NOVEMBER 2024

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an anecdote to point out that a fruitcake writes this:

October rolls around & I say to my friend "...I hope I don't take up inktober from tonight, this is the worst year I could pick to do this... its an already over-scheduled month...". She agrees and helps me feel stronger about that decision - to not make that first drawing.

Utter waste of her time.

Now, I cannot explain why this happens, but i notice a pattern - about every 3 years I seem to take up inktober - quite involuntarily - put that together with a 0 or 100 brain = one didn't sleep in October.

A peek into my non-ink, non-traditional drawings all through october :) I only paid attention to the prompts.

November though, I'm enjoying some cool, sunny, breezy few days.

I would love to say the months before October have also been cool, breezy. That its been smooth sailing, that I enjoyed watching the book move to production, that I've not spent time thinking over things which have no real consequence. But in some cultures that's called lying.

Spade a spade, I happened upon some rough waters this year and it was awful. Or so I thought.

Until the day I looked into the eyes of another girl also on rough waters.

Same rough waters. Same maneuvers to escape it. But one of us was seeing results proportionate to our efforts, the other wasn't. And the only differentiating factor was SHEER. DUMB. LUCK.

Luck in the shape of people, and luck in the form of timing.

This was an intoxicating appearance of my life.

I sat there, a bitter winner, appreciating just how intricate and ingenious the hand I'd been dealt was.

I started to recollect the life I've lived so far, now actually as cards I've been dealt - some cards were added into my life with impeccable timing; sometimes I was handed a fantastic hand but I never got to play it, the game ended before it was my turn.

I also started to imagine my most significant people as face cards :P

"Defend your queen" :O - naawwwww. I would never.

But I did start to imagine what they would look like as royalty in the card deck:

I enjoyed going down this rabbit hole. Drawing little cards for people I know and love brought to surface some old memories of those closest to me & how they've shaped my life. It also brought some reflections on what I would add as the 'top 5 things' to their unique little card - all in all, its been a rather sunshiny excursion in my head.

I have my close ancestors to thank for this little thought experiment.

Growing up, card games were a celebrated tradition in my family.

In summers, winters, whenever school was out, me and my brothers would go live with my grandparents or my aunts. Mornings would be us chugging chocolate milk of some form and heading out for a swim with our grandfather at 6 am sharp.

He'd start pacing and staring at the wall clock if we were even a minute over, randomly mumbling "so, are we even going today? have we cancelled it?". After that we'd drag our feet and get out the door somehow, but once we got to the pool, I'd be so glad we did.

Afternoon tea-time or late evenings, we'd take to snacks and overly verbose card games.

As we grew older, the games my grandparents taught us got more sophisticated. So did the verbal fireworks. I'm convinced my grandma enjoys the analysis more than the game itself.

Me - I'd enjoy it when my younger brother lost, because it almost never happened. :P

<That's a card in the hand he's been dealt I suppose - the same green irises, and with them the cool 'you can't mess with me if you wanted to' demeanour my grandpa embodied.>

I'd also enjoy those moments during the game where I felt it had some semblance to real life.

I feel the situations that are difficult to grasp or empathise with in the real world, become effortlessly observable, explainable in card games.

As a result, I've seen these cards so often in my life, and yet, when I sat down to draw 'my hand' & the royals from my real life, I watched my memory fail me when trying to draw a face card. I wasn't even trying to match the style! But I couldn't for the life of me recall the actual details in there. I ran to the cupboard and pulled out the pack of playing cards. They had my full attention this time.

I started to take notice of the intricate details, the directions in which they had divided the card, the inconsistent colour logic, the patterns on the attires, the swords, the flowers, the frowns, the moustaches!

After taking a closer look at how the old school cards had been constructed, I dive in again, to draw the 'hand i've been dealt' :

These are only some characters from my real life, and for each person I've been able to 'card', there are about 5 I haven't! So truth is, this project has no real end in sight - It will take me forever to detail out cards for every single person who belongs here.

And i'm very cognizant, how wonderful this problem is <3

That's all for today.

Ciao now!