The Think Bottle Blog was created to gather great art, ideas, and inspiration into one place. I hope you get inspired to take a chance and dive into something of your own. Plus it’s a great place to interact with me on a daily basis. Cheers!

Where Do I Get My Characters?

“Where do I get my characters?” It’s the most commonly asked question when I’m out in the real world. Right behind, “Could you please direct me to the restroom?” and “Where is the latest TWILIGHT installment located at?”

Generally, I’m no help at any of those types of queries- unless of course I happened to down a lot of liquids before hand and then I could point the person in the right direction. The TWILIGHT series is another story altogether. I’m not a reader of that kind of fiction-I like to escape from reality when I read and those kinds of books seem a little like watching the news; all darkness, teeth and politics with some heavy petting thrown in for the tweeners.

“Where do I get my characters?” It’s a decent question and I’d ask it myself if I was organized enough to remember to ask it. The answer is; I’m not sure. It’s not like I really plan anything I do. Sure, my socks match and I never re-wear the shirt with the lasagna stain down the front, but that’s about it. The process of drawing is more akin to walking down the street and saying ”Gee, I really have a taste for a chili dog”; so I stop at Der Veenerschnitzel. And this is the best part; even if I forgot my wallet, I still get the dog because I’m in my brain and everything’s free.

Maybe that’s why art for me continues to be thrilling and awe-inspiring. Everyday is like a miracle; all you need to do is climb inside my head and slog around for a day. Then you’d know that the entire question is giving me too much credit; much more than I deserve.

My head more resembles grand paw’s garage, where the Country Squire station wagon with the fake wood panels is parked, than a neat little fire-proof filing cabinet. Things are not methodically placed in their respective folders or labeled with sticky notes for future attention. Rather, rummaging through my cortex and getting beneath the gray matter to find the good stuff is pretty dicey. You’re just as likely to uncover a 3-buttoned mauve leisure suit or a greasy roll of electrical tape as a goofy gentleman with a turned up pig nose.

The dogs, well they’re all over the place, You’d think I’d keep them all in one place so I could just grab one when I needed it but I don’t. Size is certainly a factor when looking for a dog though, the small ones usually migrate down to the bottom of the workbench drawer with the paper-clips, thumbtacks, rubber bands and toe-nail clippings. (In case you’re wondering, the big ones are up in the rafters with the toboggan and the umbrella table).

If I do have a system of organization it might be one of association. Example: that thing is by this thing and last Thursday it was sitting on top of that kiwi bird, so therefore the can of garbanzo beans I’m looking for is----right here!

If you are, as I mused you’d be, traipsing around with me inside my head, please note the high humidity and sticky nature of my synapses as this most likely accounts for the plethora of old house keys and dust bunnies that are clinging to the can of beans for dear life.

Occasionally I try to sweep things out and put them back up onto the shelf in some kind of chronological or alphabetized fashion, you know, so I can find them more easily. But I always get bogged down looking through old pictures or wondering what ever happened to my blue sweater vest with the red reindeer on it. Believe it or not, even this writing is completely unplanned and unexpected and I am doing this thing without benefit of a net or an outline. I had originally set out to discuss Heathcare reform but I think I got caught up with some kind of hair brained attempt to retrace the meanderings in my head about ideas or characters or some darned thing; which reminds me of a funny story. It’s about a warthog, an ant-eater and a Slovenian who were riding on a bus to Cleveland…(well, you get the idea).