Let it go…
Posted on | March 11, 2010 | 2 Comments
I’m joining the internet obsession with the newest ok go video. It’s a rather fantastic song too, with lyrics that support me keeping my head on straight and not freaking out, which I am, sadly, very prone to do.
Things are a bit hectic about here lately. It’s a good thing, it means I can pay rent and such, but it also means that my already poor organizational skills are being put to the test yet again. Today I spent 45 minutes online looking at planners before deciding to stick with the iCal and just force myself to type in all my appointments and bookings.
I want to issue a special thanks to everyone who came out to the show, it was such an amazing night! I loved seeing everyone and meeting new friends. I am also so glad the show pulled together so well and was actually finished when people started showing up. Hooray!
I’ll probably eat my words, as I generally do when I say things like this, but I’ve felt more like a “grown up” than ever before in the past few weeks. Some of it had to do with facing my fears, some with setting and successfully keeping boundaries, and some with having 4 college-aged boys sleeping on the floor of our studio apartment on their spring break.
It’s a refreshing sort of feeling… like sand settling down into my body, like submitting to gravity and liking it. I remember my friend David telling me this would likely happen near the end of my twenties. He was right.
I’m feeling that giddy sense of clarity that appears every now and again in life.
Don’t worry, I’ve got to do my taxes this next week, so it won’t last too long.
Love,
Sam
blog it forward…part 2
Posted on | March 8, 2010 | 10 Comments
whimsical anti-gravity snowflakes drift wantonly heavenward to the sound of accordion music…. i made you all another video.
i’m starting to have heaps of iphone footage just lying about, so this could become a bit of a habit around here.
hope you don’t mind!
love,
sam
inspiration from sam wedelich on Vimeo.
blog it forward…part 1
Posted on | March 8, 2010 | 6 Comments
Lovelies,
So i signed up for this over a month ago, and yet am somehow surprised today has arrived. But, since my job is simply to share inspiration with you all, i think the workload is actually rather fun!
Here are things that inspire me, in an easy-to-read list type format:
1. Nature.
I mean, it’s perhaps a bit cliche to say “nature”, but really I am quite stimulated by the outside world: smells, colors, sound, snow, sunshine, clouds, sidewalks, trees. I love taking walks for this very reason and am happiest with no destination in mind for my wanderings.
2. Books and writing.
Stories, memoirs and poetry. Blogs. Blogs. Blogs.
3. Other artists.
Barry McGee, Chris Ware, Maira Kalman…
4. Music.
It’s too much a direct connection to my creative process to get all specific with lists of favorite bands, except to say that for any given body of work, I am generally listening to just one or two albums (or songs) on permanent loop.
What are your inspirations?
Love,
Sam
Lizard for Lizards…
Posted on | March 3, 2010 | 7 Comments
Zan writes in pictures and I’m always tempted to draw them… the sillier, the better.
This one was unavoidable.
Love,
Sam
Racing the…
Posted on | March 3, 2010 | 2 Comments
Dear Friends,
I am acrobat-juggling-plate-twirling while the sand is slipping out from beneath me.
Time, you tricksy-lady!
Sand, you slippery-shell dust!
But I am very excited about the show opening on Saturday.
If you look for me, I’ll be the one happily sipping my glass of wine, or also perhaps slumped asleep in the corner (in which case you should probably wake me up).
Love,
Sam
Hibernation…
Posted on | February 28, 2010 | 1 Comment
Cabin fevered and heater rash,
We fling ourselves from winter wombs
of warm houses or apartment couches
to city streets,
lately snow-laden.
Hibernation creeps in sleepy veins,
We ran out quickly, but crawl back in,
And darkness falls like a well-worn quilt
early and soft around our faces,
sings us softly to sleep.
Renate couldn’t see it…
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | Leave A Comment
Having had the benefit of tri-focal vision since birth, Renate had difficulty seeing the appeal in 3D movies. But this also could be correlated to the fact that the stereoscopic viewing glasses were generally fitted for two-eyed sorts of folks.
Perhaps an eye patch for the third eye would help her fit in?
Love,
Sam
Rain, among other things…
Posted on | February 23, 2010 | 3 Comments
It’s been raining since early this morning. Everything outside is sopping wet and there are mirrors of grey sky in puddles on sidewalks.
Today is the funeral for two of Russ’s teenage cousins. I was sad to hear the news, but not knowing them well, felt disconnected from the grieving. It’s not that I don’t sense the weight of others’ loss, but more that I (selfishly) don’t want to feel those feelings right now.
This morning Russ discovered that I’d gotten a tear in the foil roll and not noticed. He unrolled about 8 feet of a 1″ silvery aluminum ribbon until the sheet was whole again. The ribbon is curled up on the speaker by my computer. I can’t think of anything to do with it, but it was too pretty to toss.
I keep reading the headlines and I am filled with an overwhelming desire to give everyone a hug. We all seem so confused and lonely or even just deeply angry. It is an election year and it seems everyone wants an enemy, but I feel like the brokenness is in us all and then I especially want to give everyone a hug.
The grey sky, the rain, the grim reaper, and the silver lining are all my company today and I don’t mind too much.
We’re always telling the rain to go away, and so he’s always making apologies to us.
But the plants love him.
And he washes everything clean.
and there is something in me that desperately wants all this shit in life to get washed clean.
Love,
Sam
Inspiration
Posted on | February 20, 2010 | 2 Comments
Last night I attended the Nate Williams lecture at the Society of Illustrators.
First off, I had no idea there was such a society and the feeling I got when I walked in the room was much like the feeling I got when I started art school.
“My people!” I thought.
It felt like home. All of them together in one room and yet I don’t know a single soul.
I felt like Charlie in the chocolate factory, just happy to be there.
I think my enthusiasm was perhaps a bit off-putting to some, who were kind enough to remind me to keep a day-job and remember to practice good business sense. I nodded along with their advice, knowing its worth and yet also refusing to lay down my optimism in pursuing a creative path.
In short, I am inspired.
So watch out! Good things are coming!
Love,
Sam
p.s. The Society of Illustrators has weekly live sketching classes with a jazz band. I’m going to this Thursday’s, if anyone wants to come draw too!
Three’s a crowd…
Posted on | February 19, 2010 | Leave A Comment
dear diary,
i have a lot crowding my mind this week… new work projects, upcoming show, the general hassles of urban life to-do lists with lingering snow and ice threatening every precarious step…
and then the more internal things are there too….
deaths in the family, boundaries in relationships, the feeling that everything is happening too fast, or not fast enough…. a deep weary sigh.
russ makes observations about my life, how i’m moving in ocean tides… in and out, up and down, completely still or completely insane-busy.
zoom in too far and it seems like chaos, zoom out and it looks like steady rhythm.
i’m jealous of his steadiness.
but maybe that’s my lesson… to zoom out a bit and see the pattern. i’m always living with a magnifying glass up to my eye, not wanting to miss a thing.
what’s that saying about the forest and the trees?
love,
sam