Category Archives: personal

on disappointment

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well, after not really sleeping all weekend and having serious anticipation anxiety, waiting to hear if i got one of the scholarships for the CVP class i mentioned in the previous post… i just got the email that told me i did NOT get in. “overwhelming amount of scholarship applications” blah blah blah. i find it so hard to believe considering how hard it is to even find out that there IS a scholarship for this program. it’s not listed anywhere on their website and they never mention it. i only found out because someone said something about it in the chat during a live call – and even then the official response was just “email us.” but at the same time, it’s no wonder they have a kajillion scholarship applicants because the course is really quite expensive, putting it out of the reach of most working class and/or low income folks. i guess it is geared to those who do have the money for it, as they are a business with a lot of staff and expenses to pay in order to keep the whole a2l empire going. i get it. nick and the whole team are great and deserve to make a good living doing what they do, inspiring artists to overcome their fears and create. i’m just sad to not be joining in the 2023 cohort. it sucks being poor.

i hope the other artists i’ve made facebook friends with who applied got in. many of them are on disability or are retired and living on a fixed income. i’m not, so i get it. but the timing is definitely not right for me to go $2.5K in debt right now so oh well. maybe i’ll try again next year.

it does however i guess free me up from what i was already thinking was going to be an insanely busy spring. not that i’m going to stop painting – i won’t, in fact i’m thinking i’ll go back over the spark videos again and see if i learn anything new. but i do have some busy work weekends of petsitting coming up and i’m trying to scheme my way for a weekend trip in april and festival season is almost upon us. spring in new orleans is a very busy time of year. so i guess i won’t have to forego all of that, as i’d previously thought if i were to be in CVP.

maybe the universe has other plans for me.

i know it’s ok to be disappointed. this too shall pass. back to the proverbial drawing board… or sketchbook.

winter 2020 update + artbymags face masks!

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I guess I haven’t updated here in a long time. I always forget I have an art website because I don’t use it for direct commerce – it’s mostly just a blog. And my art/design biz has been on hold these last few months so I haven’t had anything to write about. But the quick update is: I had brain surgery (really) October 13th and I’ve been in recuperation mode ever since. I have not been working and have been focusing solely on my health – a privilege I’ve had thanks to my sweet friends setting up a GoFundMe for me prior to surgery and literally hundreds of folks in my community and networks chipping in to support me during this time. I am so humbled and grateful, and trying to take all the time I need to get back to normal.

I am making a very strong recovery, despite being left with a few nerve-related deficits. (My benign tumor that was 100% removed was on my brain stem and entwined with my 10th cranial nerve, or vagus nerve, which controls things like breathing and swallowing and speaking.) So I’m battling double vision and paralyzed vocal cords, but making slow steady progress via physical and speech therapy. It’s just a waiting game for the nerves to repair themselves, but I hope to be back to business as usual after the holidays.

My post-brain-surgery self hasn’t had a lot of physical/mental/creative energy to make art or do any actual printing, but sitting in front of a computer isn’t that taxing for me. So the wonders of technology have enabled me to set up a bunch of my designs on print on demand site Teespring, and now you can get some of your favorite artbymags designs on cloth face masks!

https://teespring.com/stores/artbymags/collection/face-masks?page=1

*I have ordered a sample to check for quality but it has not arrived yet, so I can’t tell you anything about the quality of the mask yet. Sorry! I will update when it arrives. But I’ve generally been pretty happy with everything I’ve gotten from Teespring so I’m hopeful they will be great!

I’ve also been adding all kinds of new weird products like pillows and fannypacks, as the designs allow, to my regular store. Not every design looks good on other kinds of merch, but if you visit my artbymags store on Teespring you’ll find lots of new stuff with old designs, in a ton of different colors. I’m still updating so check back often!

https://teespring.com/stores/artbymags

I’m hoping to get back to the making of art soon, but I’m having to slowly re-integrate various activities so as not to do too much too soon. But overall, I’m doing pretty amazing after such a major surgery so I’m trying to have patience with the process and just go with the flow.

Thanks for checking out my site and supporting my creative work.

Happy holidays, everyone! Be safe!

summer update.

