synapses aren't firing? have some cake!

i did these last week, i think, just hadn't gotten around to posting them.

the big was beating me, so i've been doing the little. sometimes when you're stuck, there's nothing more overwhelming than thinking you have to fill as much space as humanly possible. maybe that's a lot like life? some of us fill too much space. and i'm not talking about weight, i mean cosmically.

so that first one there, i forgot what it was like to not fill up all the space. i mean, really. i just became preoccupied with covering as much of the paper as humanly possible (this was intentional, initially, just so you know) that it never occurred to me to not do it. out of habit, yes, but maybe also out of fear. i like "less is more" i just have a hard time applying it to what i do.

anyway, i posted them in reverse order, since i did the first one second after thinking: why don't i just use less space? i understand that filling up that space with black is, technically, filling up space, but...i think you know what i'm getting at here. look at what i was doing a couple years ago and you'll see at some point i went nuts and decided (in a compulsive way) that i had to cover as much of the paper with lines as possible. and then i couldn't stop. and maybe that's what happened when i was faced with these large surfaces: i became overwhelmed with the idea. or maybe i'm growing out of it. who knows!

i also think the cramming as much detail in there thing comes from a desire to show off. to be honest, cramming detail isn't really a skill. i guess you need some patience, but it's waay easier to do than, say, have the ability to actually draw. so, really, i'm trying to compensate for my lack of technical skill. i can't tell you how many times people have said to me: "wow, that's a lot of detail!" instead of: "wow, that's a good drawing!" i mean, it's a compulsion, not a skill.

i will admit though, that i think i have some skill. for instance, i think i'm a better artist than my vacuum cleaner. my vacuum cleaner is really good at what it does, so i'm not trying to diminish it's value in the world. vacuum cleaner, i love you.