I'm gearing myself back up slowly. Very slowly, but soon I hope to be running at full cathal speed and be on this here blog with regular updates and have my art all updated and up to scratch too.
I've been to Northern Ireland to see my folks and get some R&R. I also turned 40. To celebrate this momentous occasion I gathered together a few friends and attended a life drawing session arranged by Dr Sketchy in Derry . It was great fun. I only have some small images that I have posted to Facebook on my page. I'll shove them all over to my laptop and post them here as well before long.
In other news I have been uploading details of paintings and images I like to redbubble, who will print the image onto all most anything for you.
Anyways I can hear my kids calling for me. Laters
Something over due (again)
I hate how my head messes with me. Since Christmas I've been a cloudy headed cluster of tangential indecision and forget to do lists. So much so that I'm way behind on all of the things I want achieve this year. I'm not doing the Art in The gardens in Sheffield, as my silly anxiety ridden head can' t handle he amount of minimal planning that would take.
I've also shut down my etsy store. I'll probably reopen it at some point but I need to focus on getting me better first. So me first, business later.
I'm still painting, with a focus on portraits. I need to tell my self constantly that I don't owe any of my self imposed goals to anyone. So i don't need to beat myself up when I miss a deadline/ don't do a thing.
The focus is get my mental health back on track. I apologised to my mental health keyworker today, because I felt I was wasting her time with my mild issues. She said I seemed to really need the support and she said this lack of self worth is one of the issues we need to deal with.
Any ways just popping along to let anyone who drifts by here what is happening in the cathal-o-sphere.
Boo Ya I'm out of here
Something about me and what I've learnt in 2016
This will be self indulgent, sorry in advance.
2016
things I have learned
I have a group of people in my life online and in meat space who are just fantastic humans.
I like the term meat space more than I should.
I want time more than any thing else, well almost anything else.
Face book can teach you lots of things or rather it can inspire you to learn lots of things.
Magritte was onto something with his treason of images.
I have (had depression for a long time- teens I just thought I was feeling sorry for myself – every one of my friends had it tough. It was fine/gone for a long time in my 20's to 30's, but when it came back it came back bad.)
I have had to accept, I'm not fine, that I'm angry, lots. The anger is part of my anxiety and depression.
I'm apparently odd, and dark, and a bit intimidating to people who don't know me.
I have had to learn VERY quickly to ask for help. I'm still not good at it.
I need to create things, mainly drawing or painting. But anything will do.
I need to take better care of me. I don't look after me very well.
I need my quiet alone time. I can be a grumpy arsehole at the best of times, I get worse when I have no 'down time' . I use my downtime to make stuff, that making makes me happy. When I'm happy the world suffers my shit puns.
My puns are shit.
I get choked up showing my kids stuff about Ireland I thought was boring and lame growing up.
I've learnt that I don't find other tales of depression and anxiety to tally up with mine.
I think that because of this the following will either be pointless or helpful. It will definitely be poorly written and probably badly spelt with some bad deflecting puns in there. But no haikus( I can't be arsed).
…. I went back to Ireland to my parents house, with my lovely family for christmas. If my parents were your parents you would too. My dad is funny and the best cook, and my mum is funny and would do anything for you. They both cultivate a relaxed laid back atmosphere. My sisters are so different yet so similar, they are just the best funny, intelligent, loving, passionate (I'm getting distracted trying to tell you – who ever you are how ace my family are- ) , my brother is well he's hard to get a read on, but by feck is he intelligent, and when he gets going I think he is hilarious, he hides it but he is just as loving as my sisters, He is more hairy than them, but only just.. JUST KIDDING. Jesus....
anyways. Back to the most important one, ME. My anxiety/depression is linked to my wife having a brain tumor. Yeah it sucks. Recently she has been really depressed. And the burden of most stuff has fallen on me. ( The brunt of child care, housework and the constant nagging worry of the brain tumor hence forth referred to as Prof Plum.)
