dear dave,

good day.  studio's in shape, website is updated, orders trickling in, print sales picking up.

All good!

the prints i've been bitching about below

dear dave,

back at the corcoran this afternoon.  These forsythia prints are tough.  So many pieces.  Slow progress.  Multiple screens.  Blah.

At the end of the day Saturday I started a new Redbud print, and left my screens to finish up today.  So after 20 minutes tops, I'm left with 3 dirty screens, another unfinished print, and a whole cycle of cleaning drying, coating, drying, burning, drying before I can continue on.  GRRRR.  Probably a mistake to leave them like I did.

Anxious to move on!  These few prints are a drag. And I wish I liked them better now that they are mostly done.  I wish they were bigger and not so overwrought.

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typical monday.

A moment (to remember??)

Sitting at Starbucks, stalled. I was starving, so I came over from the print studio.

Long line, no seats. Got my bagel and sat out on the deck, in the cold, sun, and wind. Second half of my bagel blew off the table and onto the deck (that windy). I ate it anyway.

Moved downstairs, inside, and grabbed the paper. Nothing seemed interesting to read, so I called Hex.

Frustrated with my work, as usual. The prints I'm working on today that is. Thought I had prepped screens, but I didn't. Missing some positives, anxious about my dark backgrounds, and generally just bogged down. It's a tough print to make, and I'm feeling negative (as usual this stage in the process)

Corcoran studio is busy with students, and we are in each others way. Hate that. Hopefully when I return it will be quieter.

Wearing my shitty dirtbag printing jeans and shoes, bundled up in my coat, dried ink all over my dry, cracked hands. I'm a mess! My head is kind of achy. All I want to do is go home, but I can't. I've got to make it work.

I'm going back now.

dear dave

more settled day today.  Trying to set up for tomorrow at the corcoran, and worked on some new cards.  Funny, I just do a few new drawings and they seem to work.  Feels like I should have put more thought into it all?  Did I really just come up with 3 new cards and prints that easily?

XXX is not as easy!  Frustrated with that project.  Hopefully I find a breakthrough soon.  And xxxx stuff too!!

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SUPER FRUSTRATED with ccnow - which has been offline for 2 days now.  PISSED off about that.  Really pissed off.

things turn around.  It's a hard won lesson - that I ALWAYS forget.

Great day full of open doors and windows.  Crazy how that happens.

New exhibit opportunities, new friends, new contacts, new energy.  It's exciting.  Feeling good!


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can't seem to get any drawing done for xxxx.  Driving me crazy!

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Need to print my ass off.  Or I'll have no prints.

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Spring is inspiring.

http://www.branddave.com/freehand/mens.html

Went to Buzz last night with Hexy

Feeling calm and settled after a stressed out day.

So good to see Richelle and Gordon and Matt and wendy and katheryn and Kate and Jocelyn and Nina tonight. A blast from the past. Time flies by, but people stay the same. That's really cool.

Joined society6. Interested to see how that works out.

Kind of sucky day. Felt anxious and negative. Hopefully tonight has turned a page.

Goodnight.

revised

I remember a few days (weeks?) ago I was complaining here about wanting to redesign my website.

sure enough - that's what I've been working on the past few days.  Always feels good and productive and satisfying.  Nice to see it tended to and refreshed.  It can get so overgrown and shabby and stale.  It requires tending to.

Anyway - cut a lot of extra pages and shirts.  Reformatted all my t-shirt pages, so you don't have to navigate that extra step to buy.  I think that makes so much more sense.  Re instituted my commission pages, and integrated them throughout.  Updated 2011 exhibits, and added speakeasydc illustrations.

Here are all the pages I've been working so hard on, in case you are interested:

Men's
Women's
Commissions
Portfolio
Bio

Now it's ready for the public, and for NEW content.  Feels like a good place to be.

Pizza night tonight, and I am running super late as usual.  Poor ms. remi

dear dave,

great lunch at Chipotle today with Tom Goss.  I always love my get-togethers with him.  I leave feeling happy and inspired.  What a great guy!

