Tag Archives: new orleans

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!

the holiday whirlwind…

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one of my small abstract paintings that i feel sums up the chaos of this time of year

yep, here we go. thanksgiving is now behind us, black friday is still happening all the way through small business saturday and cyber monday, and the endless holiday art and craft markets and parties are upon us. it’s the holiday whirlwind. before you know it, it will be new year’s.

i haven’t much participated in recent years in the holiday marketing of my wares. but as i look around this year, i’m realizing i have a LOT of stuff accumulating in my house and shed, and it would be nice to get rid of some stuff. and hey, maybe some of you might like some of it?

so. for the first time in a really long time – seriously, years – i’m doing a couple of holiday markets. as some of you know, i’m taking a vacation this next week out to chico, california. (yes, 10 minutes away from paradise, the town that burnt to ground by the camp fire recently.) and it just so happens that one of my friends i’m visiting is a maker of things, an upcycler of all kinds of cool stuff. and she signed both herself and me up for a holiday market next saturday out there. artist christine mac shane has a studio and apparently does a holiday market with other artists every year, so thanks to southwest airlines’ generous baggage allowance, i will be carting a suitcase of my stuff out there to sell. mostly tshirts and stickers, but i’m scheming to see what else i might be able to fit. here’s the link to the facebook invite for the event, in case you know someone in chico or who lives in northern cali and wants to take a little roadtrip to see me.

then a week and a half after i come back, i’ll be doing my only new orleans holiday market at treo on dec. 15th. here are all the details and a list of the vendors. i’m excited and will probably be lugging a bin of my bargain t’s and other printed things (assuming there is space). maybe some prints. maybe some paintings. (again, it’s about space.) but it’s always fun doing markets in bars where folks can drink and eat and hang out while they shop.

and then we’ll see how i’m feeling, how much stuff i have left, and what my pet biz schedule is like. if all the stars align perhaps i’ll do another back yard sale last minute before xmas. or maybe not. we’ll see.

in the mean time, i do still have stuff up in my etsy shop and am adding designs all the time to my teespring store. (but get those orders in early on teespring, by december 11th if you want it for christmas.)

and as always, message me directly if you have any questions or if you want to swing by the house to pick something up.

happy holidays, everyone. don’t forget to slow down and enjoy it!

post mardi gras regrouping…

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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…

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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!

latest design – keep loving, keep fighting

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IMG_4409insta-keeploving me_keeplovingkeepfightingshirt

 

 

 

 

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 - 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: 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.

because it’s festival season…

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i just wore my “last night a brass band saved my life” t-shirt out to the downtown super sunday / keep n it real 2nd line and had several folks take my picture and ask about the shirt – yes i handed them business cards – so i though maybe it was time to offer it up again.

the campaign is live for 7 days. various brands (american apparel, canvas, bella, hanes), styles (crew neck, v neck, mens/unisex, womens, t-shirts, tanks) and colors (royal blue, several different shades of grey, and i think even one chocolate brown) of shirts here, so be sure to scroll through them all. i tried to change some of the offerings but apparently teespring won’t let me do that – i have to just run the same as i had last time- so this is what it is for now. (and please note that the hanes t-shirt does go up to size 5xl.)

also don’t forget i have the stickers available for purchase directly from me.

happy spring everyone!

****edited to add: i’ve decided i’m going to donate part of the proceeds to the roots of music program here in new orleans, an after school music education program for kids age 9-14. i’ve seen and heard the roots of music marching band in mardi gras parades and at other various events around town for years and think it’s an awesome program doing great work filling a gap in the new orleans elementary and middle school system post-katrina. check them out!