33/100 - At the gate
One third of the way into this 100 day project! To celebrate I tried to recall the arms on day 13 - mismatched , although the size constraints made it a bit less readable. As I was saying on that day, I often feel a great sense of accomplishment from having done something with my hands, and looking back at all these little drawings gives me a sense that the time was well spent.
There is certainly some bias here. I've noticed that my sense of accomplishment is very tied to the material world and this feels unfair. I believe there is real work that doesn't appear to leave a material trace; like writing, coding, going to meetings, talking to people, planning; but at the end of some days that's not where a I can find my sense of peace.
Most of my working life has been about making something with my hands and I was feeling that by teaching kids at the maker space -which is my usual day job- I was separating myself from that somehow. But now that I haven't been in a classroom for almost 2 months I've realized I thought of my value in that realm in the same way, it is still about showing up and making something even if it's not of great quality.
The character in this drawing has no hands. Trying to teach online feels like having no hands. I still think it's important to show up and interact with the few students that are coming to our online classes, but with the materiality gone my own feeling of being able to contribute something has diminished. I would like to rethink and recalibrate this whole idea of "only material work is real work".
That is likely the gate where this 2.25" by 3.5" hand-less astronaut stands by. Available here(sold).