2019 Year in Pictures!

the year in pictures

2013 year in pics

2014 year in pics

2015 year in pics

2016 year in pics  

2017 year in pics
2018 year in pics

side car cat : commission

currently Rockville

early '19 print of late '18 design

Blagden x branddave x stickermule

Littles

BLAGDEN for superfine in Oct

Sticker or Label?  You decide

2nd round of button designs

you Go Nancy - big hopes!!

updated Dave portrait

Fun foray back into photography

Thanks superfine for the inspiration

Lots of bugs this year

First iteration of a much copied design

rough commission to print

Scooter!  used alot, for everything

Giclee delivery!

Shopmade GTown

2019 Wrap Up

2019 - the year I gave up blogging!

So sad really, I wish I could be more disciplined about keeping up with it.  i try and try only to lag again.  Instagram took over, that's where all the people are, and where I get the most bang for my effort.  plus how many times can I complain about NOT blogging, and not working and not drawing?  I guess I found my limit.

But I will miss having this record of my daily and weekly and monthly and yearly struggles.  I continue on with a private diary of sorts, but it's not the same.  Better in some ways, because I don't edit my feelings for consumption, but not as organized as this.  No way to keep it organized I guess.

A N Y W A Y - things change radically form year to year, and sometimes it takes me a year just to absorb the change.  Business was wayyyyyyyyy down, and picked up toward the end because I finally had a new outlet for my work, Shopmade.  But even that I managed to fuck up, because I couldn't keep with with a consistent flow of inventory.  Started out promising, but my big plans for holiday went way off track after I shifted focus to SUPERFINE in sept/oct, then got sick for weeks in Nov.

Lets see - what else?  Buzz has fizzled for prints, but still ok with cards.  BUT, hard to keep getting there to restock, and hard to keep all the cards inventory, and HAVE to keep making new designs.  All very challenging.

A great Hallmark year.  New designs in spring, and now another round this month.  Really excited to be working with them again.

Studio - a mess.  I HAVE TO re imagine it, clean out all the clutter, and set it up for success!  Gallery walls, and ORGANIZATION.  It's such a mess all the time.  2020 last year on lease, so ugh, need to renew.  The cost just escalates.  When am I being stupid???

GICLEE - a positive new step, but again, hard to manage.  What to order?  How many?  I'm always off.  Getting into the idea of printing editions again.  We'll see how that goes.  A huge can of worms.

SHIRTS - sticking with DC logo for shopmade, and that's pretty much it.  Transfers way down, but easier.  crazy.  At some point I will go back to shite shirts.  When?  And still making totes.  But it's fits and starts.  So weird how at once they are popular, then not at all.  I have no idea.

Prints - anxious to find my way as always.  Big, small?  I just don't know.

UGH - I guess all is a question.  After doing this so long, I still have no clue. What a perfect way to end the year.  Hopefully not the end of the blog.  Plan to check in now and again.  Certainly want to at least keep it active.

PS - iweb website GONE!  officially cut ties, and now it's big cartel all the way.  5 years too late!  

2018 Wrap up

2017 Wrap up 

2016 Wrap up

2015 Wrap up

2014 Wrap up

2013 Wrap up

2012 Wrap up

2011 Wrap up

2010 Wrap up

2009 Wrap up

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference

 

I am not like I was before
I thought that nothing would change me
I was not listening anymore
Still you continued to affect me

 

I was not thinking anymore
Although I said I still was
I'd said I don't want anymore
Because of bad experience

 

And now I feel so different
I feel so different
I feel so different

 

I have not seen freedom before
And I did not expect to
Don't let me forget now I'm here
Help me to help you to behold you

 

I started off with many friends
And we spent a long time talking
I thought they meant every word they said
But like everyone else they were stalling

 

And now they seem so different
They seem so different
They seem so different

 

I should have hatred for you
But I do not have any
And I have always loved you
Oh you have taught me plenty

The whole time I'd never seen
All you had spread before me
The whole time I'd never seen
All I'd need was inside me

 

Now I feel so different
I feel so different
I feel so different

I feel so different
I feel so different

-Sinead O'connor

Tired and drained after a long day in a long week (only wednesday) trying to finish up two projects that are completely divergent.

Print of the two dogs in DC for mothers day deadline 9sunday) and all the products for Shop Made (deadline NOW).  I'm never good a splitting my time / attention.  I remember in college I would study hard for one exam, and hardly lift a finger for the next.  Of course that cant happen here.

Both projects going fine, but just require a lot of work and attention.  Anxious to get the Shop Made stuff out the door!  Will be a big relief. 

And commissions - I just don't know!  Maybe I should just stop them and refuse them for awhile.  I know they are not worth all the angst and stress and effort I put into them.  This drawing was brutal.  I must have drawn the one dog 100 times.  Then finally, finally, finally I got him.  UGH!!!!!

on top of all, car is in the shop.  So walking to studio and home (with emma) can be an extra challenge. 

PATIENCE with her...

quick week, thursday already.

