Friday 31 October 2014

stretcher bars

Today I’m going to take you through the process that I use to make my canvases. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier article on improving compositions, choosing the correct size and crop of your artwork is extremely important.
If you’re a painter, the only way to really do that is to stretch your own canvas to the shape and size you want.
I use materials and tools that anyone can find at their local hardware store, and often make large canvases for a tiny fraction of the price that it would cost me to buy them already made.
wood
The inner frame, or structure, of every canvas I create is made out of 1×2 wood, and quarter-round trim.
Miter Box and SawMiter Saw and Wood
Once I’ve decided on the size that I want my canvas to be, I cut four pieces of 1x2s (one for each side of the canvas), with a forty-five degree angle at each end.
You can use a miter box and hand saw, or power tools—either way works just fine. The most important thing is to make good, equal, 45 degree cuts at each end so that the wood fits together properly at the corners.
wood and staplerOne cut of the saw actually creates an entire corner, as you can see in the picture to the left.
I use a simple hand-powered staple gun to secure the corners together, and usually place 3 staples on bothfront and back of the joint.
With 6 staples fastening each corner, the entire frame becomes very strong and rigid.
Stapled Corner of Wood
Once all four corners are stapled the frame might look complete, but it’s really not.
You see, when stretching canvas, it’s important to keep it raised off of the frame.
That’s why I go to the trouble of cutting quarter-round trim pieces as well, to make a lip, or edge, that runs along the entire outside border of the frame.
Quarter Round and Miter BoxQuarter Round and Miter Saw
You can cut the trim pieces with whatever tool you used on the other pieces of wood.
However, you may prefer to use a miter box instead of a power tool for them.
The trim pieces are so thin that if you do use a power saw, brace the trim piece with another piece of wood so that your fingers don’t have to be anywhere close to the blade when cutting.
Quarter Rounds on Corner of Stretcher BarsUnlike the 1x2s, a single cut with the saw does not make a perfect corner out of two trim pieces. It will always be necessary to take one piece back and cut off another small amount to get the right angle.
I like to lay a long piece down and mark just once where my next cut is, and then repeat that process again for the next side of the frame, and again, until you have all the trim pieces you need.
Cutting all your pieces at once doesn’t usually work out so well since the angles to cut on the quarter-rounds are trickier than on the 1x2s.
To create a raised lip or edge, you’ll need to place one flat side of the quarter-round against the stretcher bars, and the other flat side facing outward. The curved edge of the quarter-rounds should be facing inward toward the center of the frame.
Quarter Rounds CorrectIn the picture to the left you can see what a corner should look like when all the pieces have been correctly cut and aligned.
At this point, all that’s needed is to fasten the quarter-rounds permanently in place. The best way to do that is to nail them to the frame with headless nails. The ones I use come in a package labeled “wire brads” but finishing nails would work as well.
Nail in TrimMake sure to buy nails that are no longer than the width of your quarter-round and 1×2 combined, and space them along the trim pieces about every 4 inches, or until it’s solidly in place.
When the entire frame is finished, it’s time to start stretching the canvas. You’ll need a rectangular piece of canvas larger than the size of your stretcher bars, plus the staple gun you used on the corners before.
From the diagram below, you can see the proper method of attaching the canvas, but I won’t go in-depth on that here. Instead, take a look at my canvas stretching tutorial.
Stretch Canvas on Stretcher Bars
It can be quite a workout if you really want a tightly stretched canvas, but it’s worth it in the end. A good canvas should almost sound like a drum when you rap your fingers against the front of it after it’s all done.
Space between Canvas and Stretcher BarsThe quarter-round pieces will raise the canvas off of the stretcher bars. If you’ve ever used cheap canvases, you may have felt the edge of the wood stretcher bars through the canvas from the front, or even painted near the edge and had different types of brush strokes occur from hitting the wood behind it.
Here, the entire front face of the canvas has the same feeling, from the center to the edge.
Although there are other solutions for creating canvases, this is the one I’ve chosen because it’s easy for me to do and it’s cheaper to buy all the parts separately.
So now if you ever get the urge to paint a canvas in a size or shape that the store don’t have; just pick up some wood, a saw and some canvas, and make your own.
You might never want to pay for a pre-made canvas again.
(PS, when you’re ready to get your paintings online in front of potential buyers, check out Hands Free Artist Websites, EmptyEasel’s new website service for artists that does all the work for you, and lets YOU get back in the studio.)

