Thinking on my Feet

Now here's a question. Do I sit here in the sweltering heat with no air, or do I open up my windows as wide as I can, only to let in the screams of Dumb & Dumber from next door? Which is the lesser of two evils? I either shrivel up in the heat or my nerves take a good bashing.

My parents kindly offered to drive me to a new school today. In this heat, the hour drive there was uncomfortable. The school was in the middle of nowhere, and with time to kill when we got there, we parked up near some fields and had a cup of tea from a flask they had prepared. Despite the heat, it was nice and peaceful. My parents eventually dropped me off at the school gates and headed off for a couple of hours while I worked.

I had had the briefest of briefs from my agent about this job, but thought I understood what was needed to be done. As far as I was aware, the twenty students had designed logos and needed help with finalising them and turning them into a PDF file for printing. I had imagined a romp around Photoshop, cleaning their images up and sorting them out to print. Was I wrong!

The logos had not passed their initial sketch stage and were no more than scruffy (and I mean scruffy!) Biro scrawls on pieces of crumpled A4 paper. As appose to what I had read in the brief, they expected me to turn up with a laptop and draw a final polo shirt logo on the computer, while the kids sat and directed my every move. All I had in my bag was a diary, the Morgan Greer, and the wrapper of a roasted nut bar I had demolished in the car on the way.

This was one of those moments where I had to think on my feet. My agent had suggested that there was a computer suite in the school, but it appeared to be already occupied and couldn't be accessed. Instead, I took two workshops with no more than myself, a flip pad, and a marker pen. I told them that I needed a finished logo to take away and draw up at the end of the lessons and asked them what details I would need from them to do so. They came up with all of the right answers, suggesting colour references, measurements, font, and placement ideas, to name a few, and by the end, I had something to work with. I drew their ideas up on the flip pad as we went along. The teachers who sat in on my lesson seemed happy with what I was doing, so I am guessing that I dug both my agency and I out of what could have been a pretty dark hole.

After I'd finished my lessons, we drove to Herne Bay. There is a small spiritual shop there that I like to go in when passing. It's not big and it's not particularly stacked, but I can sometimes find something of interest. Today, the lady (who was performing a reading for a woman) had two Nathalie Hertz decks - The Fantastical and The Vampire tarots. I owned The Fantastical many years ago but traded it during my forum days. I was always a little curious about the vampire deck, so slipped the used pack out of it's box to have a look while the owner of the shop continued to read for her client. I recently saw this set get a bashing somewhere or other; I can't remember where. I think that it must be a joke for many, when sat next to the slicker vampire decks of late, but for me, it felt darker and richer than the vampire decks I have already known. I find that one can stretch deeper into the more abstract paintings in a tarot deck than the finer and photo-real images.

Even though I find some of the pictures and faces haunting, I suppose that The Vampire Tarot could also be seen as no more than a fun deck too. And what is wrong with that, I ask you? When did tarot become so serious? The other day, I read a great article about a guy who reads with X-Men playing cards. He weaves the stories and the characters into his interpretations. What could be better than that? Isn't that what reading is all about? If he can come up with wonderfully astute and interesting readings with the help of Iceman and Professor X, then I am not going to turn my nose up at this group of bohemian looking vampires. For me, the courts are the deck's strength. There are some lovely portraits amongst them. As a rule, I have a bit of a problem with the Queen of Wands, and in this pack, she fits my idea of the woman perfectly, as she leers over her shoulder. There are some beautiful pages and kings as well. The handsome males have not been saved for just Twilight and the Ian Daniels set. This one is flooded with cheekboned hotties and the odd sensitive and poetic type.

For today, I have drawn the Ace of Pentacles and the 2 of Swords. I think that this highlights difficulties with money and business. I will have to draw out the logo from class at home tonight on my computer and it would seem that I won't get paid for that extra time, due to the mix up. The offer can be seen as the engraved pentacle on the coffin, where as the statue in the second card holds up her swords and prevents me from getting paid. The 2 of Swords can sometimes note indecision, so for now, some more negotiation might be needed. Another agent is calling tonight. She wants to discuss a different project I am working on. I can only hope that the energy of these cards does not seep into that contract too.

My boyfriend is unwell today so is at home in bed. We have not spoken, so I expect that he is still recovering and will not be over this evening. I am that bit more relaxed with our relationship after nearly two years and don't mind our spending time on our own these days. I am working from home tomorrow on the costumes for the school play. A friend has kindly offered to come round and cut out my patterns for me while I sew. It will be a nice excuse to have a chat and catch up, as well as lightening some of my workload.



Illustrations from The Vampire Tarot by Nathalie Hertz