Thoughts on Art

Sonya has always been an artist.

While following male mode, she was lead a stray with computers, technology ... but did so as a teacher or support - helping people calm down in sometimes worse day of life: student losing paper, companies down because of technical issues, that sort of thing.  but the more she got into technology, the more she lost herself.   due to back injury and meds, my life has changed.

I have been out of the game sooo long, I know I'll never be able to catch up - it has been 10 years since I lost my company.  I don't want to go back though ... constantly changing tech can be difficult to grasp, and since I did it all (laptops, computers, servers, thin-stations, Internet, and even consumer interfaces - drivers for cameras and such).  I'll always be part geek, hey all our computers run Linux variants,  but it won't be my life, again.

I went too long without creating anything creative.  Websites were to a point, but I didn't WYSIWYG (graphical), I coded it, back end with a text editor ,,, not creative.  with my injury and high meds, I was a zombie, for years ... had to make some difficult life choices,  shake off a lot of stuff, but I started to regain my life.

I started small, exploring with "nail art" (a few people actually look forward to my new looks) outrageous make up designs (Pride eyes) ... all starting to wake up the right side of my brain.

Recently my mind has been going places it hasn't in decades ... seeing images I NEED to get out, techniques I have never used, styles of works I have never considered .... days (8.8.13) I started painting ... again.  seriously, with purpose, not forced or coerced,  for the first-time since I started university in 1990!  Sonya.Artist is waking up and fulfilling her destiny.  As Sean in teens, she was an early accomplished painter and multi media creator - not computers, but incorporating unique items like actual strings in a painting of a Spanish guitar ... could actually be strummed.

I have one project I MUST do ... a recreation of a piece that was one of last I did in old life ... actual painting done with Q-tips/pointillism of a Manet painting.  my old one was huge (feet by feet) this one is more reasonable and off to decent start (planned, blocked and starting painting).  it has to be done in layers, overlying features of the landscape (my paintings are rarely flat), where the grass and hill meets the sky, there is a slightest change in physical depth of Paint, and as I work down - people, fence, horse and riders, all slightly higher than the previous layer ... should be interested.  I am still hampered by back pain ... it has actually kept me away from the canvas in past few days ... but that just means I have to work smarter ... and keep the fire kindled.

60 days! (ok just over ... this is a bit late - technical problems)

On June 11th, I started HRT,  making it just over 2 months now ...

Changes? Not as many as I would have thought yet, but still, something IS happening.  about 2 ... (well 3 now) weeks ago I felt a smallish, but firm, mass under my nipples, more prominent on my left side.  Since then, it has been increasingly tender and VERY itchy ... good signs?  I think so.  Since this is my first-time experiencing this, I am VERY clueless ... *giggles

For a while, I have been taking daily (near daily) "selfies" so I can show a transition, along with weekly/biweekly body shots - me standing, in just a pair of briefs.  The images are taken from differing poses and stances, so I should be able to remove background (whitish wall) and overlay them, one on another so, again, I can track any and all changes probably for a 6 and 12 month slide-show project.

I wish there was some way to quantify any emotional changes.  I do suffer from depression related to my disability (degenerative disk disease).  Between this and what I describe as a "narcotic fog" (or opiate fog or anything along those lines), my cognitive abilities are being handicapped compared to what they once were (far from top of my game) - adding to my frustration.

For the longest time, my emotional wiring has been off-line ... probably as a coping mechanism to deal with various situations - domestic abuse, professional detachment, disability and perhaps the most dangerous -- self abuse and hatred, disparagement and similar -relating directly to my dysphoria and fighting the increasingly overwhelming truths of my being transsexualism.

A few times, I basically tried to be "all the man I could be" or something stupid like that ... it meant sleeping around, sometimes sleeping with 2 different women at different times during a day ... heavily using alcohol and partying all weekend, playing various roles depending on the partner I was with - a true chameleon.  I know I hurt people, but I also hurt myself ... those days are long past, but (more recently now) have been coming back to haunt me, in my thoughts.  I realize why (now) ... seeing glimpses of my real self and trying to prove to myself and others that it isn't me ... I am not one of "those people."

Fast forwarding to recently , something has woken up ... a feeling that I haven't enjoyed since my teens ... raw creativeness energy.  I am seeing pictures, objects and more and am parting them out, exploring their lines, colours and shades .... as part of this journey, I have to start where I left off ... a very difficulty piece, except I am going about it with new eyes, a new style and it will be the first signpost of a new life ...

