03/13/2004: "New drawing of Cillian Murphy"

I got invited out by two different people tonight and instead I stayed home, drank Guinness, practiced the guitar and did another drawing of my new favorite subject matter: Cillian Murphy who (I'm pretty sure) turned 30 today. Click on the image to see a larger version of it but beware, it's pretty jumbo sized (155KB).

Cillian Murphy

Sometimes I feel like a loser for staying in so much. I've lost friends and ruined relationships because when the muse strikes, I don't want to be anywhere else, doing anything else, with anyone else. I am quite ecstatically happy actually, just to stay home and paint, or edit one of my short film projects, work on a screenplay, practice the guitar, or wherever the creative burst takes me.

People think that I'm antisocial, that I don't like them, or that their friendship isn't appreciated but that is so far from the truth. The only people I've ever known who understand this isn't the case, are other artists, writers, and musicians. Or, really anybody who has something in their life that they feel truly passionate about. I wonder how other people deal with this kind of situation without losing all their friends and loved ones.

In other news, the woman who commissioned a painting from me came by tonight to pick it up. She loved it (thank god). Plus I got paid which couldn't have come at a better time as I'm totally broke.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and put Cillian aside for the day so I can focus on working on the paintings for my upcoming solo exhibit...It's hard when you're excited about one thing, and you have to work on another but that's why being a "professional" artist takes so much discipline. I'm not too worried though as I'm further along with this exhibit than I've ever been before; almost finished in fact, with three months to spare.

Also, my friend Mike wrote to me about getting together a small group of people to play bluegrass music. He bought a new banjo and says I may use his old one to take lessons from Eric (the banjo player for the Southeast Panhandle Bluegrass Revival Band) who will be giving lessons during folk fest. I'm also back to practicing my musical saw and fiddle. I haven't worked on the penny whistle in awhile, but I'm considering pulling that out as well. What is it about playing music that can make you so high?