Joel and Charlotte agreed to take care of Dolly while I was in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the combination of another cat, a dog, a new environment, and my absence, stressed her out. She started marking her territory (on their couch), even with her own litter box in a secluded area, so they decided to bring her back to my house, and let Julie take care of her from then on.

I found this drawing on my white board when I got back. Along with an especially affectionate cat, it was a nice little thing to come home to.

This is the first painting I’ve ever made. I’ll suffix that with “in my adult life”, because I probably did something with my hands when I was a kid.

Julie, who’s very familiar with the medium, got me to sit down and paint with her. I was able to play around with different techniques of strokes and the like. It was interesting to discover the way the colours bleed, the consistency of the paint, and the texture of the canvas.

It’s definitely abstract. I agree with Dan’s astrology reading, in which he said that I see colours differently, but that doesn’t mean I can create them. Frédéric once told me that it’s easier for him to paint than photograph, because if he needs a certain colour, he can just add it to the painting by hand, whereas you can’t do this with a scene in photography. My forté seems to be in capturing instead.

Painting doesn’t come naturally to me. In elementary and high school, I went direction of music (guitar, voice, flute, and piano) instead of visual art. In university, when I wasn’t playing in bands anymore, I stuck with the written word, and eventually moved to photography and video when that wasn’t enough.

So the painting currently remains untitled. Partially because I can’t put a name to it, and partially because I haven’t decided what it is. Which seems a little silly to me, as my need to create has always come from the need to express. Even though Jackson Pollock once said, “When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing”, his paintings still had a direction, a life of their own, much like an improvised jazz solo.

Leave your suggestions in the comments, and I’ll choose a winner next Friday. The winner will win the painting! Yes, I’ll even ship it to you. The dimensions are roughly 8.5″×11″ (or 21.6cm×28cm).

Sometimes, I feel like I’ve been waiting to capture moments like this my whole life.

My friends know I don’t celebrate my birthday, because I don’t believe in rituals¹. I went through most of Thursday without anyone mentioning anything, aside from Louise calling me from the road, reminding me that we were going out for lunch the next day — which the three of us do on our birthdays at work.

So when I got home around 9:30 that night — tired and hungry after Tai Chi — I was surprised to find a letter taped to my front door. This letter lead to my birthday game:

Then, before I went to bed, I realized I had two phone messages:

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Hearing Dan and his family singing was awesome, but hearing my dad’s voice was something else. He had never called to wish me happy birthday himself; it was a day only my mom would remember, and she would always pass the phone to him.

It seems like every year I expect nothing to happen, but I end up being surprised in one way or another.

1. And this was before I discovered Taoism [↑]

Julie drew this picture of me. The details betray her perspicacity.

Such as the way my shirt tails dangle insouciantly from the sweater. How the pant bottoms are slightly bunched up. And while I don’t wear a tie that often, the preppy top + skater bottoms style is accurate. Even the length of chain and the shape of my glasses. All the little details I think about when I dress myself. The only thing that isn’t me is the hair, which falls flat in the winter, due to the fact that it’s toque wearing season.

Also, I have no eyes, nose or mouth is this picture. Only my wide-arm glasses, which I’ve said before is a large part of my identity. Obviously, her exclusion of my facial features has put even more emphasis on this.

I wonder: why are my arms drawn behind my back? Posture says a lot about a person. Maybe this was done without any consideration, but maybe there was subconscious intent.

It’s always interesting to find out how other people see you. A self-image is often biased.

So which image is more accurate; yours or theirs?