Sometimes, I’ll write a blog post title and save it down for the potential post date (my regularly scheduled programming) and then come back to it later and write the actual post.
So I’ve come back to this later and have no idea what the Hell in the Gerard Way style title I was going to write! What on earth could this title be referencing? My next tattoo design? My piles of sketchbooks? The Chuck Palahniuk view that all writers should also create art as a way to have a ‘break’ but still be creative?
All of them?
Fine, let’s start with Gerard Way. It’s been a while since I’ve brain dumped MCR knowledge at you all. So, recently I read an introduction to something or other, by Gerard Way. In this, he talked about how, in order to get enough credits to graduate with his Cartooning degree from SVA he had to take a comedy class. Like OK, American universities are weird. But I did take a course in German whilst at university for my Psychology degree, so…
Gerard went on to say how they were asked to re-write a piece of classic writing to make it ‘funny’. He chose Huckleberry Finn and wrote about him getting an erection on his raft due to the wind blowing. Which, to be honest, unless he made an actual stiff breeze pun, is a hugely wasted opportunity. Anyway, blah blah, no one laughed except the dude he was now writing the introduction for -they became friends and now, all these years later, Gerard Way is globally famous for being a mega-emo, insanely talented comic book author/ musician etc. The moral of this? Laugh at the weird kids jokes at university.
Which, shout out to Stuart Smith who I had a huge crush on at uni and was too afraid to tell him. We bonded over Bowie and if anyone became the next Gerard Way it was him!
Point 2 then: My next tattoo design. I was considering a jackalope skull, but you know, they just look like deer when they don’t have skin. Sad. So I’m working on a crucified shrike. The butcher bird that impales its prey on thorns? I’m sketching it for my 33rd birthday (age Jeebus was crucified and incidentally the day this blog post goes live). Anyway, my tattoo artist is an insanely talented woman who can turn my scribbles into beautiful art. Except she’s a vegan. How can I ask her to draw me an impaled bird for my birthday? That’s so anti-vegan! But its art right? I’m pretty sure she’d rather crucify me.
Point 3: So why do I, someone with mild to moderate artistic ability have a huge stack of sketchbooks and folders filled with paintings and drawings of random shit from my last two decades of life? Well, I’ve always been awful at keeping a diary. But I drew pretty consistently. Some really depressing shit, but mostly portraits. I love drawing faces. And I don’t share them (Karl sees them if he wants to) or sell them, but I wouldn’t want to chuck them. It’s art right? That’s how I end up managing to design my own tattoos. Through constant practice.
Point 4: Consider This, the book on Writing by Chuck Palahniuk, dedicates a half page to a brief overview of why writers should create art. Bad art, good art. Any art. A creative outlet is important. And he’s so right. Actually the whole book is amazing and has quickly become one of my go to books on writing. But all writers are artists, they’re creative, with worlds in their heads. So writers should make visual art too. It’s important.
At the end of the day it’s art. I’m an artist.
LF Mills - author 