Consolidated Efforts
As I write this, I’m putting the finishing touches on another full site redesign.
I decided to combine all of my creative pursuits into one website. I had this idea years ago, but waffled on it and ended up creating many websites and instagram profiles. At the time, the idea was that different audiences would only want to see certain aspects of what I create — why should I force my ink doodles on people who are following me for my photography?
As I continue my journey, I realize more and more that I should be creating and sharing for myself first. If I don’t enjoy the process of creating and sharing, I will only produce less and revert to stifling my expression. It is difficult to keep up with several sites, splinter my social media accounts, and essentially pretend to be several different artists. The truth is, I am a multi-faceted creator. I want my online presence to be a joy for me to view and, by extension of this and my exacting standards, for my visitors to view.
~ Whom
Outsized Barriers
I have already encountered a sizeable barrier to posting my art. I constrained myself too much on titles and the required effort caused me to not add content. I also tried to develop a posting schedule to A) get through my scanned image backlog, and B) schedule posts for the future. It proved to be unreasonable to simultaneously push for a post one day per week and to limit myself to only one published post on those days.
My new plan allows me to name posts whatever feels right, I can post multiple times in one day, and I am also allowing myself to post as frequently as I want. This way, if I have a spare moment, I can just post. And if I don’t, the content can just stew a while.
This also fits well in my local scanned image posting backlog. Files are scanned using a camera, and so they inherit the camera’s naming convention. There they will sit, until I decide to post one - and not necessarily chronologically. A chosen image gets renamed to “today’s” date, suffixed by a single letter a-z. I doubt I would post more than 26 images in a single day and, in fact, I hereby impose that limit. Thus, my local storage contains raw scanned files and the renamed files, which retain their posted order for future reference.
~ Whom
Here I Am
I have tried starting blogs many times. They never stick. They never last. This time might not be any different.
I think ideally I would want a barebones server where I can make a homepage out of HTML and CSS all from scratch. Bauhaus, brutalist, early-web aesthetic. But then, coming up with a blog system that fits into that would require too much time to code and get it both working and looking exactly the way I want.
So, to make it feel different for this redesign, I tried jumping over to Wordpress. The novelty and granularity seemed at first refreshing. After clunking my way through making a blog and a few test posts, however, I ran into bugs. On mobile, my posts were squished, images were distorted. I could have started troubleshooting, but I think that type of roadblock goes against the spirit of what I want from a blog this time around.
I want it to work. I want it to get out of my way. When I want to write a post, I want it to be simple. Dumbed-down, even. Zero friction.
And so, I’m back on Squarespace. Good enough, says I. I have the design mostly done. I might do little CSS tweaks to replace my Bluesky link icon, or to make my menu items clickable, but for the most part it’s all here and all in place. Now all I have to do is add content. That’s the part where I have failed in the past, and where I may yet fail here. This time around, I think I have something going for me that I didn’t before. That is, I am happy to be less precious about it this time around.
In the past, I had my visions of what a blog was, and I set the bar so high it was unreachable. This time, the plan is to get the framework up (done), and throw content up. I may blog my ideas, I may add writing that is unfinished, sketches that are incomplete. It’s just a blog, much like a sketchbook is just a sketchbook. In this too-short life, why not share it all?
~ Whom
Piping Bags and Frosting
There is a company that produces piping bags
for making beautiful designs out of frosting.
These bags come with one of two nozzles:
square or circle.
(although sometimes combinations of both
may occur during manufacturing)
Frosting is made of all the shapes —
circles and squares — but also
lines,
rectangles,
triangles.
Shapes with any number of sides.
Enclosed.
Open.
Shapes formed into recognizables,
like letters,
numbers,
kittens,
stars,
a forest.
All these, and more,
somehow combine to create
the unimaginable beauty
and shape
of a soul.
Soul-frosting zips about the heavens,
so rarely bouncing off a planet, and nearly never
reaching ours and the piping-bag company.
Once in a very rare while —
say, once every 200 milliseconds —
the company will capture some frosting
right out of thin air,
and randomly assign it a bag.
Does the square or circle nozzle
(or sometimes a combination of both)
accurately represent the frosting within?
How can the frosting come out
not as the single shape of its nozzle,
but as the multitude within?
Human Reflections
Some people look how I feel.
Beautiful?
Tired?
Deep?
Affected?
Annoyed?
Put-upon?
Worn-out?
Amused?
Hurried?
Lost?
Makes me want to capture their image when I see my reflection in them.