Welcome to My Hermit Kingdom

I admit it. I am smug. I am smug because for one semester anyway, I am on sabbatical and so far it is everything I hoped it would be and more.

Usually I align myself with the struggling underdog masses, and yet at this moment I find myself in the privileged .1% of humanity’s population that gets to work from home on creative endeavors (ie. things I am passionate about) with my employer’s full blessing AND a steady monthly paycheck. These are the pursuits that normally get pushed to Fridays during a regular semester, and that’s only when I’m lucky enough not to be bogged down with some other administrative duty or mandatory meeting.

Yes, I miss my students and seeing my colleagues and chewing the fat about recent developments at my academic home, but when you live as close to work as I do, the real trick is trying to stay away so the University can also miss me back. Here is where I pause to say that I’m actually pretty shocked at the number of emails and requests I am still getting even though I am supposed to be unreachable. (Slaps self on wrist for checking and answering work email.) It’s my own fault. You can take the ant out of the ant farm…

So this is my beautiful Hermit Kingdom:

Not pictured of course is the section of the home office devoted to drying laundry in the winter. Yes, I’ve been living dryer-free for almost eight years now for better or worse.

Here is evidence that I am actually getting something done: (Just ignore the first entry. It IS flu season after all..)

 

All righty then. I’ve checked in with my blog. Time to get back to work. I’m currently working on an animated short about the extreme highs and lows of parenthood called, “This Too Shall Pass.”

Here’s a still from a scene I completed last week:

Today I’m working on a less happy scene about a mother on a bus being judged by the other passengers for not being able to stop her baby from crying. I hate dwelling on the negative, but animating is a sloooow process. The next scene I work on will have to be more positive to keep the creative balance going.

Thanks for stopping by. Now you know where I’m hiding.