before you really get old
I have a blank notebook addiction. Books are such satisfying little structures, full of possibility and the potential for adventure. The journal/sketchbook section of any book store is a dangerous place to me… I start holding and caressing different books, and before I know it there’s one tugging at my heart strings that I can’t leave without. Today I discovered the Moleskine storyboard notebook, complete with nifty little cell layouts. I’m sure someone in film could tell me how you’re really supposed to use these notebooks, but as soon as I picked one up I felt the potential for all kinds of possibilities…
This is a doodle I did in class (aaaah, yes, that’s why I carry around all those different metallic gel pens) of my cinema professor as a young woman (she is in her mid 60′s now). She is from eastern Europe, and came to Chicago in her early 20′s. She is always saying, “Follow your call! You must do _____ before you really get old.” She’s been on my mind a lot recently because her husband, who taught this class with her, died last week. She is fragile and full of greif, and often on the verge of tears in class. I wanted to privately send her some positive energy into the universe, especially now when she is in a brand new world without her husband… a world without her husband is like a foreign land to her. It is very sad. In this image of her I am acknowledging her grief while trying to wrap her–embrace her–in light (gold pen) and flowers.
