Lack of artsiness, part two.

Another uneventful, nonartistic week has come and gone. Throughout it, I felt utterly uninspired to make anything (yes, even after coming back from viewing a Picasso exhibit in the local museum), and the fact that snow storms have prevented me from going to Wednesday morning painters (Art grrls was rescheduled for the upcoming week) didn’t make it any better.

We did have a rather lengthy, alcohol-spurred conversation with Elrin one evening some days ago, about housewifery, artfulness, and aspirations for the future. And yummy, yummy Irish cream cut almost in half with chocolate syrup. You’ve got to eat it by the spoonful. It’s that good. But El had to have a beer instead, because he’s weird like that.

Here’re some of the things which came of this conversation.


Housewifery (Housefiance-ing? Housepartner-ing?) and aspirations for the future.

These days, staying at home full time is a luxury rather than a necessity. It’s also considered a side-effect of raising children. Errant has no children, so staying at home is definitely a luxury and a drain on resources. Or, it would’ve been, if the entirety of the income from any part-time job out here didn’t have to go into insurance, gas, and maintenance for my car. It’s actually cheaper to not get out of the house.

During the afore-mentioned conversation, an interesting point was brought up: all of my female relatives are stay-at-homes. They might occasionally work outside the home, when the circumstances and downtrodden economy warranty it. This does not prevent them from being talented, well-read, and well-educated (one or more college degrees) women, who wouldn’t leave a mark on the world in a generation or two. While there’s probably no such thing as the “housewife gene”, there probably is a path in life which funnels certain people towards certain things.

In the past several months, I’ve found it increasingly satisfying just to be able to have a warm meal on the table by the time El comes (to the clean and orderly) home. This is odd for a person who tends to have little to no empathy towards other people; doing things for others just for the sake of being nice/altruistic/sociable is something that I understand in theory, but hold no emotional resonance towards. Maybe, like eating green beans, it’s something that comes with age?

Being a homebody does put a hamper on something called a ‘career’. Teaching out here is about the only thing an education/arts major –can- do, and, as El pointed out, about the only way to get ones’ name out into the public. The problem is that a. Some of us would rather hang themselves than teach, and b. We’re moving out of the area within the next five years, as likely as not, anyway.

There’s always a possibility of a retail job, or, if worst comes to worst, something in the local call-center. As entertaining as stories at www.notalwaysright.com are, these doesn’t strike me as pleasures that a person should willingly inflict upon themselves or others.

So.. why not be a career house partner? Not to be vain, or anything, but standing around and looking pretty comes naturally, here. If there’s such a thing as a cooking gene, I’ve got it. Same with non-confrontational, placid attitude, and decent taste as far as interior decoration goes. Therefore. We’ve come to a conclusion that if (Gods forbid) something happens to Elrin, I’d have to find some moderately wealthy and religiously conservative gentleman. Never mind that anyone over 30 and without a long-term partner probably has some serious issues.

Artfulness

As mentioned before, there was a Picasso exhibit that El and I went to at the William King museum. They also had a small show of womens’ work from the 1800s, mostly heirlooms passed down in a few families. Overall, ‘d say that we’ve enjoyed this exhibit more so than the cubist one: decorative arts should NOT be underestimated, and there were some rather gorgeous large embroideries on display.

In other news, there’s a Lark books competition for 30 minute ring, with a deadline in mid-March, which is probably going to be entered by yours, truly, if she gets her bum into the working mode.

SNAG educational endowment scholarship deadline is also coming up, which is a good thing if you’re a student in the field of metals, and a sad, nostalgic thing, if you’re not.

The lack of artfulness makes me wonder if I should start doing two book updates a week, rather than a book and an art one. Or maybe another wildlife? (Did see a towhee by the bird feeder today. And a warbler on the walk through the local trail, this morning. If it wasn’t 23 degrees out/if El was wearing a hat, I could’ve probably seen a lot more. Grrrr.).