AND WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN?

I can’t believe what I am doing right now! After spending a whole morning and part of an afternoon on designing a newsletter on my desktop computer, I decided to take a break from my studio/office, and come downstairs for a cup of tea.

So what you say? I am writing this on my laptop! This is my break?

I really need to escape from the world of computers, so I plan to take a walk this afternoon, and then this evening, no computers, no work, no electronics. What I’ll do is have my usual pizza party with TLW (The Little Woman) maybe call my business partner and touch base, then Sudoku, or a ballgame.

I am becoming what everyone else in this world is becoming, dependent on the Internet: the various word programs, and losing touch with realities. The hard cold fact is that it is so easy to do things on the computer, with blinding speed, and without fear that I can make a mistake, that I just naturally gravitate to the machine.

I remember when I used to read books, draw and paint, and woodcut, and now I type, which is something that I have always hated. I can remember Mr. Chant, my typing teacher annoying me because I had to type either 45 or 60 words a minute. That is back in the 60’s, and I thought: “I’m an artist, what do I need tying for? I used to apply that logic to math, and science also.

Some twenty years later, I was typing in my designs with programs that I still don’t know all of. I also found out that in my career I needed the math and science and applied it often, making me realize life is indeed complicated and uncertain.

We used to play card games, with cards, not with computers, read books by turning paper over, research was a trip to the library, and writing meant you kept two sharp pencils near-by with an eraser. Where is the reality of it all? I’ll tell you where, in the screen I’m looking at!