Monthly Archives: July 2023

To Record or Not to Record…

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(Sorrynotsorry for the cat video teaser – there IS one farther down the page)

I don’t like making videos (that’s videos of me drawing). Yes, I mentioned that before. I usually put together animations of some kind, if I’ve had the presence of mind to take enough photos while I’m working. I get so far into the zone while drawing that hours will pass before I think of recording at all, so the process has a lot of gaps. I need to be followed around by a videographer (maybe one who also cooks and cleans and makes a perfect Manhattan). Since I am a pencil on paper person, digital recording is not a thing. I love watching the work-in-progress of Pestacular, check it out.

I do like watching other creator videos and they say they’re popular, but that only matters if you know exactly who THEY are and just WHO is watching. So, before I began my last portrait I decided to rig up my own camera setup to record for the length of the drawing. An old Samsung phone, a selfie stick, and some clamps (NO I DON’T HAVE A PICTURE OF THAT LOL) and it was ready to go.

After a few short sessions I had to move all my drawing gear into the house when I l gave up my studio space to Thing Two for a few days so they could get a job done (needed more quiet than I did). I did not move the camera.

A week or so later, I moved my gear back into the studio and resumed work there…until my air conditioner failed. A fan sufficed for a couple of late evenings but at 42° I gave up (only after an evening of very sweaty troubleshooting) so the drawing board was moved back to the house again. No recording.

There’s always something. Life has a way of getting in the way of itself, especially if you’re me. My decrepit house, my dying car, failing equipment (there’s a joke in there somewhere). Sometimes I cook food and eat it, then I have to clean that up. And then there’s the day job. So the marketing/recording part gets…well, gets not done. (Yup, those are excuses.) 

And with that round of excuses, here’s what I managed to stitch together. Grab a beer.

sounds of memory

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The other day I was on one of many trips to the lower level of the building where I work. That floor is hard and smooth and showroom-shiny, unlike the quiet carpeted floors above where my office is. A woman was walking down a hall behind me and I could not help focusing on the sound her shoes were making – she had on fairly high heels, fairly dressy (yes, I call them lady shoes) – and she was at that “I have to get something done” pace.

I suddenly had a very distinct memory of my mum getting dressed to go out. She had a pair of shoes that I loved back then – I liked to wear them but they were one thing OFF the dress-up list. Red, shiny, snakeskin spike heels. Straps across the top of the foot. If she had those on, she and dad were going someplace nice. And the sound…Mum walking in those shoes was a sound that LADIES make (my mum was usually much more sensible).

I have no recollection of what she was wearing, only the shoes. Oh – those shoes. And the sound of her walking accross the kitchen into the vestibule…lady sounds. Legs with stockings sounds. Shoes-you’re-not-allowed-to-wear-until-you’re-grown-up sounds. Some kind of I’m-in-control sounds. A little bit of marching sounds. As soon as I hear heels like that….it’s a flashback.

Spike heels, pumps, lady shoes
Lady Shoes Photo taken at an artist opening in 2007

It amazed me for a minute how that high heeled sound is so distinctive and loaded – it may mean something quite different to someone else, or it might mean nothing at all. There were platform boots that echoed in high school hallways, runners that squeeked and sneakers that…sneaked. Flip flops made that irritating sound. Kodiaks could drag and thud, but only when they weren’t tied up – then they’re quiet. High heels were something else altogether.

Maybe it’s because there was not a lot of lady shoe-wearing growing up. Not later, either – I do love lady shoes and a great heel, but I am mostly a Doc Marten person. My sister’s husband said he needed to build an addition for her shoes, and my oldest ordered a pair of terrifying 7″ heeled Union Jack boots online when she was 12…the beginning of HER shoe habit (she is equal parts Docs and too-high heels). There is some kind of fascination there to be sure. Mine is the sound, apparently.

My old lady feet don’t see lady shoes too much any more, and I think I’ve lost the ability to walk with that determined march in high heels. Hell, I probably can’t walk in them at all. I will have to be satisfied following strangers and listening to the sounds of their shoes – those heels never go out of style for long.