John, the itinerate artist and tech wizard, left an interesting comment the other day that I should not wait for my muse. This made me think. I was lying in bed this morning, pondering my muse, and I wondered if I even have a muse, and if so, what does she look like? These were not questions I could answer. I decided to let the universe, in its infinite random wisdom, reveal the answer to me.
I formulated this plan while still in bed (ie still pre-coffee): I would do a google image search on muse: the first image that appeared would be my muse. I would create a bit of art for my muse, using its image, immediately upon getting out of bed.
This is my muse:
My muse is three guys? I never would have guessed that.
I did three pieces of art, but I have to confess I stayed in my comfort zone: the computer. I did not put on a beret and smock and get dirty.
After I completed the series, I cut up some cardstock to make Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). These are 3.5 x 2.5 inch cards, and you can do anything you want on them: paint, photography, collage, embroidery, anything. Even digital manipulation (that sounds a bit dirty, eh?). And then I printed my three Muse pictures and glued them onto three ATCs, which means I’m officially an artist now. I feel like I cheated though, since I didn’t actually use paint and stuff.
Speaking of cheating, I did my taxes. I don’t know why, but I’ve always felt kind of virtuous about doing my taxes the old-fashioned way, with a pencil and an eraser and sometimes a calculator. But this time I used QuickTax because I had some unusual financial circumstances this year, and I needed to explore different scenarios. You just plug in the numbers from your T-4 and other forms, and it does all those laborious calculations for you. If you want to play with a variable (eg, should I put more money into my RRSP), it instantly serves up the results. Virtue be damned, I’m a convert now: I don’t care if it feels like cheating. And I’m getting a refund, which is great because I need a new roof.
Shoot and drat about the roof. Yes, Quick tax, ufile, and Taxtron are all useful to us. I will proabably be using Taxtron because I can download it to the Mac. Filing online saves time too.
Cool, your muse is the band Muse
I really like the pieces you’ve created.
Oh and I don’t think you’ve cheated. Art created on the computer is still art, but if you don’t feel like an artist yet, just call yourself a graphic designer