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Mr. Heebie Jeebie

Let me preface this post by saying I absolutely adore and love my husband. What I do not adore or love is his habit of chewing on his nails....the sound of it...the thought of the trauma to his hands...it straight up gives me the heebie jeebies. It happens everytime he is stressed or distracted. And lately I've found myself reaching over multiple times a day to gently remind him to stop doing it.


So, I've had it on my mind lately....this human tendency to chew on our hands and fingernails. And ofcourse that made me think "what other animals do this?" And I came up with a whole list. But the one that climbed quickly to the top was an Octopus. Did y'all know they will chomp and chew and eat their own tentacles when they are stressed? Wonder if it gives their Octopus friends the heebie jeebies?


And that is how I came to be doing one of my contour drawings of an Octopus I have decided to name him Mr. Heebie Jeebie and he took almost 22 hours to complete. I have to admit I obsessed over his 8 arm....drawing, erasing and redrawing them....most of the time cussing under my breath. Not at the drawing...but in a cathartic way about life's frustration. I mumble to myself, inhale, slowly draw a line, exhale.....and repeat. And eventually the mumbling stops and it eventually becomes inhale, draw a line, exhale. Sometimes an hour of drawing is enough to get me there....other days it is 10 hours before I'm no longer holding my pen in a death grip.


I spoke with a beloved friend this morning about the frustration we are both experiencing with the world. After our chat, I felt so very much lighter. It isn't just me....I'm not the only one seeing this...the universe isn't deliberately sending all the assholes my way (hard not to personalize all this stuff). There is indeed more crazy out there.


But the other thing I realized in speaking to this friend and others...it is that I am surrounded by so many amazing compassionate people....and all of them are amazing compassionate parents....with amazing compassionate children. And that part...that part reminds me that humanity is so very lucky. I'm in awe at what the generations younger than ours are doing...especially the Gen Z'rs. They blow my mind away at how proactive they are, their ability to clearly advocate for all of humanity, articulate injustice and work to effect change. The confidence with which they move, assemble and effect change in our world. They are a generation of change makers. This morning my friend and I were laughing at ourselves thinking how unworldy and unengaged we both were in our early 20s. These younger folk nowadays....man....they really light a fire under my butt and make me believe in better.


This morning I'm feeling more confident about the future of humanity. And I am ever so grateful to all the people doing the hard work of nurturing and raising the future of humanity.


But I digress....as I worked on Mr. Heebie Jeebie, I somehow managed to convince myself that he had 9 tentacles...I counted and recounted before deciding to delete one tentacle...irritated with myself for making that mistake. Then I went ahead ans shared an image of Mr. Heebie Jeebie online...and a friend pointed out he only had 7 tentacles. Heavens save me from myself! So I went back and redid it again. So there are two versions of Mr. Heebie Jeebie....with 7 and 8 tentacles. Which brings us back to the hubby chewing on his nails.



Contour line drawing of an orange octopus against a dark blue background.  The lines are in an irridescent silver.  Mr. Heebie Jeebie only has 7 tentacles
Mr. Heebie Jeebie the Heptopus

Contour line drawing of a red octopus against a dark blue background.  The lines are in an irridescent silver.  Mr. Heebie Jeebie only has 7 tentacles
Mr. Heebie Jeebie the Octopus


Thats it...that is what I needed to say today. Also...hope you enjoy Mr. Heebie Jeebie.

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