Working on my site - which feels good and right.  It's a good time of the year to clean it up and get it prepared for the year ahead.  I'm working on t-shirt layouts to make them simpler, easier to BUY!  We'll see.  Hopefully my changes will stick, and I won't slink back to my previous formats.

I've got to get out of here, home, out with Remi, then to gym, then back home to meet Hexy!  I'll leave it there for now.

geez - bad postal day (few days).

come on usps - work with me

dear dave,

at the corcoran once again, waiting for my screens to dry.

Saturday I printed a smaller version of "branches", and today I'm making another, revised version.  Not so happy with the small flowers, and the way it came out overall, so I think this should help.  VERY tedious print - so many little passes.  I wish I could revise both, but that would be crazy.

Worked all day Saturday, then had noodles with Rhodsa (and hex).  Sunday was FREEZING, so after being out for a few hours in the morning, we isolated ourselves inside for the rest of the day, binging on Whitney Houston death news and later, baking cookies.

Those days always make sense and feel good at the time, but then Monday comes, and it's hard to be motivated.  A blah Sunday definitely leads to a blah Monday.

Things are chugging along, but these are the dog days of winter!  I tell myself to be patient.  Moods will change.  Gridlock will subside.  The sun will come out.  February is always rough.

So that is where I am - waiting and trying to feel patient.

worked today.

productive day, but I'm feeling really edgy and agitated.  Not sure what my problem is.

Got through some roadblocks, but not yet satisfied with the solutions.  Or maybe I just feel like they are band-aids.  Quick cover-ups to looming issues I can't figure out.

I have so much anxiety lately about big choices.  I can't make them.  And that makes me anxious.

Down on myself - and that's never a good place to be...

blah,

the more I change things (on my website), the more I want to change things (on my website).

And prints, and cards, shirts, and my studio.  It snowballs into this overwhelming feeling of NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

If I just do this....it will be better.  "this" means tweak, tweak, tweak till the cows come home.

Then I look at other sites and all these feeling multiply exponentially.

Where is my time best spent?  That is what I always need to ask.

This time of year I want to change everything.  Nothing looks fresh or exciting.  But I can't!  I need to be fucking realistic.  Its sooooooo easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed.

Anyway, I need to have a small focus.  I can't be everything, sell everything, appeal to everybody.

Blah - i'm going home (frustrated)

I need to figure out my future once and for all.  Or at least the next five years.  What do I want branddave to be??  I need to settle on something, and be it.

Before

After

dear dave,

not such a great day today.  GREAT day yesterday!  but not so much today.

Back and forth with the auto garage.  Final result -- $800 repair.  First thought I would get away with a no charge! but as I drove away, I still heard the whizzing noise that made me bring it in in the first place.

Few hours later I got the bad news.  Spent a lot on that car the past few years!

yesterday I had a really successful day printing.  Got another honey badger print finished, and three other new ones. Excited to get them out, and SOLD!

Tried to rally towards the end of today, but no luck.  I feel bad leaving the studio for the day with this little accomplished.  I hate this feeling.

 Made a print this Saturday, and documented the progress

Painting the boards

Laying out the positives before making screens

Mixing and testing colors 

Each color is printed separately-layer by layer

Printing table

Just need to print black outlines

Two finished prints!

dear dave,

the days have been going by quickly - sort of.

I'm still in this uncomfortable mode.  Like I don't feel settled in my skin.  I come to work, have stuff to do, but I'm not feeling great.  Or as good as I should, or something.  I don't know.  I just have this unsettled feeling lately.  Blah!

Anyway, very busy with shirts.  Which is good.  Anxious to switch to prints, but know it's probably best to stay focused on shirts.

Made another stop at BUZZ last night.  Stealthy with Hexy.  We go in, unpack prints, wrap prints, hang prints, label, photograph and exit.

Last night we enjoyed a quick cupcake before leaving.  A departure!

Anyway - they are really cool there.  The vibe is really nice.  Always feel good after I visit.

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massage didn't help my lack of focus much.  Too bad.  I feel all over the place.  Getting things done, but i know I could be more efficient!

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Listening to BLACK SHEEP show, and heard my name mentioned!  What a kick.  Really really cool.