art exhibition


It’s one thing being an established and famous artist, where all you have to do is paint the pictures and hand them over to an agent, then show up for the preview evening. It’s another to be at the beginning of your career as an artist.
Most of us have to plan our own shows, as I have done over the last few years, and there is a lot of work involved if you want to get the most out of your art exhibition. I was fortunate in that I worked as a gallery assistant for artist Nerys Johnson when I was at Durham University, and assisted her with preparing for her shows. Even though she was an established artist, there was still a lot to be done.


Porta la tua attività online. Raggiungi gratis nuovi clienti.
After you have planned an exhibition of your work, you will see that the commission galleries request is well worth the effort they put in!
In the Beginning: Your First Art Exhibition
First of all, you must secure your ‘gallery space’. I had my first solo art exhibition at Pizza Express in Darlington, UK. As a corporation, they have a huge commitment to the arts, in particular local artists. Their restaurants are often designed as galleries themselves, and they know that their customers really appreciate the ever-changing work on their walls.
Restaurants might be a good place to start, it works for both the restaurant in terms of attracting customers, and the artist. It is also a good place to get over your ‘art exhibition anxiety’ in a far less intimidating atmosphere than a public gallery. They charge no commission, but you have to do the work yourself…from the hanging to the promotion and subsequent sales. So, it is from this perspective that I write.
Planning an Art Exhibition
I spent a couple of years developing a body of work before I was ready to exhibit on my own, so the assumption is that you have a decent collection of work to show. Then I developed an art exhibition plan which listed all the things which needed to be done prior to the opening.


The first thing to do is to establish the dates, allowing time to have some promotion materials printed. It is useful also to give your art exhibition a name. I do it by picking out one painting, and working my promotion materials around that. My first art exhibition was Firebirdand I chose a Bird of Paradise painting I was fond of. My 2004 one was Catch the Vision to go with a series of my visioning courses held during the run of the show. I find a postcard-sized art card is particularly useful, as they can be mailed to your contact list, and the remainder left for people to take when they visit.
Creating an Art Exhibition Mailing List
This is very important. If you have not started one, do so now. I use Microsoft Access for this and, whenever I meet anyone, their name goes on the list. If you do not have access to a computer, a secretarial service will maintain one for you and provide you with a set of labels when you are ready. Remember to send your cards out to everyone you can think of…every time one goes out it adds to your name recognition, and therefore to increased prices. Don’t forget regional galleries and the media in your area. They will notice an art card more than one of the hundreds of press releases they receive on a daily basis!
Writing Press Releases for an Art Exhibition
Having said that about art cards, I don’t mean that press releases are not important. They are. Try to find an interesting angle and invite specific writers to your opening. My first article was in conjunction with a national story my local paper was working on. You will need to write an Artist’s Statement and/or a ‘About the Artist’ piece to hang in a prominent position. I think it is a good idea to include these along with your press releases.
The Paintings in the Art Exhibition
I think it is important to make a gallery plan to give you an idea of how you are going to hang your work, and the number of pieces you will require. It doesn’t have to be set in stone, as you can always make changes when you are hanging, but having a plan takes the worry about not having enough work available.
Be sure to have someone lined up to help you with the hanging. Even though I have an eye for where things should go, I am really useless when it comes to the technicalities of hanging pictures in a straight line. I have a couple of friends who can do it to perfection…for the price of lunch!
And don’t leave the framing until the last minute. At one of my shows, my regular framer went on holiday two weeks before my opening, and I still had work to frame. Fortunately I found another good framer who I have consistently used since then. Even so, it is best to get this done as early as you can.   One of the easiest ways to get your foot in the door at a gallery is to participate in a group art exhibition.
Instead of a gallery taking the chance on the collected works of one artist, they offer space to a group of artists creating work based on a common theme. The public is exposed to a wide variety of work, and the artists are able to exhibit at a gallery without completing an entire series of pieces.
Of course, there’s no reason why you have to just wait—and hope—that a group opportunity will come along. Here are 6 steps for organizing your own group art exhibition, from the ground up!

