts about something or another, and then forgetting about them.)
All that is just the tip of the iceberg of what happened in the past two months. I hardly believe it’s only been two months myself!
OK, so the reason behind this seemingly random, patchwork blog post is that I just wanted to get caught up with blogging. There are so many things I still need to write about but I figure I needed to kickstart it a bit.
Hopefully, I’ll be posting more frequent and more organized entries in the next few months. There are so many new, exciting things happening and I can’t wait to tell you all about them.
In the meantime here’s a photo of my dog to distract you from the fact that I’m not sure how to end:
So I decided to apply for Nagkahiusang Magsusulat sa CDO, a local writer’s organization. Among the questions I had to answer was, “why do you write?” I decided it might be worth sharing my answer here:
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The easy answer to this question is that I write because I can. It comes as naturally as breathing. When I have an idea, a thought, a feeling or an experience, my first instinct is to record it sometimes through a sketch or a photograph, but most often through the written word. I like to preserve moments that I know will pass and fade away. This is not because I cling to the past. Rather, it’s because I forget easily and like to remember.
I write because it is the best way to express myself. The spoken word can be influenced by social pressures, or the awkwardness of a situation, or the burning desire to be liked in that very moment. The written word, for me at least, is the clearest, sincerest form of communication that I can manage. (Read: I have poor social skills.)
Finally, I write because words are immortal. Or, more accurately, they will last longer than I ever will. Don’t get me wrong: I have no desire to be immortal or even to be remembered forever. (I prefer to be a wallflower, really.) But I do believe that so much wisdom, so many stories, lessons, opportunities and innovations, can be lost forever if we fail to pass these on. Therefore, I write because it is our survival. I write because it is our responsibility.
It’s interesting how written fiction can often be more real, more human than written fact.
Over the past few years, I’ve been writing feature stories as part of my work. Lately, I’ve also started a little experiment: was it feasible to support med school, at least partially, with freelance writing jobs? So I’ve been taking in random writing assignments for an hour or two after work, recording how much time and effort they take.
At the same time, I journal and write short poetry on the side. I also participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) last year, producing a rough novel far longer than everything I’ve ever written before. It was then that I realized that I sorely missed delving into a world that is entirely made up, molding characters and watching them interact in my mind.
Basically, I’ve been writing both fiction and fact. And it strikes me as odd, sometimes, how the fiction can be more sincere. Continue reading
That Lazy Crazy Lady Hazy 