Glowsticks Unite and Wall Art

Hey guys :) I was meaning to update last night, but I got caught up in Skype and a couple of other things and I didn't end up getting round to it. But it's okay, because now I have things to share.

So there are about 49 days till I leave the country now, I think, and since 50 was a nice round number I thought it would be a good time to start on a longish term project I've been imaging for a while. Basically the idea I had was based on the idea of creating some kind of progressive mural for the walls of my room, which would also be a documentation of whatever's going on in my life and a way of remembering things. I figured I would start with a small piece of paper each day and use that space to create some kind of representation of a cool thing that had happened that day. Over time I figured it'd build up to something quite nice.

This is the first one:

It references a lyric I particularly enjoy from this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=a4QQ7HYYdWw which I tried to learn with my sister last night. The full lyric is 'so wide is the river, the horizon a sliver, the artist has run out of paint', which I enjoy because I originally misheard the last part as 'the artist has run out of pain' and thought that was weirdly sadly beautiful, and then on learning the actual words I saw that it was happily beautiful too. Megan and I struggled with it a bit because neither of us can confidently sing the lower part - it's a bit out of range for me, and she just hasn't had much experience with holding a harmony (and this one is especially tough). Nonetheless we had fun.

I'm not super happy with the painting. I felt like there was too much white space to begin with, and then when I added the squiggle up the top I instantly regretted it. But no matter! It's not about perfection. The main problem is that with the time I took to figure out what I was doing (in a broad sense, not just with this painting) and to botch up my first attempt, creating this took over an hour. And I'm obviously not going to be able to devote that time to this every night. But even if I just make two or three of these a week, or something, that's still kind of nice. I look forward to seeing the project grow on my wall.

In other news, I have a new writing project. I'm taking a little time off from the Olle-collab to work on something of my own I've been meaning to get to since I started the blog. It's a really interesting discovery because I have no memory of writing it. It's called 'Glowsticks Unite' (again, no idea where the title came from) and it was in my Creative Writing folder from last year.

Chelsea’s philosophy changed in the tunnel under the park when she was nine. The other girl was twelve. When she got out it was dark and she decided she wasn’t going home again.

Now she rides round the city on buses looking for lines to do and lives to change. She turns tricks in alleyways and makes the men’s eyes roll in their heads like marbles. Breaking hearts over her bare thighs, she runs through the night and sleeps till noon. She sleeps under bridges but she never goes hungry.

I like it. There's a lot of Belle and Sebastian inspiration in here, especially the first line, which comes from this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RShI_-85os. Belle and Sebastian are one of my very favorite bands, and I've often thought that some of their songs could be turned into whole novels. But the ideas I had running through my head when I reread this were quite different to the songs it came from. I have a vague idea of what I want to do with it, and a strong feeling it's going to take more than a week to accomplish, but I'll do my best to have an updated version of it up by the end of the week.

Leave comments please :D I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on this one.