Sleep is for the Weak | stories and pictures of a creative life

Cloud Chasing

Posted by Josie on Dec 9, 2011 in Me, Moments | 7 comments

We found clouds in my bed. Well, stuffing from a sleepy late-night knitting session. Turns out if you throw stuffing really high into the air and wish hard, it turns into clouds. For a second or two we could swear they floated – look!

It’s been two weeks since my last blog post. TWO WEEKS! I think that might well be my longest gap in two and half years. So, sorry about that. Truth is I’ve been a bit buried in sad, sad to the point of struggling even to write this, and that’s not like me.

It’s lots of things. Taking care of the boy on my own is hard – you’d think it would get easier after this long, wouldn’t you, but I seem to go through these phases of finding it impossibly overwhelming all over again. And staying healthy and being brave enough to make art and degree deadlines and loneliness are hard. It’s been a tough year, really tough, on the back of an equally tough one, and I think as it starts to come to a close I am just tired and heavy with everything that the months before have brought with it.

Chocolate Menagerie

Posted by Josie on Nov 24, 2011 in Moments, Photography, Weird Stuff | 9 comments

Bit short of words at the moment. Tis the problem with doing lots of drawing – right brain definitely In Charge at the moment. So instead I will leave you with the menagerie I spotted in my hot chocolate this afternoon.

I saw 1. diving killer whale, 2. sad-eyed man, 3. seahorse, 4. heart, 5. baby vulture, 6. flying swift, 7. wide-mouthed frog, and 8. salamander with a curly tail.

How about you?

Passing through this world but once

Posted by Josie on Nov 16, 2011 in Moments | 13 comments

You all know I love things with stories. I especially love things that hint at stories. It’s why I collect these, among other things, and why I love my family history and wander around charity shops and antiques stores with eyes as wide as a seven year old’s in a sweet shop. There’s one antiques shop I walk past every day that I finally had the courage to venture into this week. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been too scared to go in before. It’s kind of dark and gloomy looking from the outside, and has that ‘serious collectors’ vibe about it that makes me a bit nervous. But an old Humpty Dumpty moneybox in the window forced me in to ask the price, and there I found a kindly older gent who seemed delighted that I wanted to look round and was enamoured with so many of his treasures. And it was HEAPED high. It was like a library of stories, hidden in old watches and books and jewellery and everything you could think that lives could leave behind them. I shall be back soon, an warm invitation offered for me to come and browse whenever I like, and although I didn’t leave with Humpty Dumpty, I did leave with something much better.

Things to do when you’re sad no.2/infinity

Posted by Josie on Nov 15, 2011 in Home making, Me, Moments | 5 comments

I have decided that everyone should have a tiny garden in their bedroom. Waking up to flowers every day may just be about the best thing ever.

Art and Fear

Posted by Josie on Nov 14, 2011 in Art, Art Blog, Me | 0 comments

We romanticise the artist’s life, don’t we? The writer, the musician. We envy their talent and the easy way they seem to do something that many other people wish they could do. But it turns out there’s something they don’t tell you about trying to live a more creative life and that’s that you will feel shit scared all of the time. And I mean really scared. Paralysingly, stomach-churning, brain-burning scared.

You imagine that just getting going will be the hard part, making the decision to step away from more conventional paths and make something unique and your own. And that IS hard, all those boogey men on the starting line getting in the way of you trying. If you manage to fight past them you think YES! – of course it will be hard to follow any kind of artistic dream, you don’t imagine it will be easy, but the most difficult bit’s done. I’m learning that’s not true at all. Fear’s with you for the long-haul.

Every piece of work will make you scared because you care about it. And you have to care. If you want to produce work with passion and soul and life, you have to care, there’s no avoiding that. You’ll fear it before you start, and your heart and your body will do its damnest to try and put you off doing it all. Every day you’ll have to fight off bears and tigers just to sit down and start something. A thousand tiny fingers clawing you back, voices whispering at you not to bother while pushing guilt through your skin. You’ll be afraid of the process. Afraid of the inevitable, cringe-worthy mistakes.