This is the space for our members to discuss and share their creative projects, ranging from written works to drawings, photography, and even craft projects such as knitting and woodworking. Self promotion is welcome (websites where we can view and/or purchase your work). Please do continue to preface if content is NSFW and be sure to properly spoiler/link such content. Those of you who’d like to post future Creative Endeavors Threads post your request in the comments below.

So, as I mentioned in comments last week, I (accidentally) cut off a small but alarming slice of my left index finger while chopping carrots at my job two weeks ago and have been in and out of urgent care every few days since for wound checks (as well as a memorable visit to the University of Michigan Hospital emergency room when the power went out at the urgent care clinic—DTE “handles” these things and there was a slight drizzle and breeze in the area). It’s been an informative if obnoxious reintroduction to the American health care system (which I’ve been extremely fortunate to generally avoid), not least as half of the doctors I’ve seen believe I’ll need surgery and the other half don’t (the latter echo my own gut feeling as the wound’s gotten a little better each time the dressing’s been changed and I can see the tissue growing back). The guy I saw Sunday afternoon? Not sure, but apparently arrangements are being made anyway (that might involve a combined bus journey of an hour and a half and then a half-hour walk there and back, but we’ll see).

While I’m not complaining, per se (workman’s comp’s covering everything and it looks like I got pretty lucky in avoiding any tendons, ligaments, or even the fingernail), this was annoying not least as I had a pretty stacked week planned and the accident happened at the end of my work week, so I had to forgo a visit to the figure sketch session in Ann Arbor and the annual Shakespeare performance in a local park (a longstanding local tradition run by an old acquaintance I want to check out before I leave town for greener pastures in—fingers crossed—a couple of years), among other things. It’s made surprisingly little dent in my relocation prep—and a good thing, too, as the end of my lease is now exactly a month away—but it’s sapped my creative energies a bit, though that may be more a mix of (literally) digital anxiety and mixed feelings on leaving my home of over a decade (more on that in a couple of weeks).

That said, the sketching’s coming along nicely, and one fun result has been running into local figure drawing regulars in other contexts, as happened this week at a show at Ziggy’s in Ypsilanti (my friend, co-worker and future roommate’s band and a local punk band I’ve long wanted to hear). The header’s a commemoration thereof (I’m actually happier with the moshing; I ought to draw people in motion a lot more) and a reminder that, whatever else is happening, I’ve probably met more new people in the past year (and even gotten to know them slightly!) than I have since the beginning of my local social life two decades back. I’m hoping it’s a good omen for the big changes coming up!

How’s your work going?