i’m still deep in busy summer pet-biz land (my anticipated “slow” month of july got really busy) but this is just a quick post to say that i know amazon prime day is coming up soon. lots of people love amazon; lots of people hate amazon but still use it; and lots of people hate amazon and refuse to use it. i am somewhere in the middle in that i still use it occasionally for purchases but i am not a prime member so prime day doesn’t mean much to me.

if you are in the latter category or just would like to support independent bookstores, bookshop.org is a great alternative and for prime day (actually july 11 and 12) they are offering free shipping and if you spend more than $100, you get a free tote bag!

this is where i will mention once again that i signed up as an affiliate for bookshop.org and have a curated booklist for art/design-related books that i’m always adding to. if you purchase through my links (i think if you follow it and then order anything on or off my list) i get a kickback AND you get free shipping on 7/11-7/12 and the satisfaction of sticking it to amazon while supporting independent bookstores – all at the same time!

that’s all i got right now. i’ve been playing with the gelli plate and posting some stuff on instagram but i haven’t painted anything in a long time and feel completely and utterly without inspiration right now. i was hoping to submit something to the art2life international juried online art exhibition but i honestly don’t feel like i have anything to submit. i guess i could submit an old “you are loved” painting as the rules state submissions must have been created in the past 24 months and the last batch of those i made would qualify, but it feels disingenuous to do so considering the last two years has really been all about trying to move on from that series. for all my forays into abstract art i don’t feel like i’ve come up with anything that is a finished product. so i dunno… the deadline is july 25th so i need to make a decision soon.

i also signed up for yet another workshop focused on helping artists who are stuck .(it seems to be all i can accomplish these days, but none of them ever seems to really help me break through my core issues around my art.) when i signed up for it a while back i didn’t have anything on my pet schedule that would conflict but since then my schedule has filled in quite a bit and i’m fairly busy that week, especially during the time of the live broadcasts. so not feeling great about my prospects of actually getting much out of that one cuz i won’t have the time/energy to be there live and really commit to it. sigh – story of my life.

so that’s my quick update. hope everyone’s staying cool in this hottest summer ever!