fog and limelight

i am listening to the beatles, remembering, shivering, and thinking about fonts.

amber needs a perfect font, for the wedding annoucements i'm designing for her.

accadian? or coventry garden or haman? i really like henry morgan hand, but would it be right for dear amber?

i met with an old friend and his family last evening. the hotel room was a little corner of far away, really just down the street. they asked me about my job, what i do. they sensed the talent in it and flattered me while i tried to be modest.

an artist. me. yeah.

artist.

and i told the story of the pencils and paper during church, how our dad kept us all quiet during the talks. and i gave them the standard line about how it just takes practice, that's all. and i admired the talents they were hiding: mother, teacher, history book.

what i do professionally is art, after a fashion. it is wrapped up in functionality, marketing, branding, selling things... but it is art. no pencils. no paper. adobe and a 20-inch flatscreen. scanner. xerox. design processes. custom. and every day at about half past five i count out the pennies we sucked in that day. not just an artist... but yes definitely an artist.

in Jane Eyre while her aunt is dying, Jane stays with her cousins and it is her imaginative sketches that pique their interest, spark a belated friendship. similarly i have used what skill i have with a pen to get attention. it's like those boys that learn how to play the guitar just for the way girls will look at them while they cradle the instrument and finger its strings, although i don't know if my way works quite the same.

and really the sketching-during-church thing hasn't gotten me much of anywhere. but it is a kind of expression that can say things i can't say in words. or am unwilling to say in words. it is subjective. i don't have to explain it if i don't want to. if people read my soul in my art, good for them. if they don't, it doesn't matter.

i could use the sketching-during-church talent. i could sell my sketches to some greeting card company. i could illustrate little books of poetry. i scan and skew and squash them into t-shirt designs. i could design my own fonts.

but enough of my soul is for sale already. and attention is currency enough in my universe.

it'll be eurofurence, with feena casual for names. in a dark red, 18pt. looks nice. i hope amber agrees.

also, i discovered recently this rather forthright publishing industry blogist. any aspiring novelists among you might find her educational as well as entertaining.