1. Develop a theme

A group exhibition usually hinges on a unique and dynamic theme. This theme links all the different works together, as each artist interprets the theme however they see fit.
You need to choose a theme that’s flexible enough to allow each artist the freedom to express his or herself, but also structured enough to create a cohesive collection of works.
Have a look at other group shows in your area and the kinds of themes they use. Which themes work, and which don’t? Then pick a theme that encompasses some of the successful ideas which you see working already.

2. Recruit artists and choose pieces

Find artists in your local community whose work you admire, and invite them to submit 1-3 pieces for the group show. Pitching prominent artists who have an established audience will help your show draw a crowd.
You can also put out a call for submissions on mailing lists and websites followed by artists in your community. Set a date for a couple of months away to give artists time to complete their pieces or put together a concept.
If you receive more submissions and responses than you have space at the gallery, you will have to choose the artists to display. You need to maintain a high quality of work, so ensure you choose pieces that are completed to a high standard. Choose a variety of mediums and styles, and focus on the artists who have the most unique interpretations of your theme.
With luck, you’ll acquire a solid collection of both established and up-and-coming artists who each submit between 1-5 pieces for the group exhibition.

3. Pitch the gallery

When you approach a gallery, you should have a written explanation of the concept behind your exhibition, plus at least 12 images to accompany the written report.
In that written report, you need to tell the gallery:
• The appearance, theme and aesthetic of the exhibition.
• The minimum size of the wall/floor area you need for the exhibition (and if there are any unusual requirements, such as projections or large constructions.)
• When the exhibition will be available. The more flexible your dates are, the better, as the gallery has a limited number of slots—each with individual requirements—to fill.
• How the exhibit will be mounted. What are the materials being used, and are there any health and safety factors to be considered?
• Whether or not you’re able to offer any educational elements alongside your exhibition, such as workshops, classes or lectures. This element of community outreach will raise your application to the top of the pile.

4. Write a press release

You’ll need to advertise the group exhibition and get as many mentions in local press as possible. The easiest way to do this is by sending out a press release. See my article on how to write a press release for your first solo show for tips on creating a press-ready release.

5. Install the artwork

One of the most exciting parts of organizing an exhibition is watching it all come together. As the pieces arrive at the gallery, it will be your job to oversee their installation.
The arrangement of a group show is vital to its success—you want to lead the viewer in a natural order around the pieces. Look to create unusual juxtapositions in the arrangement. Aim to surprise, stimulate and delight your viewer.
Always ask artists for their ideas on installation and placement—you don’t always have to listen to them, but they often have great ideas you haven’t thought of. Allow artists time to check their works are installed correctly.

6. Hold an opening

An opening event is a great way to stir up interest in your group show. Get all the artists involved to bring their peers, invite along some press and important people in the art world, have some music, some drinks and nibbles, and have a great time celebrating the work of local artists.About a week ago I had the opportunity to read Chris Guillebeau’s new ebook for artists, The Unconventional Guide to Art & Money, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it contained a lot of solid advice for artists who want to start making an income by selling their art online.
I’m actually one of the artists who was interviewed early on for the Guide, so I did havesome idea of what Chris was aiming for. . . but without being involved in writing the ebook, I didn’t have a clue as to how my interview answers would be used or what the final outcome would be.
As it turns out, Chris (and Zoë Westhof, his writing partner) did a great job of doing research and consolidating information into an ebook that’s actually helpful—unlike the many I’ve come across and decided NOT to review in the past.

So why is this ebook different from the rest?

First of all, let me say that I have the utmost respect for Chris Guillebeau. His website, the Art of Non-conformity is one of my weekly reads, and I really enjoy his posts on travel and living a life of non-conformity.
He and Zoë Westhof also began this project the right way, by interviewing artists who are using the internet to make a full-time or part-time income from their art rather than going the traditional gallery route.
Since Chris and Zoë are both writers, not visual artists, it makes perfect sense that they would go to these sources for their information, and I applaud them for taking the time to interview and collect the information themselves rather than just scraping and republishing content that’s already out there.
I also liked how well-rounded the Guide is because of all those different perspectives. It’s difficult to get that kind of broad expertise from a single author.

What kind of information does this guide offer?

