So much has changed, and yet nothing has. I am still the same old magical self, and yet I am now also described as Father, Husband, Immigrant, and muralist. Oh and home owner! Though the last one isn't entirely true as it isn't really my home, but it's close enough. On that same note, there is yet another new thing I can call myself, actually two things!! I am now a carpenter and a sculptor. The home technically belongs to my sister in law, however we are paying the bills to stay there and maintain the place. It is, however, the very first place I've ever torn apart and rebuilt from the inside out. The experience has given me a number of life lessons, the most important being a large dose of patience. It has also shown me how houses are built and though I do not wish to go into the trades and build people's homes for a living I am happy to know how things are done. It makes me feel more, adult and confident in the area of owning my own home. One thing that I am fond of that is related to the subject is furniture building. I absolutely love building furniture, and thanks to the new house I have been able to build a number of pieces for the house. I am planning on building a few more as we get into the house. One thing I need to do first to make those projects realized is to build a small workshop in the back yard. I have already gone to the trouble of designing the space, so now it is just a matter of collecting all the material necessary. In the mid-term, I'll need to pick up some kind of job, and I'm thinking the best type would be something part-time, where I can labor three days a week and pull in around 300 pounds.
Okay so this post has become something of a cryptic therapy session, so let me change gears a bit. As we reach our goal of getting into the house I am excited to get into my art again. I really want to pursue more painting, with the aspiration of becoming a professional. I would love to have my work up in galleries and create large scale murals. My first concept for a series would be to create something around 40 pieces. All the pieces would be made up of various mediums. 5 or 6 of them would be furniture pieces that could be placed in the gallery to sit on or take the space in some way. Another 10 would be large spray paint pieces. These would be in the size range of 10ft by 15 ft. That's not exact of course and I'm yet to find how I will build the base for these pieces, but that would be the idea. After that, another 10 pieces would be mid-size pieces, around 4ft by 5 ft. I think these will be done on canvas, and I'll most likely be using water based acrylic paints. These pieces may also be done with charcoal pastels and in that case, they would be done on thicker stock paper. Finally, I'll have 10 more pieces that are small, in the range of A1 size paper or A2. These pieces will be pencil sketches and watercolors. Feeewwww, that's a lot. I am also going to continue the pursuit of magic and acting and dancing. It's a full dose of the arts in my life, and it can be very overwhelming. All the same, they all blend together and encourage one another. All the ways they might overlap in the future leads to exciting prospects in my imagination. On a daily basis they will mostly be pursued individually, however as each thing progesses, I certainly want to bring them into one venture of my expression. My wife is calling it Designs by Distefano. I must say that has a nice ring to it.
