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Setting the Scene

Amy Creative Journey | ICAD
ICAD "Wish"
ICAD 55/61 – “Wish”

I have been exploring a favorite theme (or several) in recent cards for ICAD 2016. As the challenge winds down, I am planning on logging all of the cards I made this summer, including the smattering of cards I did in the weeks leading up to ICAD and doing a bit of categorization and data logging as a retrospective.

The card above plays along with the sub-themes, and at the same time veers into the whimsical space of an imagined scene. But as is almost always the case, it is built upon drawings from reference materials. I used a photo of a desk in front of a window with a lovely pot on the windowsill and the willowy trees in the background as well as the diffuse impression of the cityscape as the foundation. Instead of translucent lace sheers, however, I pulled in a bold curtain with a loose capturing of a William Morris pattern from my own space. But the driving force behind this card was the microphone.

It is the microphone I want, not the one I have.

With an internal laugh earlier this week, I had the thought that I would draw the microphone I want while repeating the “If you build it… [it] will come” mantra from Field of Dreams over and over and over. I was stumped for what to draw one day, and I had been contemplating mics, and I thought… I should just do a full-sized drawing of the mic… the mic that would solve several problems in a nutshell.

I didn’t do that drawing. Instead, I branched off and combined the sentiment into something that also fit the thematic and line/tone I’ve been exploring in a batch of recent ICAD drawings.

 

Backstory

When I started recording again a few months ago, a fluke and freak drop damaged the cable that connects my microphone. I’ve been managing to make it work, but it’s a problem that just reinforces my dislike of my old-fashioned, bulk, taking-up-too-much-space equipment. Keep in mind I started more than a decade ago. At the time, what I bought was great. Today, I could probably get similar quality with something simpler. So, I’ve been hobbling along… thankful for what I have.

And then, last week while recording, I recorded two shows back to back. (Only one has been released.) When I started the second show, feeling really satisfied with how things were going and really glad that I was finally back in the groove and climbing out of the fog that my summer travel somehow created, I suddenly realized that while the software was live and recording…. nothing was being recorded. With a grim “oh no!” feeling, I went back to the first show file to see at what point I had lost connection with the microphone.

Luckily it had happened near the end. In sorting it out,  I knew that it happened at a point where the dog had gotten up and managed to pull the door open and go out of the office. I had turned around to see what the noise was, and I must have bumped the desk… just enough that the broken connector came loose. I didn’t realize I wasn’t getting any audio. I guess if I used headphones, I would have known. But the headphones I used to wear that plugged into the system I use fell apart years ago. So I had no clue that all of the talking I was doing was going nowhere.  

Thankful it was only part of the show and not most of the show, I redid the end of that show and started again on the second show. Frustrating but not insurmountable.

I am getting closer to just biting the bullet on getting a new one (although I shouldn’t). But for now, I am making a deal with myself… just keep going… do 10 shows… prove you are staying… do 15… do 20…  Those are the games I play with myself to keep moving forward with what I have!

 

A Simple Scene

In the meantime, I used ICAD to draw a simple card that reflects… the microphone I “wish” I had, the clear space I “wish” I had, the peaceful scene I “wish” I had, and inspiring and inviting creative space and a simplicity of tone… “wish”… and really, I am the only one who understood the backbone of the drawing. But the card had interesting resonance for those that saw it. Everyone interpreted it differently–especially the presence of the word “wish.” What I love is that I created a scene that evoked some kind of response, some feeling from the viewer. Love that.

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