There are four parts to The Unconventional Guide to Art & Money. I’ll go through each section so you can get an idea of what’s included.
Section 1
The first section is about eight pages long. It starts out with some stats about artists in the US, and an assessment of the problem: that too few artists are successful at making a living from their art.
It also discusses how conventional methods (primarily galleries) are restrictive and no longer necessary to sell art, and tries to dispel some of the “myths” that supposedly accompany selling art.
Section 2
In the second section of The Unconventional Guide to Art & Money, several examples are given of artists who are successful at selling their art online. It offers some insight into how they use the internet to promote themselves, and then provides a flexible outline of what your own plan of action should be.
This section also explains how to attract the right kind of visitors to your blog or website (which I fully agreed with) and discusses other important considerations that you might not think about at first—like how to be authentic and approachable online.
Tips on setting price points, a very brief mention of SEO, and the importance of being visible offline as well as online round out this section.
Section 3
The third section begins with a 3-page comparison chart showing the pros and cons of different online selling options (i.e., how does this online gallery compare to that one).
These comparison charts could certainly stand to be more extensive—there are hundreds, if not thousands of places and ways to sell art online—but they did seem to cover the biggest and most important websites.
The next seven or eight pages discuss the pros and cons of those sites in-depth, which really helps to give a fuller picture of your options.
The guide then briefly talks about pricing again, including pricing your art prints, before segueing into a “how-to” section on starting your own blog.
Over the next three pages, Chris and Zoë cover why you’d want to start a blog, different kinds of blogging platforms, instructions on how to set up your first blog, and even what to write about.
To be honest, I don’t think three pages is enough space to cover all of that, but it was a good attempt and it will at least get you pointed in the right direction.
The third section ended on a high note with an excellent introduction to social media (something Chris is very good at, in my opinion) and several short but effective explanations of how to get started with some of the most important social media sites.
Section 4
The final section of the ebook briefly covers several other elements important to selling art online, like why and how to use email newsletters, three ways to process payments, and how to successfully expand your “artistic empire.”
This last section also includes a very honest warning about how HARD it is to be successful at making a living online, even when using these techniques.
I found it refreshing, since it’s true—buying this ebook doesn’t mean everything’s going to be handed to you. You still need to work at it and make it happen for yourself.

Is there anything missing?

After turning the last page, I did think there was one thing missing that would have made The Unconventional Guide to Art & Money a little better. . . I half expected to see a complete checklist at the end, something that would allow me to work through the advice in an orderly fashion, but there wasn’t one.
So if you’re like me, I’d suggest taking notes as you read the ebook, then creating your own list to check things off as you finish them.

OK—now what’s the bottom line?

The price for the basic version of the Guide is $39. It’s 55 pages long (full pages, by the way, not the kind with big margins and one or two paragraphs) and you’ll also receive the MP3 audio interviews from three of the artists Chris and Zoë talked to.
The upgraded version costs $58 and includes three extra interviews. I don’t know what’s in those interviews, but my gut says the basic package is all you really need.
Who should buy the guide:
Artists who want a crash course on using the internet to sell their art. The advice is good, it’s all in one place, and if you follow it you’ll definitely see results.
Who shouldn’t buy the guide:
Artists who have already done a solid amount of research into blogging and social media, or who plan on doing that research themselves.

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Wednesday 29 October 2014

love

I remember when I first fell in love with hating you.
 The  visions that came into my mind 
expressed perfectly those  feelings:
The smiles, false ones, were rotating between us,

back and forth,
and the more I was hating 
the more the images 
repeated
in an almost seen film
the structure of your face without that death black hair, 

from the beginning worth nothing.
Meanwhile, the beauty  has disintegrated and reintegrated many times into 

the little girl middle aged woman thing
 and only words have remained, no richer, no wiser,
 doubled same time with eternity – in a word,  the downward road.
The fall from youth, unavoidable for every soul you loved, 
led me to seek to know what is  hate.
Our brain has a weakness for stories, like you with a little runback to a job

meeting frightened to be late for the boss man

who makes you afraid even now

like a little mong no good to anyone living

maybe the dead.


 From an evolutionary moment, 

the things ,the ones that have 

passed the time through time. therefore , the need  for them.

Love can be such a case,

 of the complete story, total meaning, that we wove 

 around a bundle of 

bought  emotions not  ecstasy just abyss.

