Today is J’s birthday. I picked a newspaper at random to use to wrap the largest of his gifts, and then ended up wrapping all of them with it. I lucked out and got the summer reading issue of the NYTimes Book Review magazine, which was full of these art deco inspired poster-type illustrations. Now I have a compelling reason to treat my stockpile of newspapers more nicely.
I wanted the house to be clean for his birthday, and spent a couple of hours on it yesterday. Did all the weeklies, like mopping and stuff I know should be done more frequently but that I still only get to about once a week. There’s more than a little compulsion in it – I have a series of steps I have been doing in the house for a couple of months now, and I’m weirdly stubborn about following them. I absolutely will not vacuum the living room until the tile is all mopped and I’ve dusted. There’s logic behind it, but still – a great conflict rages inside me at every sign of domesticity. I crave the subtle security of a freshly-washed house, but I don’t like the lifestyle that comes with it. I do more cleaning than creative work lately. Okay that’s completely not true, but it feels like it sometimes.
I made J a Gorey-esque baseball-themed card. Most of my spot illos are Gorey-esque -I’m trying to perfect my crosshatching technique. And I think Edward Gorey was a list-maker as some of his work seems like great illustrated lists of weird things. I liked making it a lot. Worked on the site some too before bed. I’m on the “sleepy” mood, and things are looking good for an October 1st launch.