Working on production prints for SM after finishing the girl, and quick drawings for Integral.  Forsythia was picked up, and out of my life.  When will I print that again?? I don't think for awhile.

Next up, Fitz and a mothers day commission that came in today.

Emma acting so unsettled today.  Made me unsettled.  She keeps moving position.  poor baby.

Reading through my epic diary I started my freshman year and carried on all through college and beyond.  Very interesting and familiar.  30 years ago.  Things are different of course, but how I feel is so similar.

Wrapping up a bizarro week full of twists and turns.  Glad to report that all things ended well, and I feel back on track.

Forsythia - DONE!
Farley - DONE!

next up is the little beagle / girl commission, and "Fitz"

But most my time will be spent getting prints ready for ShopMade.

All good!  to the future and beyond.

Major hurdle, taxes finished!

S T I L L working on forsythia print.  Hopefully will be finshed up soon.

frustration

taxes loom

no email from ...

but I think I got the shirt/press/temp./peely/crackly thing worked out.  I think!

Sounds like dad is recovering according to schedule, which is good news

And emma bounced back after a few days ago.

No final word yet on commission, and still waiting to hear from ..., so we wait

REMARKABLE to see how long I've been writing this blog!  I just went way way back, to April '08, working on little videos for the 48 Hr film, and giant prints on wood for my first artomatic.  and still working days at BSUR.  amazing.

Great meeting with ShopMadeDC today.  excited to get started with them.  All the familiar DC artists there.  Hope they are succeeding, and I can too.  Seems like it.  Best part is that it's two locations.

Anxious to get my recycled screens out.  Seems like it's going to be cost effective.

Thanking about a sale, or something to kick start some orders.  Feel like I flailing.  Except I have a few things to finish that I haven't even started.  Mixed message.

TAXES are due soon.  The worst part of year by far.  I hate seeing $$$ go.

Thinking about The dc art fair, but it's so ridiculously expensive.  And would I get in? Something to think about.

Packed up screens (will be a fortune to ship) and cards for Trohv.  Still plan to go out there, but put off for awhile again.

Got some of forsythia worked on, but not enough

Emma doing ok as usual after another spell in middle of the night.  UGH

STILL working on forsythia reprint, only because I put it off for a few days to finish more pressing things:  mothers Day cards.  VP had good sale, so I spent time thursday and Friday getting new(ish) ones pulled together.  Happy with how they all turned out (I think)

Saturday at the studio I spent the majority of my time deleting emails that had built up over the fall, and had transferred over to my new computer.  10k!  most of it junk, but of course I had to weed out what wasn't.  Found a much easier formula, alphabetical.  Since most junk were duplicates, I could find and delete huge chunks.  Much easier.

Took emma to rock creek and she went nuts.  she loves it so much, but gets herself worked up into a frenzy.  I don't know what the formula is, but she passes some limit and gets even more crazed and hyper.  Made the super smart decision to loop back through the woods instead of the road, so she could stay off leash.  Helped a lot, because when she is leashed and like that, I get so mad at her, and she gets even worse. 

Back to studio today, and tiny hole in screen that I saw Friday had ripped across the entire middle.  Frustrating, but typical.  Contacted company to recycle the 4 broken ones I have, and get a discount, which is good all around.  Bet the shipping cancels it out.  Saved the box, which was smart smart smart.  Fingers crossed its not a fortune through usps.

Working on Forsythia reprint, which is a long slog!  It's a new size, so I need to remake all the positives.  yikes.  Could this project be any more difficult?  yes, the board is slightly warped.  Fingers crossed it all works out, after all the work I'm going to put into it.

Nicer warmer weather means all the plants go outside, and my studio has some extra room.  anxious to spring clean.  This place is a mess of storage.  and my desk needs a lift. 

Nice time with Kim and Erin yesterday.  The traffic getting there almost killed me.  What should have taken 15 minutes took an hour. Thank god I don't have to deal with that every day.  The whole thing left me frazzled.

Sad to see the blog withering on the vine.  I try to post more regularly, only to stop again.  Maybe I can keep it up?

Working on drawing a commission that has been put off for too long.  It's a hard one, that's why Ive put it off.  Not so good at capturing people.  Or at least I don't think I am.  Have a tiny little shred of a drawing that might work.

Amazed at how time has gone by.  Lately I'm really feeling it.  Things have shifted.  So many good friends and connection have faded away, or been broken.  Corcoran, old studios, bsur, Story District, buzz, artomatic, peregrine, parcheesi, Sue.  I'm feeling untethered.  The only things grounding me are Hexy and Emma, and my parents.  

Anyway, hopefully, I'll have more to say tomorrow, and the next day too.

this drawing may look simple, but it's the result of at last 50 or 60 different versions, and hours of angst.

I started out with a bunch of photos of farley, and drew and drew and drew.  Just trying to somehow get his endearing face, and something that would please my client.  In the end, i'm looking for some kind of magical formula.  A rythme to the drawing that is impossible to duplicate.  Happy with how it came out.  Hope she is too!