I have, for years, completely avoided joining any of these social networking sites. You know--myspace, facebook, whatever. Julie had, a few months back, set up a more professional presence for my illustration news and stuff on Facebook (since she was already a member). And that was good. But I was still holding out. Not sure revisiting the glory days was for me. But I started seeing people--old friends--joining the Facebook group, whose names I hadn't seen in 10 plus years. It was weird. Then there was the idea that now that I'm stay-at-home Dad, my days are pretty much shut-in. Which was making me a little isolated. A little crazy. Yeah. So, I gave in and I joined the 'book.
It's been a mixed bag. A complete dismissal of the past is unhealthy, just as it is to live only in the past (or the future for that matter). It's a pretty fine line. So, it's good, but still sometimes weird, to remember the high school and college days.For better or for worse. Hard not to get too sucked back in.
The interesting thing is, I've really been inspired by reconnecting with some of these folks. Though some people are living basically the same as they were 10 years ago, some people are doing new and cool things, with art, work, life and family. It's refreshing. It made me want to look at some of my old artwork. Pre-kid books. And it made me remember what was going on, with art and motivation many years ago. And it's making me want to try and do some more drawing that's not necessarily just for existing jobs. I haven't been doing too much of this for a while. For the past few weeks, I've been trying to keep up an exercise of working in the ol' sketchbook for about 5 times a week. It's been a lot of fun. For this, Facebook has been a good thing. I mean, I'm still an advocate of that whole "don't look back" thing. But I'm starting to think it's ok to just take an occasional peek.
Here's something new from the sketchbook (click on it for a closer look):
We'll see how it goes.