My shit (anxiety/depression – I am calling it shit because a) It is and b) Find spelling anxiety a ball-ache and c) I like to take shortcuts.) My shit has resulted in me thinking up weird scenarios in vivid detail. Like how things would pan out if a sink hole opened up in the back garden and O and I fell in. I imagined me cushioning her fall and dieing, her breaking a leg/ wrist and being in agony at the pain. She is there at the bottom of this sink hole with a dead dad and no one finds her and she starves to death. No reason for my brain to go into the details yet it can. Not recently thank fuck, but it did. These thoughts and other like them with sum zero results where things go as bad as they can would hit me at all hours of the day.
I'm getting morse code with this morose I ment morose. so ill cut a shit story short. My thoughts would make me feel trapped and I would get angry. Just angry and grumpy with every thing . The effort to not be angry at my family and people was exhausting and the easiest thing to do was grump and ignore. Or go away.
Being at home I realised ( well after the fact) was safe. And because I felt safe- My parents were there to take up the slack- look after the kids ( Who are fucking ace by the way) cook, clean do washing and all the day to day stuff (I normally feel like I'm the only one that does it) for me . I shut the fuck down. Completely. I would be in the room but my brain would zone out, I didn't care if you thought me rude for ignoring you, I didn't have ANYTHING going on in my brain. Just a lights are on but , a “Tyler gone” empty head. Lights on no-one home. I don't feel like posting this or writing any more.
Just to end on this. I see lots of posts saying hey my door is open any time come on in have a chat – directed at people who are depressed. That's a lovely thing to post, but when I've been in depression at it worst, I cant find it in me to get out of bed. I would know that I want to interact with you, but the effort to do so, would be exhausting and that’s if I was a good, close friend to you. With friends I'd just want them to let me hang out and be non responsive with out judgment or questioning me if I was okay. Being around people I didn't know that well would make me feel like I had to be 'okay'
Anyways if none of this made sense blame Obama, Russians , Brexit and 2016, oh and Big Farmers.
I'm off to kick a crow. Peace Love and Pitbulls, Love and Rockets, Shake and Vac.
I'm a bit drunk so I'm sharing this against my better sober self-conscious self's opininos and just to fuck me off. HA HA IN MY FACE!!!!
Something about doubt and drawing
I've had a bad week or so. It has been up and down. But I want to talk to you about drawing, more importantly what's going on in my head as I draw.
Today I got back to my sketchbook work. I need to improve. The core element to help an artist to improve is drawing from observation. My mirror kept falling over, and I do have access to a willing model. The next best thing was the internet. So I have used the work of Peter Hapak and his photo of Wallace Shawn for TIME magazine ( "Pack Your (Book) Bag," July 11, 2011 issue.)
Here's the image
Wallace Shawn by Peter Hapak for TIME From "Pack Your (Book) Bag," July 11, 2011 issue.
You may recognise him from 'The Princess Bride' and his voice from Rex in Toy Story. I love his face here.
My humble attempts to copy the photo are below. I'm not going to talk about the flaws in the drawings more about the thoughts that ran through my mind when I was drawing it.
This was about 2 and a 1/2 hours.
After I put my kids to bed I logged another 1/2 hour. This is about as good as I can get it. To be honest I prefered it before I put another 1/2 hour into it.
When drawing I have the same thoughts, first it starts with ' I wonder what x will think of this drawing? Will they like it..will they...FOCUS.' I have to think about things like 'This line is roughly twice that and this angle is roughly 20 degrees..' and other such technical thoughts. Then comes the wave of :
' I'll never be as good as those hyperrealistic artists, why am I bothering.'
' This isn't even your style Cathal you're more semi abstract, so why are you bothering.'
'It's as good as you can get it. Stop.'
'You can't draw like this, stop.'
' Shut up brain. Working here.'
5 minutes later the doubt cycle kicks in again. I keep resisting the doubt and fail voice because I care and I want to get better at this.
I know that voice is the voice of fear. Fear I'll fail. Fear I'll get laughed at. Fear of pushing myself.
Well I'm pushing myself because I care, I'm aiming to improve I'll only fail if stop trying to improve. As long as I try I'll improve slowly or quickly, but I'll improve. Laughed at well I've been laughed at lots.(usually because I look ridiculous.) And as Adam Ant sung,
'Prince Charming
Ridicule is nothing to be scared of,'
I'm no Prince and my charms are questionable, but I agree 'Ridicule is nothing to be scared of,'