Category Archives: personal
post mardi gras regrouping…
how did it get to be march already? whew. i hope all the locals had a good mardi gras and the rest of you, i hope you’re hanging in there through these first 45 days of 45’s presidency. yes, hard to believe it’s only been 45 days.
as for me, i put my etsy shop on pause midweek before mardi gras, knowing once wednesday hits, it’s a nonstop marathan of parades and work and parties and costume making and drinking and eating and recuperating and then fat tuesday and then OMGTHANKGODITSOVER. i knew i wouldn’t be able to package and ship any orders that came in until ash wednesday at the very earliest, so i figured i’d pause the shop to give myself a breather. i had to tidy up and drunk-proof my house for my annual endymion party, too, so it all made sense.
and i’m glad i did it, for my mental health. but now, since i reactivated it, it’s a slow climb back to the activity level i had going before mardi gras. everything is back in stock – all the RESIST stickers and patches and shirts, plus i’ve printed off some of the NOT GAY AS IN HAPPY BUT QUEER AS IN FUCK YOU shirts too, in red. i’ve had a few sales, but mostly just stickers, a dollar or two at a time, which, sadly, i don’t actually make money on, thanks to all the etsy and paypal fees. but i’m taking advantage of this lull in activity as an opportunity to work on new things and get my website updated.
i’m heading out to a new art supply store i’ve never been to this morning. i have a few hours this afternoon that i want to use to make some new screens for new tshirt designs, but i realized i had no screens! so after googling to find out that the art supply shops i usually go to are all closed on sundays (what’s up with that?), i found a new one that is open and it’s right downtown under the expressway/bridge. so hopefully i’ll be able to nab a few so i can get busy on some new stuff.
i’ve also updated the teespring shop with all the old designs – RESIST, BEWARE THE PUSSY, KEEP LOVING KEEP FIGHTING, and ARMY OF LOVERS – with continuously relaunching (every 3 days) campaigns so they will always be available. and the fact that they will print every 3 days means your stuff will come faster. so feel free to refer friends there when they ask you where you got your shirt!
ok, that’s my update for now. #thesidehustleisREAL
the #RESIST factory keeps churning…
i love y’all. you keep buying as much #RESIST gear as i can turn out. i can’t keep up!
thank you all so much for the support and all the love! and thank you for helping me to make some donations to organizations i trust and believe in. so far $50 has gone to the people’s institute’s scholarship fund for their undoing racism trainings, over $150 went to the #J20NOLA coalition that i worked with on the inauguration day march, $25 has gone to the local planned parenthood, and smaller donations have gone to the new orleans abortion fund and the local women’s march committee. so probably about $250 so far, and i’m about to do another round of donations this week to a few different organizations. i don’t set a specific percentage or amount because i’m never sure how something is going to sell and the intermittent way i produce products means i always have some of my money tied up in ordering/inventory, but trust that i’m making regular contributions to nonprofits and grassroots groups with some of what i’m making from this gear.
i am of course keeping some of it too, to grow my art/craft biz, purchase some new equipment so i can keep making stuff, and buy supplies. i might have to use some of it to fix my 20 year old ailing car, too, but it feels like a luxury to be able to do so.
so, updates about the merch:
stickers: i’m almost out of the 6″ matte stickers and i’m not sure i’m going to keep ordering them since they are more expensive to get made. but they are also much faster to get made, so maybe. there’s a few left. i have plenty of the smaller 5.25″ glossy ones (pictured) left. you can get both via my etsy shop but feel free to just email me directly to place an order for stickers. $1 each. (you can paypal, venmo or squarecash me directly – ask me for details.)
embroidered patches just got restocked! i have about 175 left. you can get them via the etsy shop or you can email me directly to order those – $5 each.
as for the tshirts, i’m in constant restocking mode on those. i am trying to keep 3-4 of all sizes in stock at all times but it’s hard to keep up with, so forgive me the periodic outages. you can see the current inventory in the etsy shop in the individual listings for both mens/unisex and womens cuts – i try very hard to keep that tally current daily as things get bought. if you don’t see the listings for the mens or womens shirts, it’s cuz i’m out. just keep checking back. they are $20 each.
i’ve also decided to go ahead and just keep them available via teespring. it’s a less than perfect print-on-demand situation but the quality for one color prints is always good and there’s just so much selection for brands/styles/cuts/sizes of shirts there. visit my teespring store to order. i get paid either way and it gives me a breather from the hand printing.
my friend dix keeps quipping – “who dresses you for the revolution?” at the sight of so many folks wearing my gear at all the marches and meetings. i keep thinking about ways i can work that into a tagline for the business. “dressing the resistance since 1992” or something like that. send me your thoughts!
thanks again everyone!
