Been working my asterisk off at a new job—for which I am, I hope you understand, just
pathetically grateful—plus night classes, and a couple freelance assignments. Haven't been able to so much as
draw a line for myself in well over a month. Doing graphics and making art is a difficult conflict. The work leaches out your creativity, and the long hours sap your energy. This is my first night off in weeks, and may be my last for months. Makes one crazy. Or maybe it's just sleep deprivation.
Here's how sleep deprived looks:
- You get stupid. Knock 10 points off your normal IQ for every week you come up short. Yeah, I'm in trouble.
- You make mistakes. Add time to every project to go back and fix the obvious thing you left out.
- Bleary eyes, blurred vision. Not conducive to fine work.
- Heavy limbs. Walking across the room is a chore.
- Dizzy spells. Oh, joy.
- Irritability. 'Nuff said.
- Hunger—expect to pay for this at the waistline, because you aren't moving around much.
I'll be making art ... soon. I hope you haven't stopped [and I
am checking on you]. Keep making marks, because if we were to blow this badly, it will be our finest legacy. But this is what happens when the world goes temporarily insane, and nobody seems to have more than a piece of the answer to our problems. There is hope ahead, I think, if we really learn our lessons, which some will and most won't—that's the way it always seems to go. Happy Earth Day. May we have many more.
Tell you what. I'll take a sketch book to work tomorrow, and I'll draw myself a line during a break. Assuming, of course, that I don't sleep through the break.
