Argh / by Helen Hajnoczky

For the first time in a long time I’m feeling grumpy with my art. The problem is it’s supposed to be anti-grump! It’s for the Bright Side Festival at Theatre 1308. This winter festival has stuff from all genres and is all about cheering up. But tonight I’m just grumpy. I’m tired, I’ve got a bit of a headache, I slept a little less than I should’ve, worked out a little more than I should’ve, my tummy’s kind of off, and I’m just so sick of arranging cut out paper flowers all night for the third night in a row. The problem too is that it’s more complicated than it had to be… I made each piece have a colour scheme (one red, one pink fading to purple, one yellow fading to white) when they could have all just been multi-coloured. The colour scheme makes it harder because I have to find the right shape of the right colour of flower, which is more time consuming. I do think it looks cooler this way I guess (grumble) but right now I’m wishing I’d taken the path of least resistance even though I know I’ll be happy when they’re done and polished and looking all effortless. Sigh.

On the plus side though the paper is stuck down with Modge Podge my pal suggested sealing the pieces with acrylic medium which is a million times faster and (bonus) doesn’t make the whole little house we live in reek, so that’s cool. Plus they’re gonna be super shiny which will look sharp, I think.

One more to go, which I’ll finish tomorrow, and which I suspect I’ll be more cheerful about. It’s easy to put everything together right now and see that it’s my physical state that’s making me feel this way… I’m pretty stoked about how the pieces are turning out and on a regular day I think I’d be quite content. Anyway I write this not just to whine (and it’s partly to whine because that’s its own kind of fun) but because I don’t want this blog to only be “oh look how nice this is” or “oh look how art made me feel better today about life and grief.” Sometime it just makes me grumpy. Also my back hurts. And I still have glue and acrylic medium stuck all over my hands even though I’ve washed them three times. And I still have to make lunch. And if I’m going to do that I’m either going to have to keep washing my hands until they turn to dust in the dry Calgary winter or get art supplies in my food. Argh!

You get the picture.