progress
Graham Ovenden, We Beg Your Acceptance of This Elegant Thimble
Around the time I wrote the last entry, I was at basically a low point at work and asked my boss for some time off in the summer. She jerked me around for a little while and I got as upset with my situation at work as I've ever been; it was a Monday and I sent my resume to a recruiter, who promptly called me and told me about six other jobs, none of which I had any interest in. The next day, I had a meeting with the HR manager, who told me I'd definitely get to have some time off this summer and that I should see the nurse.
The nurse at work is kind of a zany woman, but she is enjoyable to talk to, and so once a week I go to her office for a brief check-up, where she weighs me and asks me what I've been eating and tells me what to try not eating in the next week to see if it has any effect on my stomach issues. Basically unrelated to my alleged irritable bowel syndrome, she would like me to lose 14 kilograms (I've lost five so far in the four weeks I've been seeing her; I think 14 is ambitious, as it would put me at a weight I don't think I've been at since I was probably 13, but whatever I like it when people give me things to do and I expect I'll do it), and she has me keep a diary of when I get up, go to work, go to the bathroom (and nature of visit), eat, drink, leave work, get exercise, go to bed, get up, etc. This week she has me off rice, which seems completely crazy, but again I like it when people tell me what to do, so it's kind of fun, like a game.
My diary is very patterned. I get 7-8 hours of sleep a night, but no more. I've gotten used to waking up with no alarm, which is pleasant. I eat breakfast at home before work, lunch at noon at work, dinner at 7:00 if at work or perhaps later if at home, and I drink only water or sometimes juice. I don't snack anymore except for fruit and raisins. I have on average three bowel movements a day, which the nurse has explained to me makes sense because I eat three times a day, but two of those bowel movements usually happen in the morning (seriously, let's try to consolidate those), and one in the afternoon, but very rarely do I have a bowel movement in the evening, which suggests that there is a 24+ hour time lapse between food consumption and bowel movement, which seems unacceptable, but perhaps I'm missing something. I pee all the time because I drink a lot of water. Nothing has changed in terms of my bloating or bowel movements since I've been seeing the nurse, but I think it's too early to draw any conclusions.
My drawing class has ended, and it's had the positive effect of getting me to draw more. I would not say that my technical skills have improved dramatically as a result of taking the course, but I think Jayne was approaching it as a bit more of a mental course than a physical course, and she's posed questions which I can't necessarily answer yet, like what is the purpose for drawing, or when you start to draw a picture, what do you want to see it be in the end. I think it's hard to have to deal with those questions if I'm still trying to figure out how to draw spheres and spirals convincingly. I've gotten a lot more comfortable with pen, and I am very fond of these markers and also paint pens (including fluorescent and metallic paint pens). Depth and tone are hard for me with pen--the things I draw with pen tend to seem fairly two-dimensional. But practicing is helpful and it's also influencing my art preferences. A current art wish list (mostly all prints--slightly fascinated by people who can draw and who can do so under the constraints of the printmaking process) is as follows:
Norman Stevens, Rain
Terry Frost, Variations
Michael Kenny, Hills and River Shores
Michael Rothenstein, the Crazed Moon
Rigby Graham, Towards Overseal
Ivan Green, Satyrs and Fauns
Walter Hoyle, Norfolk Church
Eduardo Paolozzi, Donald Duck Meets Mondrian and Why Children Commit Suicide...Read Next Month's Issue
It is an expensive list, and it will change, but I expect I will pick up one or two of those before the end of the year (definitely the Stevens and probably the Frost, even though it is so expensive--it has a really strong 80s feel for me and I am very drawn to it despite its abstractness).
In the meantime, it is to Chicago next week for a day (lunch with Nat at Topolobampo--here's to seeing Rick Bayless again) and then to Michigan for a month, which I am looking forward to. Send me an e-mail if we haven't spoken in a long time, as I've been in a dark place for about a year and am now trying to climb out and keep myself out. Stay ever vigilant-- /B/