> CD #54: Graphic tee

It always surprises me when I’m on campus and I see students walking around in university merch. Every day, there are at least a dozen people wearing UCalgary hoodies or t-shirts on campus, and I think, “Why??” I suppose there’s school pride and all that, but I would never choose to spend actual money on clothing that advertises my alma mater (and now employer—hopefully this isn’t grounds for dismissal). It’s just that I’m sort of picky about what I want to be a walking billboard for.

I probably take it too seriously—we’re just talking about graphic tees after all—but if I’m going to wear a design emblazoned across my chest for all the world to see, I’ll try to choose something that is meaningful to me, usually something that’s linked to a cherished memory or an expression of my innermost longings. Heh. Yes, we are still just talking about graphic tees.

Over the winter break, I spent some time searching online for a secondhand t-shirt I could proudly display under my writerly cardigan while conducting writerly activities—something worthy of my good taste and artistic aspirations, lol—and found a wild assortment of choices, ranging from multiple pages of statement tees on the topic of wine to a surprising number of vintage Britney Spears tour shirts. It was like an anthropological expedition. There is no end to the randomness we will put on our bodies.

Anyway, I ended up going with this cheap and cheerful Uniqlo shirt with a Hokusai print from their 2018 collection.

It was pre-owned, but came with the tags still on it!

I chose it mainly because of his famous quote from the postscript to One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (translated by Carol Morland):

"From the time I was six, I was in the habit of sketching things I saw around me, and around the age of fifty, I began to work in earnest, producing numerous designs. It was not until after my seventieth year, however, that I produced anything of significance. At the age of seventy-three, I began to grasp the underlying structure of birds and animals, insects and fish, and the way trees and plants grow. Thus, if I keep up my efforts, I will have an even better understanding when I am eighty, and by ninety will have penetrated to the heart of things. At one hundred, I may reach a level of divine understanding, and if I live a decade beyond that, everything I paint—every dot and line—will be alive. I ask the god of longevity to grant me a life long enough to prove this true."

Now every time I put it on my new t-shirt, I think about how Hokusai never considered aging a detriment to his artistic ambitions—quite the opposite, in fact—and how we can keep learning and improving right up to the very end of life. I mean, I do hope to produce something “of significance” before I’m 70, which is still a few decades away, but if I really can’t get it together until then, I’ll be in good company, right?

;) Teresa

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