Before I begin today’s randomness, I want to give a shout out to Ilari for being the first person to follow and She Said…! Sorry if I embarrassed you, but I think the first person to take a chance and follow your crazy blog is a big deal to be celebrated!

And so, you get one of the GIF files I made of my favorite J-Rock star, Tetsuya… Hello and welcome to the randomness!

Today’s title is a saying I think anyone who has been on Facebook (which I unaffectionately call “Facepuke”) has seen at one point in time or another… I like this saying, that the Earth without art is “eh”.

Imagine if there had never been such a thing as art in this world. How boring and unimaginative this ball of dirt would be! And how colorless! Not to mention that we probably wouldn’t have some of the technology that we have today… DaVinci didn’t just paint pictures, he drew designs of flying machines and all sorts of interesting mechanics. Even cave drawings… Crude as they are, they really gave us a good look at what life was like for neanderthals.

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m an artist (or I like to think I am, anyway). The above drawing of the girl at the drafting table is not mine, but the one to the left, here, is. In fact, this is one of my favorite digital drawings.

I’ve been drawing since I was old enough to hold a drawing implement in my hand (which was probably a crayon, but I remember using a pencil at the age of 4… because parents weren’t safety crazy then). And ever since I can remember, Japanese anime was my inspirational style. I’ve always been crazy about Japan for some reason, but that’s a story for another time, I think… I’ll have to remember that…

Music plays a very important part in my art and always has. It’s very inspirational!

Take, for instance, “Strawberry Letter 23″… Props to The Brothers Johnson for making such a cool, funky tune! It was written by one of the brothers when he was only 17 about a girlfriend he had with strawberry stationary. Throughout the song, he keeps mentioning “strawberry letter 22”; the title the anticipation of the 23rd letter’s arrival. I went a little bonkers on this one… Every piece of paper she’s tossing is numbered and begins with, “Hello my love”, the first line of the song. This is also one of my favorite digital drawings. The program I use allows me to make some very interesting and funky effects.

However, I don’t just create digital drawings…

I also, on occasion, do traditional drawings such as this one. It actually had no title up until now. I created this as a birthday present for my darling friend, Mall, who is a professional artist. Sadly, I’m the opposite. I’m the stereotypical “starving artist”. I’m not a professional, famous or make a lot of money, if any at all. But I digress…

It was my friend Mall who inspired me to push boundaries with my art and introduced me to this incredibly wonderful and diverse product known as washi tape. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a type of paper tape developed in Japan that has beautiful designs printed on it. Mall uses it often in her work, so I decided to try it as well. She very much loved her birthday gift!

Most people who have seen my washi tape works, like the mermaids, asked me if I was insane. How did I have the patience to cut out all these tiny pieces of tape?!

I can’t answer that… I have no idea where I get the patience. Usually, I have none whatsoever. But when it comes to my art, I seem to have an awful lot. It makes no sense, but I go with it…

I also dabble a bit with painting…

Years ago, after I had just finished high school, I discovered the PBS show, The Joy of Painting. I began watching it to get some art tips (plus Bob Ross had this soothing voice that would mellow me out) and one day decided, “I can do that!” So I did…

At the time, I wasn’t exactly rolling in dough… Paint and brushes were expensive enough, and canvas was at that time as well. So I used the next best thing… my sliding closet doors. I also used the door to my room as well. Thankfully, my mom was okay with the idea. Actually, she enjoyed seeing these huge murals I was painting. Over the years, my style has improved greatly, but it’s still not exactly where I want it to be just yet…

So… I’ll get a little personal here…

This is where the “magic” happens, with the exception of my painting (due to lack of light and room). This is my drafting table which, as you can see, is a cluttered mess. It doesn’t just hold art supplies. It also holds whatever things I find interesting and inspiring. It’s also surrounded by pictures of my favorite J-Rockers since they, too, are a large part of my inspiration. And this is clean compared to how it used to look. Honestly, it makes you wonder how I was able to work at all…

I have very little space for an art area, which explains all the clutter…

I actually only have a small corner of my bedroom dedicated to my art. I only have a small space to walk between my drafting table and the entertainment center that houses my little goodies as well as my art supplies (see the boxes on top, they’re full of washi tape). It’s may be a small corner, but it’s mine. And it’s better than nothing, right?

But just because I have an “interesting” space to work in doesn’t mean that I’m always inspired…

Every artist experiences blocks from time to time. However, mine have been like The Great Wall of China blocks. I’ve literally drawn little to nothing for several years. There have been some stresses in my life, a surgery… and stupidity… Good god, was there a lot of stupidity! The majority of which was on that lovely site I call “Facepuke”. The stupidity, the hate, people having these political arguments that make you grateful they didn’t run countries or they’d end up blowing up the entire Earth. For two years, I didn’t go on “Facepuke” at all. And something amazing happened… I was inspired again! But then I was stupid and started going back on social media and my inspiration died. I’ve decided it’s time to get the fuck away from that poison site for a while. And no sooner had I made that decision when bam! Inspiration has returned!

Well… hopefully I’ll have something good to show you sometime very soon…

In the meantime, I’m going to finish my vanilla latte flavored Frosted Mini Wheats (oh my god, they’re fucking delicious!) and get back to work on my latest self portrait. I don’t use real pictures as avatars or profile pictures… ever… I’ve worked very hard to remain the “cyber shadow” known as kitsu, kitsuyuutsu, reverse girl, kizza… A whole plethora of monickers, actually. That’s the reason for my self portraits. At least they look similar to me…