The Kunst Conundrum

I like living in Copenhagen.

I can't really explain why, but I feel comfortable here.

In Boston, I had a job, friends, a busy social life, lived fairly close to family... At the same time, I always felt out of place.  I was always looking for an excuse, any excuse, to leave.

Despite my minimal skills with the language, I don't feel out of place here.

At the same time, I've been feeling like something is missing for a while now, and I was having a hard time putting my finger on the culprit.

It took a trip to the art museum to figure it out.

A couple of classmates from Studieskolen and I took Wednesday afternoon to go to Statens Museum for Kunst (translated, it's The State Museum for Art).  The Matisse exhibit was nice, but most modern art doesn't do much for me.  It was the European wing upstairs that I liked the most.  My preference is realism.

I guess I liked it so much that I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back to sleep, because I was plotting how I was going to start up drawing again in the morning.  A few years back, I bought a "22-piece colored pencil" kit from an art supply store in Boston, but I'd never bothered to open the damn thing.  So, first thing yesterday morning, I went to my bookcase, took out my sketchbook, and hunted down the colored pencil kit.

What I was expecting to find when I opened it:  22 colored pencils.

What I actually found: FIVE colored pencils, TWELVE instructional flash cards, a pencil sharpener, some paper, and a piece of plastic with the shapes of leaves for the purpose of rubbing the shape onto paper...

It was a huge disappointment.  Of course, it's my fault for not reading the box to find out what was included.  I just assumed... what else could it possibly be other than pencils?

It shouldn't have been much of a big deal, but the foul mood that it put me in made me realize what's been missing...

A creative outlet.

You might be thinking that writing this blog should be a creative outlet, but this is more like talking than anything else.  I think something, I put it down.  I re-tell life events here just like I would tell them in conversation.  Not much creativity involved.

I've applied for a few jobs in arts-related fields lately (one in the music department at a library, and one in an administrative role at a local theatre).  I think that if I were to get either job, it would help to fill that place that's been feeling empty lately.

For now, though, I think I'm going to make my way to an art supply store today to buy some colored pencils.

At least 22.