And the last time I saw you

running back to the boss man

near the chinese where we drunk shit wine

trying to mean something

to the other mongs

what they call your co-workers

who fucking hate you 

more than me 
Neuroscience makes the difference between emotion and sentiment with an 
almost dry precision, devoid of romance but who brings the healing specific for understanding.
Emotion is the chemical reaction to a biological stimulus, while the sentiment is the story our brain creates to translate that emotion. 


All the poetic descriptions of love, glorification of the mating ritual on one hand, and expression of the nobleness offered by love on the other hand, are the result of this need of man to order what he feels in a story with sense.
Often in a love relationship, one of the two partners takes a masochistic role and the other a sadistic, with the specific attributes of each role.

At a deep level, the difference between the two roles is not so high, symbolizing the fusion without integrity. But very few think of integrity when they are in love …
The exclusive absorption in a love relationship, in which the individual becomes insensitive to the rest of humanity and is unable to feel affection for someone else than the subject of his passion, is a form of symbiotic attachment, of augmented selfishness in two .
Real love is what ennobles you, what makes you discover unknown generosities and what gives you that heroic aura which may seem naive for someone outside of that love relationship.
Love is a narcissistic process as well, because the individual falls in love with this enriched version of himself, full of existential tenderness and spontaneous kindness.
You  love what you become loving that person.

You fall in love with what you discover about yourself, with the upgraded version of yourself, as well as with the idealized vision that the other has about you.
Braking ups hurt not only because we lose the other one, but because you lose yourself too, you lose the enhanced version of yourself, enriched by love that you’ve discovered.
Neuroscience of love
The way love is seen on the scanned map of your brain is identical to the way that cocaine and other drugs affects the brain.

In essence, love is a natural drug, causing the same effects as drugs.
What are the symptoms of love?
* State of hyperactivity – you can live without food and sleep for a long time
* Being obsessive about the other person
* Irrational behavior that contradicts logic and even the survival instinct
* Depression, anger
* Inability to concentrate, the desire to daydreaming
Sounds more like a disease, right? One whose healing it is yet felt like a disappointment, a loss of a divine madness.

That is because love is similar to a drug in terms of the neurochemical mechanisms involved, a sudden separation from the beloved being very similar to a withdrawal.
A love relationship that is dismantled shockingly, causes a real withdrawal, the body and mind reacting violently to the loss of the stimulus that fed the body with the chemicals of happiness .
The functions of love
Great loves are never sterile. They forces you to transform, to become, they make you to get out of yourself. In spite of you, despite fears, selfishness or narcissism.
Love is probably the best tool for self-knowledge. Her magic comes from the fact that you can project into another self, that you experiment reality through an augmented reality.
Transcending of the present, this sense of being tangent to infinity are poetic expression for the important function that love fulfills: namely, annihilation of the fear of death or at least, the amnesia regarding the impermanence of life.
The feeling of well-being generated by love, the double validation of your existence as an individual – “I am loved, therefore I am” and ” I love, therefore I am” significantly mitigates the existential anxiety of passing the time.
Love, the savor of discovery of the self and then the dance of the two personalities preoccupied to maintain and explore the love between, occupies the individual’s  entire psychological space, therefore a pleasant amnesia about the prosaic of the existence instals.
Love, in essence, is an obsession in two, a welcomed process of self-hypnosis, without which existence seems poor. 

The need to get out of yourself and to inhabit another self is actually the need of the altruistic genes perpetuated by evolution.
Love is a phenomenon promoted by evolution because it favored the adaptation of the species: the individual who was protected by someone else, who has someone to care for him when he is sick or in trouble, is an individual who survives, therefore his genes are passed on and thus, altruistic individuals are those who become predominant.
Does similarity attracts or the opposite?
The theory according to which opposites attract each other is actually a myth. Long-lasting relationships are based on similarity.
The stability of a relationship is given by similarities such as:
1. common values, common aspirations
2. similar pragmatic visions for the future
3. similar energy rhythm
4. shared sensuality and passion
Attraction actually involves both components: similarities and differences. Similarity is what welds a couple, while the differences are what spices up the relationship in the first phase.
In a relationship must be satisfied both needs: the need for safety and the need for uncertainty. The similarity gives security, the pure feeling of love, and the differences provides uncertainty, creates passion.
When two different people are attracted to each other, is because each admires at the other one a quality that, through proximity, he wants to assimilate: therefore you will meet couples in which one is sociable and the other one is introvert, one is pragmatic and the other is bohemian, one is rational and the other emotional. Or a relationship in which he is rich and she is beautiful …
In the first phase, the attraction between the two involves these two opposing elements. If the two partners, over time, don’t assimilates what admires at the other one, if they don’t meet in the middle,  in the end what drew them together will break them apart.
I repeat: exactly what attracted them in the first place, the opposite and complementary qualities, is what will ultimately push them apart.
The extrovert one will  reproach to the introverted that he is silent at all times and is not communicative, while the introverted will reproach that he cares more about the others and that he prefers them to him.

