blah in the shnu

I have been feeling a little bummed lately and bitter. I feel like I have been really productive, but also really hermity and not because I want to be. Its hard in the winter because all I want to do is sleep and stay inside, but I DO like doing things too I just need a bit of a push sometimes. I feel like that push has been absent and while I enjoy my HGTV I also enjoy real people.
I think my mission for my next days off is to not just do career things, but initiate hang out time. I have mastered grav lox and really isn't that enough of a hook to make people want to come over to our little apartment?


Things to do in the city:

go to boozerdoodle type activity...aka figure drawing in a bar

go to comedy show or drag bingo

get some culture at a museum (which we did a month ago, but really you can never have too much culture)

reestablish craft night

go to the Moth

maybe take an art class?

Join a riding team or group as long as they are not too fancy or matchy

Dumplings


Things to avoid (in the city and really anywhere):

Feeling high school about being left out

Being annoyed at what people post on Facebook

Not being happy for others

Being angry at the world

Being angry while riding my bike through traffic

Use it, don't abuse it

I have made a few large leaps in the past 24 hours. So far I have corrected and sent off The Ugly Sweater for another round of judgment and I uploaded images to my Theispot. Theispot was a very serious investment and I hope it pays off. I have been reluctant to invest so much money in something that I do not know is a sure thing. Making bags is an investment, but I have something physical I can be proud of and in this case its just pixel vapor.
But really, to get all this done I have had to use my time like its a deadline for the New Yorker (speaking from no experience). A couple of years ago, when I did not have an established style, I tried to make time for my art around working full time. I found it really hard and I think because I feel like I have a more solid direction now it really drives me to focus on working even if it means I have no social life beyond Project Runway and 30 Rock.
SO now I wait, but actively of course. I am going to be working on some animal illustrations that target the animal show audience. I would like to do more animal portraits.
Enough talk, look at this
(ps-I'm sorry JJ for my lameness)

No news is annoying news

Dear Charrow –

I’m sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I’ve been enjoying looking at your pages and thank you for bringing the by. It’s charming stuff, full of life and with great colors and visual sensibility. But I’m afraid that I didn’t come away from it quite fully convinced this was something I’d be able to represent successfully. As appealing as it is, I found it hard to identify with Oliver for some reason, and I think that’s really the key to getting young readers attracted to a story. I’m sorry for not being more positive, but thanks nonetheless for giving me a chance to review it.

-----

Mind you I am not and was not looking for an agent, but this individual showed interested in my book and I wanted the opinion of a literary agent. When one does not seek out approval or rejection does it count? I think its along the lines of a tree falling in the woods when no one is present to hear it. The opinion still hurts, but luckily I do have the ear of people who are actually in the business of publishing children's books.

In fact, today I spent the whole morning and early afternoon addressing the concerns of an editor at a publishing company. I changed the end of the book and shortened it to the 40 pages that is the norm...as apposed to the 58 my book had become. Now that the edits are done my agent will check for errors that I will correct, and then it can be sent back for another round with the publisher.
If that is a big fail a woman at another very large publisher bought some art from me on etsy and said she could direct my book to the right editors for children's books. Sooo the ball is rolling.

Now, no more thinking, here's a picture.

A thought

How does one move from having a few people see their work/site to having a huge following? I'm sorry I only have 256 contacts on facebook....and no, myspace is for tweens.

Sink, Sank, Sunk

I felt like drawing a sink...and squirrels.

IF:Adrift

Dressed to Repress

I have been doing a fare amount of drawing, but not much in the way of scanning...obviously one is more fun than the other. Usually, its not such a big deal, but as my computer gets more and more sluggish everything becomes a big deal. I was supposed to buy a refurbished computer at the end of January, but they no longer have the one I want on the site. I was going to wait and see if another came up, but I might just break down and visit my friend who works at the Mac store. The only upside to going into the store and getting a new one would be a free ipod (for my sis) and a nearly free scanner (because one can never have too many scanners). The other issue is the new macbook pro seems to lack the older firewire port. I cannot understand why they would get rid of it, but if I go into the store I might be able to find a version that has it. Or I could just do what everyone else does and upgrade.
I am also wondering if I should wait until after I do my taxes just in case I owe the government 2000 dollars....cause we all know I make soo much money.

Mainly, I am wasting time. I will get one very soon and then I will focus on complaining about how little time I have to play with my new toy.

Filler up

Birthday present for JJ's Mom. This is her horse Singer who we met this weekend.
We were stuck in MD for an extra day because of the snow; which would have been fine except that the cats got sick, really sick.
Apparently, their food, Petguard, can make them butt sick if they have too much of it at one time. We usually feed the critters three times a day and little bits at a time. While we were gone the cats got fed once a day and the full amount (meaning Fatty ate everything all at once and way more than Petey). Anyway, JJ had the where-with-all to look up info about the food. It can cause butt explosions....why??? It has not fillers or anything else BAD for a cat...what is point of giving them unprocessed food if their butts explode all over the apartment?
Our apartment is clean now and the cats had a very expensive (unnecessary) vet visit. They are now on expensive food provided by the vet to help them be weened back on the natural stuff. And the guess what, the expensive dr. prescribed food has fillers as the 3rd ingredient. Sometimes the irony explodes.

Home is where the bed is

Long week. I have a lot of art to post some good some just ok, but I will post all of it here when I am home for more than 10 awake minutes.