July

Life changed in minute ways. The summer atmosphere brightened making the colors of nature cartoonish.

I kept my head down and worked. I worked as if I was tied to a line that was going to pull me far away from my paints at any moment. Every second I wasn’t painted or reading I felt a voice deep inside saying, Do you feel that? Do you feel time leaving you?

I went on like this until a friend texted. He was all, hey what have you been up to?

I blinked at my phone and thought everything.

It was mid July. Somehow it was no longer July 1.

I started the month discouraged. Then I was in the middle of it with a portfolio emerging around me and an almost completed picture book dummy stored under my couch.

When my friend texted, I realized I needed to live too. So I also spent July wandering the neighborhood and seeing friends.

***

I received a handwritten letter in the mail thanking me for the use of my art in my school’s literary magazine. Getting a letter felt charming and antiquated, so I’ll probably keep it forever. When I agreed to it, I didn’t realize I would be on the cover of the physical edition. I don’t care much for any of the work I’ve made in my classes -although I’m learning a lot. This piece was development for another picture book I’m working on. One that I’m terrified of and has already taken several different directions since I made that piece. Since making this, I have completed the manuscript and will start developing the dummy after this one.

***

I read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow this month. I read most of it in an afternoon and then declared it required reading for Alex. Mostly because I need someone to talk to about it. A couple weeks later it is still on my mind.

Now I’m settling into August. Although, the weather tends to be muggy after July as autumn moisture starts to whisper in. Despite this, I look forward to reading book after book, walking, working, and creating picture books.