Kat Johnston

Tag: cherry

  • Nibble nibble… NOM!

    Its so cute when someone tries to be all delicate and sweet with their food… then goes ‘screw it’ and shoves it all down their throat at once as if it’s going to sneak off their plate if left too long.Its so cute when someone tries to be all delicate and sweet with their food… then goes ‘screw it’ and shoves it all down their throat at once as if it’s going to sneak off their plate if left too long.

    Today it isn’t even really so much a sketch as a few words scrawled (quite prettily though) against the page of one of my mini sketch-books. I’ve skipped a page in between – it involved more cherries. In fact, those cherries the other day were so tasty that I need to go out and get some more.

    What bought to mind this particular set of words? Probably my cat. We call Penny (she’s a lynx-point siamese cross) the Nom-nom monster… and I just love ‘nom’. Its so onomatopoeic. When it comes to cherries, I get to be a bit of a Nom-nom monster myself. I eat slow, by anyone’s standards, but cherries seem just to disappear when I have them. I’ll nibble delicately at the first few, savouring each wonderful plump, juicy fruit as the juices seep onto my tongue, spitting out the pip with much relish into a near-by empty coffee cup… and I believe that the rest are just as savoured and as slowly eaten, but I do seem to go through them oh so quickly. By my standards at least.

    I think that the pace increases closer to the middle of the bag – slow to start off with, nibbling, savouring, suckling from them every last ounce of sweet delicious taste before sampling the next… then more quicker as they seem plentiful, descending to another slow and thoughtful processing once that middle peak has been surmounted, while nudging the more unworthy cherries to be eaten first, with the pinnacle of cherryness left to the very last.

    I’ll say this about the Christmas season: I don’t want to go to the malls, or traverse the tightly bunched up crowds of mothers, screaming children, and teens with naught to do but hang out at the mall now that school is over… but a trip to the supermarket for cherries? I think I can manage that. Ok, off I go…

  • Plucking cherries… a wonderful pasttime.

    Mmmm, leading into the Christmas season is good for one thing: cherry availability.

    Delicious fresh cherries are just the most fantastic thing in the world to behold, are they not? For lack of ‘little’ drawing today, I threw that together as I ate my lunch: a whole little baggie of cherries.

    I finally started sketching out something on a canvas, to paint in later. Its taken me a while to start up on that track again, buuuuut… it had to happen sooner or later. I won’t take a picture of my rough sketching for the start of that yet – it is hardly worth a mention (and I can’t be bothered to pick up a camera). That said… if I actually get my butt into my studio and get my hands all messy with paint, you might actually see it done some time this year. Here’s a hint though, to get you thinking… it may or may not include a certain owl.

  • Fruity.

    Kat Johnston - 'Stalking me' actually has nothing to do with this picture...

    The line up the top of this one actually has nothing to do with this actual little sketch… it was two incredibly different thoughts on the same page. These two came about because I saw an interesting crease in one of the business shirts hanging to dry – this was drawn on a corner of my page soon after. Just for fun, I’ve included the other picture after the cut.

    (more…)

  • Gumdrops and Arsenic.

    \'Gumdrops and Arsenic\' by Kat Johnston

    Random Asian candy is a delight if you have an experimental streak – you are as likely to end up with something that tastes absolutely horrendous as you are to get something simply exquisite. This little snippet is bought to you by the bag of random Asian candy that is currently sitting beside me that I have -no- guilt consuming whatsoever.

    But anyhow onto my musings for the evening…

    What is it that compels us to do things that are not good for us? To gorge ourselves at a buffet because ‘you paid for it’ or overindulge at an open bar because ‘somebody else is paying for it’? What is it that makes us reach for that slice of cake over that shiny green apple when the offer is made?

    Short term satisfaction is a funny thing – the immediate pay-off often seems worth it, but in so many cases even that doesn’t even turn out as nicely as we imagine. Think of the serial dieter that feels a constant guilt as they bite into that chocolate bar they had hidden in the bottom of their drawer after promising that the last one was ‘the very last one’… or perhaps the potential adultress who surrenders to lust at the expense of a loved one. Even though it seems good at the time, the guilt or ‘wrongness’ of the situation is sometimes enough to have dulled the pleasure that the moment may have potentially brought had it been done under different circumstances. Not to mention any feelings we have after the fact, regretting these decisions we make. We know they are wrong… so why do we do it?

    We voluntarily do things to hurt ourselves every day. Not just the big things, but the little things too. Skipping breakfast, saying yes to someone even though we really want to say no, sitting in front of the tv rather than going for a walk… so many little things that we know we should be doing, but don’t, or that we shouldn’t be doing, but do anyway. What is that perfect balance between immediate pay-off and long-term benefit? At what point does a drug addict go ‘you know… it just isn’t worth it any more’?

    Believe it or not, I am enjoying my random bag of candy, free to pick and choose to be thrilled or disappointed with each little package of sugar-filled treat – even the ones that taste horrible make me feel all the much better for having at least tried something new. It inspired me to do my drawing, but it is not the reason for the musing – the picture came first, the musing started during, and the culmination of those thoughts only after.

    Rasputin was fed cake which was thought to have been laced with arsenic but survived to tell the tale of its eating. Some short-term pay-offs just aren’t worth the risk… even for the most appetizing, sweetest, most delicious-looking cake in all the world. Perhaps my mother was right… you shouldn’t take candy from a stranger. Or for that matter, cake from someone who has a private store of arsenic and holds a grudge.