RESIST shirts + stickers!
my latest design is simple but bold. i actually started working on it BEFORE the election, fully thinking hillary clinton would be our president. but, well, now it has even more meaning. my friend julie recently (post-election) snapped a picture of a sign on a house on st. bernard ave that said: resistance must now become like breathing. i don’t know if this is a famous quote by someone that i should know (i googled it but found nothing), or just the wise words of a local person who felt the need to scrawl it out on a handwritten sign and tack it up on their house, but it’s the truth and it really resonates with me.
i made the above resist sticker for my patreon subscribers, but of course ran extra knowing folks would probably want these. well i’ve already sold out of that initial run of 200 and am half way through the second 200; i now have a run of 500 on the way. pretty sure this will be an ongoing effort. i mean, we’ve got four years of this fascist crap to resist, right?
you can buy them from me directly for $1 each. (they are up in my etsy shop but cost $2 each there due to paypal and etsy fees.) email me if you want stickers.
i also hand painted a screen and have printed t-shirts. for now, what i’m selling are black, 100% cotton, Next Level brand, soft lightweight t-shirts with white water-based ink. i have mens and women’s crew cuts in sizes small through 2XL. $20 per shirt. they are also up in my etsy shop but you can get them from me directly by emailing me.
now is not a time for complacency. or for silence. or for normalizing this incoming administration and president. now is the time for coming together, conspiring, organizing and mobilizing. we must actively #resist.
beware the pussy!
ok, first things first.
i’m not very good at updating this site. if you want more timely news about what i’m making, probably best to tune in to my fb biz page or my instagram. or if you really wanna know about my creative process, you can support me over at patreon and get all kinds of behind the scenes info and even get cool stuff like stickers and original art mailed to you from time to time.
but now that i’m here… lemme tell you about my newest design!
this came to me after seeing a neighbor’s “don’t tread on me” NRA flag flying – i felt like i needed to counter with a warning of my own. and with all the talk about pussies grabbing back and voting and doing all kinds of things to ivanka’s dad since that videotape surfaced of him exalting sexual assault, this seemed an appropriate mantra. (also, i have two fat indoor cats who wouldn’t hurt a fly and i thought it would be funny to have a feline beware sign on my gate. so it serves a dual purpose!)
i hand painted the original on a repurposed plastic political yard sign, but then later sketched it out in pencil, inked it over, and digitized it so it could be turned into assorted merch.
and voila! you can now buy womens as well as mens/unisex t-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, and stickers with this design on it, here via teespring.
i can’t wait to get my own! especially the coffee mug!!
latest design – keep loving, keep fighting
for the last couple of months i’ve been focused on this design, which i sketched out by hand in the days after the pulse nightclub shooting in orlando back in june. in the week following that horrible event, i was using #keeplovingkeepfighting as a hashtag on social media, in solidarity with the victims, the orlando community and the greater lgbtq community. i drew the graphic as a visual representation of the hashtag, knowing as soon as i drew it that i wanted it to be a t-shirt design… which i originally hoped to print up to wear to our own gay pride parade here in new orleans.
well, that didn’t end up happening – it took me a lot longer than i expected to get the pen and ink design worked up properly and then a screen made so i could print t’s -Â and in the mean time, #altonsterling and then #philandocastille were shot and killed by police and i attended a rally first in new orleans that drew thousands to lee circle in support of #blacklivesmatter and then in baton rouge, la which turned into a super scary standoff with heavily militarized riot police. i wished again i’d had the shirt ready to wear by then, but instead i made signs to hold at both rallies that simply said “keep loving, keep fighting.”
i realized that this hashtag, this phrase, embodied the sentiment i most wanted to put out to the world in the wake of all the awfulness happening around us. and i realized that it was a sentiment that transcended many different social justice pursuits. because it is a reminder to both keep loving – ourselves and each other, taking care of ourselves and each other, with love always in our hearts – AND to keep fighting, keep persevering, keep struggling for our rights and for justice. it is a sentiment of inspiration, of hope, of strength, of resistance, of community, of love.
and so, finally, weeks later, i had made a screen and got some blank shirts and printed some up. i wasn’t even sure it was going to look right as a one-color t-shirt design, but as it turns out, i think it looks great. eye-catching. i’ve sold a few here and there via fb and word of mouth, and now the rest are up for sale in my etsy shop:Â https://www.etsy.com/shop/artbymags. i have both red/black and grey/black versions. $20 + s/h… while supplies last. (limited supply so don’t sleep!)
i’m working on an order for stickers with this design right now, and intend to make some 12″ x 12″ paper prints using spray paint backgrounds, so stay tuned.