Also I have seen changes in other was ... I was reading an "open letter" from a supportive mother of her child's transition .... and I guess I realized that that is on of many things I would never experienced ... my birth mother died just over 2 yrs ago, and I have been dismissed by my adopted family since late 80's.  I don't even know where they live ... Canada or US or elsewhere ... and I know .... their religious and personal beliefs would never accept my lifestyle, choices or transition.  And I would rather not add that baggage ... I just didn't realize how much it WAS haunting me -- until I read that letter.

I am, also starting a phase that I feared.  many have explained it (also the reason for slowing down of progress selfies) - apparent lack of changes.... right now.  The face that I apply makeup on IS the same face before I started HRT.  I don't see anything happening yet.  I know that my cocktail is supposed to be accelerated compared to my Spiro sisters, but I too seem to be stalled ... I KNOW there is /some/ breast growth (I actually have a write up about boobs coming up), but I don't see other changes.  my neck is still huge, facially still same.  I have lost a lot of weight, but seeing images of me near naked, I don't see it (or distribution changes - even though I KNOW it is still very early).  This why I am thankful for others who have been documenting their progress, and why I HAVE to also.

Because /part/ of me knows this is normal ... I know that other sisters have felt this disillusionment around this time - so much so that a few have stopped their progress ... but I also know that this is temporary, and like a butterfly still in cocoon, there are times with no visible outward changes ... followed by times of unparalleled development.  I have seen before and after slide-shows and have the general idea in my head.  I "won't give it 30 more days" and if nothing happens, I am going back ... I known what thee future will be, and I will stay on course, develop myself internally, mentally and has much outwardly (electrolysis?) while I wait for stuffs to kick into high gear *giggles

There is soooo much more to explore ... experience.  I am VERY early still.  just one of the dips that lets this roller-coaster climb and soar ...

(please note ... I am "catching up" ... many of these were written weeks ago, just being updated and posted ... I NEED to say this ... and read it later).

Painting ...

I was ... in another life ... a "professional" artist ... that being I had showings and sold pieces ...

That ended 1990 ....

Almost 22 years to the season, I have put paint on canvas on a project that has been very close to me ... I am attempting to re-create a piece that was one of the last pieces that I finished then ... and perhaps a painting that I miss the most - it meant a lot.

Wayy back then, I was very ... perhaps "eclectic" might be a good word, perhaps one of the few areas I could be introverted ... I closed doors, locking myself in with basics - way too much alcohol, a bit of food, oh yea candles ... LOTS of music ...  and 3 days or so later would come out ... with 3-4 finished pieces, and writings (poetry) ... it was VERY rewarding ... I had no real sense of time ... just me.

A lot has changed since ... but here is what I am doing.

Manet's Races at Longchamp:

I took a small section ...

"blocked it" so I could plan the work on canvas ...

and then started it ....

adding first colour ...

--Work as of 15 Aug 2013

I work with pointillism ... hundreds, thousands of individual dots of blurred colour (looks really bad up-close, meant to be viewed from a distance).  I usually do a few layers, just to make sure the colour is "just right" ....

I will update as project continues ...

My iPL Hair Removal Progress ...

Just a few quick pics logging my progress with hair removal.  Right now, I am attending ~6 weeks and started early December of 2012.  I am writing a post about the actual process, but I'll use this as my "brag" page.  Also included are a few pics from my "old" life, showing what it could have looked like ...

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I started my treatment on December and each photo was taken 3 weeks after treatment, so remaining hair had a chance to be visible.

 

(No matter how bad my eyes look ... NO I was NOT stoned ... LOL)

Actually (in my eyes) the lack of progress is what stopped me from doing my vlog, basically I could see EVERY flaw, every "trace" of beard ... even though it was disappearing, all I could see was ~2003 images coming though behind the make-up.  It was only when I started preparing the "tracking" pictures to post, could I see that things HAVE changed!

note:  Very sorry about formatting, I am trying to find a template I like, and every change screws up how the pictures look.  I will straighten them out once template is fixed up, and I will also update this with newest pictures!

Restarting VLog ...

After months of doubt & frustration I have restarted my vlog.  After posting my first moths ago, I have decided that, no matter what I think now, I want something to look back and say "I have changed".  Since I am my worse enemy and critic, I just won't watch them until a bit further down the road.

If you watch, please be gentle. 

(I am writing this on a new tablet - still trying to get used to - so I apologize ahead  of time for embarrassing or offensive /auto-corrects/)

Watch "Restarting my Vlog" on YouTube