2023 has been such a deeply awful and weird year. I stopped drawing for a very long time and I quit my job and now I’m just treading water, trying to remember how to find joy in art. we’ll get there in the end.
My coping mechanisms have broadened to include random runs of experimental stickers. Makes the brain go brrrrrrr
campbirdvan asked:
Hello!
I ended up going through two years worth of your art and decided I needed to have some prints of yours. However when I went clink the link to store envy, it just goes to the main page. And when I entered your info into store envy it says you don't exist. :( Any chance you still have a store going? If not, no stress! I just wanted to show some appreciation for your gorgeous work. :)
Hello! Thank you so, so much. This is the latest reply in the world and I am so sorry; life has been kicking my ass for a while and I knew I needed to actually take note of what my stock actually is before reopening my store.
But now I have my Storenvy completely up to date and and open for business! A lot of things are marked as pre-order, but that’s just because a shipment is on its way. I expect I’ll have everything in hand by next week, at which point things will get shipped really quickly. There are some brand new things and some old classics and I’m happy to get things moving. :)
I don’t have a pithy shiny wrap-up for 2022 and I’m okay with that. It’s not that I didn’t draw anything this year….keeping track just doesn’t feel like it matters the way it used to. Also I don’t have access to some of the stuff from earlier this year because my external hard drive that holds all the things died and I haven’t gotten it fixed yet because it is so expensive.
So, a recap:
I made a lot of things I’m proud of. I started teaching. I knitted a LOT. I got covid and proceeded to draw nsfw stuff like it was the end of the world. I struggled with work-life balance because that’s how I’m built and also my workplace is basically on fire all the time now. I went to SPX and found so much joy and inspiration. I forged some of the strongest friendships I’ve ever had. I had to do a lot of stupidly expensive adult things. I found strength in my boundaries and voice.
Basically, I’m spending the end of this year practicing kindness with myself. I’m still here and I’m still making things. I hope you can also approach the end of the year with kindness for yourself. Do what makes you happy. Strive for better things but forgive yourself if you aren’t there yet.
We’re all just doing our best. ❤️
I’m gonna be at my first SPX with @nanelsonart next week!! I’ve been wanting to go for literally years and I’m so excited to finally get the chance to be there. Also now I get to try to remember what it’s like to vend at a con, whew. Come see us at W75 for cute and weird art or just a nice high five.
My piece for Sparkle and Sea, a charity merbook from earlier this spring.
𝒹𝒶𝓃𝓍𝒾𝒶 His Highness Who Pleased the Gods
For The Dawn of Spring, a flower symbolism-themed anthology. There are seconds on sale here if you missed pre-orders. :)
Aaaand a final @mxtxfanworkbook piece; this is to accompany a fic by @sansatully!
More @mxtxfanworkbook! I have a deep love of Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen and what a powerhouse they could have been before things went wrong.
I had the great pleasure of being a part of @mxtxfanworkbook last year and got to draw some of my faves. This was a bonus print! I wanted to post detail shots of this but I have a dead hard drive on my hands and the original is locked away on it.
Another redraw for @shousetsubangbang’s Coming Around Again issue, this time of the very first piece I ever created for the zine in 2014 [removed from Tumblr bc offfff everyone’s favorite TOS].
In this redux I actually backed up some lore by digging around into research of the huldra, Scandinavian forest guardians who present as seductively beautiful women but possess cow or fox tails and/or their backs resemble hollowed-out trees. Huldra can be kind if treated with respect but can also control natural forces to wreak havoc if humans are troublesome.
A new issue of @shousetsubangbang is out and the theme is Coming Around Again, aka remixes, aka a chance for me to redo some of my old art!!
This is a redraw of this piece from six years ago, which I have always been a bit dissatisfied with. I liked the concept but the execution felt so lackluster and I could never quite put my finger on why. I’m much, much happier with this version and drawing it worked out a lot of rust from my brain.
this has been an awful year and, accordingly, my output has been awful too. it took a lot of scrounging for me to end up with one piece for each month and I’m trying not to beat myself up about it. I hope 2022 is kinder.
I’ve been trying to draw this out for a solid six months and now it’s done and maybe I can stop feeling sad.
I’m really excited to have been in @lightgreyartgallery’s last show, themed around death. I illustrated a Ci annwn: a hound of the wild hunt, specifically here from the Welsh tradition.
You can preorder a compiled book of the show here for a limited time!