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Today I accomplished two wonderful things: the first filmed interview for the documentary and then a long nap. At first, it may sound silly to call those both wonderful.

We interviewed Jeff Black today, and I know he can agree with me on calling naps wonderful: we both have a workplace requirement that we get daily naps. Brain injury-related fatigue is real and lasting. In fact, a couple times during the interview, I could not remember at all what we were talking about because the interview took place during my regular nap time. Jeff took his earlier, so he was fresh and energized for the conversation. Jeff was very good-humored and patient with me when I got lost. He’s been there, after all.

So what do we do about needing to take a nap during the work day? Well, it’s one of many reasons that we make art instead of working full-time office jobs. We can be more flexible with our time and energy, work at our own pace, and make our own accommodations for doing things that are very challenging.

Jeff showed us some of his portfolios and talked about a new piece of art that he’s creating for the BIRRDsong.org Homepage. He shared his process of taking a full-color picture and reducing it down to very minimalist lines in pen and ink by drawing multiple copies. As he goes, each copy has fewer lines and more white space until he has abstracted the essence of the original picture. You can see what I’m talking about at his site. It’s beautiful, time-intensive work.

I will be transcribing the interview soon and will have more things to share once I do that. I’m having a hard time remembering what else we talked about, so I will have to leave it here. Please check back regularly. I’ll be posting about a showing Jeff is having at Vancouver Beard’s Framing soon.