The practical one will reproach the bohemian the clutter and lack of organization, and the bohemian will reproach in turn the aridity and lack of romance.
We are attracted by those who give us the possibility of self expansion and evolution.

 Basically, those with complementary traumas are attracted to each other, the relationship itself having a healing potential. But the lack of understanding, tact and diplomacy in negotiating the differences will break them apart eventually.
It happens as well that only one of them will heal, thus becoming a more complete human being than the other.

In this case, if the partner doesn’t  have the same rhythm of evolution, the separation is again a possibility, because the one who become more complete feels now that he can attract a new partner more appropriate for his qualities and new-found ideals.
It is therefore vital for them to evolve in the same rhythm and in the same direction. If only one grows personally and professionally and the other remains at the same level, there are big chances for breaking off.
There is a repetitive pattern of how we fall in love and the kind of partner that we all choose.
Was Freud right?
Psychoanalytic theory says that we fall in love unconsciously with the same kind of partner – the woman chooses as her partner a man similar to her father, and a man is looking for a woman similar to his mother.
We all heard the story: she marries an alcoholic and abusive man who strangely resembles her father in behavior. Yes, he is taller or shorter, makes more money or dresses better or worse, but his emotional attitude is similar to her father.

She eventually gets a divorce and finds another man, who, this time, does not drink at all. But after a while she discovers that he is dependent on gambling and that he also treats her bad.
The saga continues. Her third husband seems to be a man with backbone: a man with his own business, does not drink, doesn’t go to casinos and comes home every night.

But this man works 84 hours a week and when he gets home he is too tired to pay attention to her. They get into fights and she cries, unsurprisingly, that she doesn’t feel fulfilled, that she is not getting the love she wants.
The familiar feeling of wanting and not having is recreated thus “successfully.” The emotional desire to want love from someone who is emotionally unavailable is satisfied. In fact, it is the recreation of the relationship she had with her father.
Playing devil’s advocate, I will ask in your place: why, of all the features of her father, who certainly had some good character traits as well, she will only seek to recreate the suffering she had in that relationship?
As a psychologist, my answer is that in our future relationships with our partners, we seek to heal the traumas of the past. 

Love between the two partners has the potential to heal the complementary traumas that attracted  them in the first place.
Thus, neuroscience confirms what psycho-dynamic therapies have been advocating for some time: relationships can bring healing!

The attraction mechanisms are more complex than perhaps you imagined. Or than you want.
Up to a certain point, love is an abstract notion, a myth, a social and cultural construct. Movies, songs, novels, all of these builds a false image, idealized, excessively lyrical about love.
da vinci beauty online counseling relationships sophie rinaldi What is love? Freud, divine madness, complementary traumas or narcissism?Only in poetry people are dying for love though, in reality we learn to console.

The problem is that people do not shed light on the unhealed wounds of the past, they don’t heal the traumas of the past by understanding the mechanisms that led to mistakes. But they just throw themselves blindly in relationships repeating the same  emotional patterns.
Love is the process by which a person’s identity merges with another person’s identity, creating a common personality, a shared, new entity through which each of them is enriched, thinks and breathes.
Protecting this new being that is born involves psychological sentimental archeology – identifying negative patterns, trauma that must be healed, understanding, forgiveness and the aware building of healthy attachments.
Because we need poetry as well as reason, ecstasy as well as abyss, certainties as well as uncertainties. The secret lies in knowing what to keep and what to let go from the past and from the present.


Whether it is the triumph of imagination over reason, whether it’s the supreme drug, shared madness or the gift of the gods,  love defines you as a human being. You love, therefore you exist. The rest are just shallow distractions meant to occupy your mental space until you find love.