Unplugged
This week’s Everyday Matters Challenge was to draw our TV with our favorite show on the screen and to journal about it.
This was a simple week for me. I don’t have a TV. We’re unplugged and it’s wonderful. I’m culturally clueless. People talk about TV shows and commercials and I sit there with a blank stare on my face. Huh? Who cares. I’m too busy to waste time watching someone else living their life in a small box on my shelf.
My kids weren’t very happy the first few months but they got over it. No more fights about too much TV. They’ve learned to entertain themselves instead of relying on passive entertainment (although admittedly at times they spend too much time on the computer).
Unplugged 8.5″ x 11″:
There was a discussion on the Everyday Matters yahoogroup about drawing with pen so you can’t erase. I’m not too excited about pen as it’s too polished for my tastes, I like the rough primitive feel of pencil. I also like the value variation that pencils provide. But I do agree that not erasing is good, as it forces me to slow down and really look at what I’m drawing. So in this drawing I didn’t erase, just went back and added new lines and left the ones I didn’t like.
Posted by Lisa in: Drawings
Mary Manahan said,
January 26, 2006 @ 4:48 am
I admire your TV-lessness. I don’t watch it either.
Except for The Daily Show and The Cobert Report….just to keep up with the news.
Amy said,
January 26, 2006 @ 6:46 am
What a nice piece… It really speaks volumes even without the text…. I don’t have cable, but I have yet to “give-up” TV completely….. (I did live without it when I was a teen - ours broke and my father did not replace it.) My current “Idiot Box” is about 20 years old, has issues with maitaining volume and color and is tiny…. :o) So I am apparently closer to being without than I realize….
Lin said,
January 26, 2006 @ 3:05 pm
Lisa — What a charming and truly compelling sketch about a topic! Love how you’ve not only sketched it but illustrated your idea .. BRILLIANT!
Danielle said,
January 26, 2006 @ 3:06 pm
I tell people we are without TV, though we do have one, because we have no cable, network, or “other” input. It only plays movies, which I love, because I can knit or bead or sometimes paint in front of. But I love not being “up” on the current shows; makes people think of something else when talking to me…”Did you see X on tv last night…um…wait…you don’t have tv”
maggie in sc said,
January 26, 2006 @ 3:38 pm
I was thinking ours was like an altar to worship at with the big cabinet and the huge tv…one day its going to store my quilts…as I tell my kids never marry someone whose parents my inlawas have a tv in the kitchen…dear people that they are…so they dont miss an inning or a quarter…ours died when I was a kid and we too went tvless for a long time when ours died…now the whole room is arranged around the monster…
maggie who needs to go tvless again but might go into withdrawal
Misa said,
January 26, 2006 @ 4:47 pm
There are days that I wish I could throw away our TV… but I think my husband would have me lynched! There are two shows that I enjoy watching but only one of them that I watch every week, so I think I’d “adjust” pretty quickly. We didn’t have a TV for several months and I didn’t miss it at all! (Now, if I had to go without the computer… that’s a whole different ball of wax.)
I love the drawing, especially the title. Nice!
Lisa Call said,
January 26, 2006 @ 9:17 pm
It is a bit dicey at first to get rid of the TV - not because of TV but it means no movies. But it really doesn’t take long to not miss it at all. I was watching 3-4 movies a week when I got rid of the thing and I felt it was just as much of a waste of time as TV.
joyce said,
January 26, 2006 @ 9:44 pm
We did this when our kids were in grade school for about a year and a half. Yup, the kids complained at first, but pretty soon we were all fine with it and enjoying so many other things instead. We still had the set to rent a movie once in a while though. You know, after we had it the cable back on, we never did start watching as much as before…a good thing altogether. You did a wonderful job on your drawing and it perfectly tells your answer to the challenge!
Felicity said,
January 26, 2006 @ 9:54 pm
Great idea for the TV drawing! We don’t have much to watch on TV as we have a free package which means we basically have two news channels and that’t it! I realised when one of my boys said ‘come on Mum, sit down’ that I never actually SIT in front of a TV. It’s such a waste of good time and I waste enough without trying anyway!
I have huge reservations about one artist telling another what not to use. My pencil, my business!
Susan said,
January 27, 2006 @ 7:01 am
This is perfect! Good for you. I’ve gone from watching little TV to having it on as bkgrnd noise. I’m blaming my husband because that works for me. LOL
Gerrie said,
January 28, 2006 @ 10:39 am
My grandchildren do not get to watch tv at all - maybe an occasional video. Since we are moving up there, I think my daughter is afraid that I will corrupt them!! But if I had kids of school age now, I would do the same thing!! Good for you.
Kristin La Flamme said,
January 29, 2006 @ 12:20 am
I love your note next to the sketch. I miss the days of Seinfeld and occassionally watch them on video. We have forgone actual TV programing, but watch movies and selected shows at our discression from videos taped by my SIL. The kids are limited to one hour a day of TV (meaning videos approved by mom & dad), computer or X-Box. We’re pleased with this balance. I can have an hour of peace, but the kids aren’t total couch potatoes.
Thanks for your list of classes taken. I look forward to hearing your insights. I am always intrigued by other artists’ creative processes. It’s interesting to see how one gets from “there” to “here.”
Claire said,
January 29, 2006 @ 12:33 am
Lisa, There really was nothing nothing to watch after Seinfield finished LOL! I like your drawing, tells the story wonderfully.
I cut WAY back on my TV watching a few years ago when I realised that it is all just some crap force fed to me (and millions of others) by some smarmy television executive bleh! Often I couldn’t even remember what I had been watching and found myself staring off to the side of the telly… what a sad existence!!
I grew up without a TV and when I tell people they look at me like I’m from outerspace. I’m glad I was given the experience because it has given me the ability to exercise the ‘Power of the Off Switch’ as my Dad would say.
Cheers
Claire