I read this post first thing this morning, and the poignancy and resonance stayed with me all day. I ached for your father losing his sight and feeling the time passing all too quickly. My own father was drawing almost all the way to the end of his time here.
I took a graphic memoir class (with Sarah Shaw, via SVA—highly recommended!) and met a woman who is also a writer and around my age. We both felt suddenly possessed to make comics, and quickly. Time, we agreed, was doing what time does, and we felt an urgency to create and get our stories out there.
Thank you for sharing all of this with us, Nikki. You're making art in more ways than one.
Thank you so much for your support and encouragement, Suzan. Your comments mean more than you know :)
Things can get a little nutty around here, so I don't always get to answer right away, but I am reading and taking note and rushing off to the library to hunt down recommendations... Now, need to add Sarah Shaw to my list!
What was your father's name? Is there somewhere I can learn more about him?
I totally understand nuttiness, so no need for more immediacy in this one-click world. My biological father was Ernie Colón. He's well-known enough to have his own Wikipedia entry. Needless to say from my posts, our styles are very different! We'll have to have a chat about our artist dads some day.
"For me, there is definitely a correlation between aging and creative output. I feel this huge pressure to learn more, make more, do more, and leave something of myself behind". This sentence really rang true for me, although I don't really feel any pressure to leave something of myself behind.
I have only recently stopped telling myself (and often others too!) that I am not creative... I'd been reflecting on things and thinking about future content for When I'm 64... and realised that having been an actor, an amateur musician and having written on and off over the years that it is silly to deny that I am creative 😆
So, now I really feel the pressure to catch up on years of not doing things because I felt that I couldn't, or shouldn't, and am wishing that I'd had this realisation when I was younger and had more energy and vitality!
I loved 'Staring into the Abyss', thanks so much for posting it 🙏🏽
The good news is, it's never too late to get rolling :) Thank you so much for your comments - I find myself getting behind in the answering department, but rest assured I read them all :)
Your observation re. the leaving something behind bit was bang on. It isn't really so much about that as it is about getting on with it and doing stuff that I've been 'too busy' to get to before now. It's the process that lifts me up and gives me energy - even when I think I'm too tired to do much of anything. I pick up the pen to draw or sit at the keyboard to write a few words and - whoosh - off I go. Strange, perpetual motion creativity machine at work...
I read this post first thing this morning, and the poignancy and resonance stayed with me all day. I ached for your father losing his sight and feeling the time passing all too quickly. My own father was drawing almost all the way to the end of his time here.
I took a graphic memoir class (with Sarah Shaw, via SVA—highly recommended!) and met a woman who is also a writer and around my age. We both felt suddenly possessed to make comics, and quickly. Time, we agreed, was doing what time does, and we felt an urgency to create and get our stories out there.
Thank you for sharing all of this with us, Nikki. You're making art in more ways than one.
Thank you so much for your support and encouragement, Suzan. Your comments mean more than you know :)
Things can get a little nutty around here, so I don't always get to answer right away, but I am reading and taking note and rushing off to the library to hunt down recommendations... Now, need to add Sarah Shaw to my list!
What was your father's name? Is there somewhere I can learn more about him?
I totally understand nuttiness, so no need for more immediacy in this one-click world. My biological father was Ernie Colón. He's well-known enough to have his own Wikipedia entry. Needless to say from my posts, our styles are very different! We'll have to have a chat about our artist dads some day.
"For me, there is definitely a correlation between aging and creative output. I feel this huge pressure to learn more, make more, do more, and leave something of myself behind". This sentence really rang true for me, although I don't really feel any pressure to leave something of myself behind.
I have only recently stopped telling myself (and often others too!) that I am not creative... I'd been reflecting on things and thinking about future content for When I'm 64... and realised that having been an actor, an amateur musician and having written on and off over the years that it is silly to deny that I am creative 😆
So, now I really feel the pressure to catch up on years of not doing things because I felt that I couldn't, or shouldn't, and am wishing that I'd had this realisation when I was younger and had more energy and vitality!
I loved 'Staring into the Abyss', thanks so much for posting it 🙏🏽
The good news is, it's never too late to get rolling :) Thank you so much for your comments - I find myself getting behind in the answering department, but rest assured I read them all :)
Your observation re. the leaving something behind bit was bang on. It isn't really so much about that as it is about getting on with it and doing stuff that I've been 'too busy' to get to before now. It's the process that lifts me up and gives me energy - even when I think I'm too tired to do much of anything. I pick up the pen to draw or sit at the keyboard to write a few words and - whoosh - off I go. Strange, perpetual motion creativity machine at work...
Raisin pie, oh I would be high for DAYS 😂
Right? I seem to remember needing to lie down, snake-like, when it was all over.