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yes i know, it’s been a lot of months since i’ve updated here. i will skip over the boring parts but, hey, it’s summer! it’s pride weekend! i’ve made a bunch of stickers since i posted last! (i did a bunch of other stuff too but you probably already know about all that if you follow me on facebook, twitter or instagram or ever look at my etsy shop or teespring store.)

but here’s what’s coming in the mail soon. i tried to get them made in time for pride weekend here in new orleans, which is this weekend, but apparently i was one day off, as i got the shipping notification today that it’s coming monday. oh well. our pride is early in the month, though, and lots of other cities have pride at the end of the month so i’m hoping there are still folks who will want these in the next few weeks.

the rectangular one on top is 4″ x 3″ and the square one is 3″ x 3″. they will go up in my etsy shop as soon as i have them and be $2 each with free postage. or feel free to message me and we can figure it out with paypal or venmo directly.

i’ll let you catch yourself up on everything else by visiting the above social media links. and i’ll try to get better about posting updates here. happy pride everyone!

why do i even still have a website?

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i really don’t know. i am HORRIBLE about updating here. really – if you’ve stumbled across this page and think you might be interested in what i do, please don’t rely on this website for your means of information about me! it’s been MONTHS since i updated here. (scroll down to the bottom of this post and i’ll list the other ways you can follow me more in real-time.)

 

 

 

but just cuz i don’t update here regularly doesn’t mean i haven’t been doing stuff. let’s see… since the “educate agitate organize” shirt design, i made a “dyke witches don’t play” button on a whim, and then i made a more generic “witches don’t play” sticker with the best hashtag ever – #youVEXweHEX. and then i even cut a stencil so i could print off a few tshirts of the “dyke witches” design so my friends could have them to wear at voodoo festival.

yeah, they are kinda silly but in these past few months, what with the protest and outcry about the kavanaugh hearings and every crazy thing 45 does and the midterm elections, i’ve just really been feeling the power and fierceness of the witches in my life and wanted to make a little something for them/us. i mostly have given the buttons and stickers away and sent them out to my patreon supporters, but maybe at some point i’ll sell a few. i do have a few tshirts on hand of the “dyke witches” design and both designs are up on my teespring store for sale.

the other big development is that in a completely surprising turn of events, i’ve been experimenting with abstract expressionist painting in my living room. small canvases for now, cuz my living room is really small (!), but i put a dropcloth down and work on several canvases at once… and it’s been really fun! and i did post a few pics on social media and folks seem to like them! i haven’t gotten to the point of feeling comfortable enough with this style to want to sell anything yet, but well, the holidays ARE coming up so maybe that’s the perfect time to try to get rid of everything that’s piling up in my living room studio! stay tuned for announcements about that.

i’m trying to get myself together for the holidays, but it’s so hard when my day job gets so much busier at this time of year too. at this point, i only have one holiday market scheduled and it’s not even in new orleans – it’s in chico, california on december 1st! i’m traveling out there to visit my best pal and her partner, and they signed me up for this bazaar at an artist’s studio. so i’m trying to figure out what to bring out there, what i can fit into one suitcase. more on that when i have more of the details.

i guess that’s it for now. but if you want to follow my art adventures in a more timely fashion, please follow me on: facebook, instagram, and/or patreon. oh, and etsy.

#abolishICE protest graphic

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i literally whipped this up last night after a very long day of work and finished it this morning before i went to work. i wanted to have SOMETHING that i had created for this big immigration-themed protest tomorrow, though i’m now realizing i won’t have time to cut it as a stencil and make any posters. but i will try to print at least one out on my fancy new large format color printer and see what they look like, just so i can have one to carry.

this one above is the rectangular version, the original version. but then when i went to put it up on facebook as my profile pic, i realized it needed to be square so i stretched it out and made a low-res square version as well (below). i think it actually looks better as a square but for printing purposes i think the rectangle will probably work better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if i can figure out how to upload a high res file to my website, i will offer it as a free download. stay tuned. feel free to snatch and/or share one of these versions for online use. i’d appreciate credit or a link back to this site or my fb or insta profiles, but it’s not absolutely necessary.