:el dia de la araña:

Every October a store in Cambridge, MA called Nomad ramps up their inventory of Dia de Los Muertos artwork, and they also bring up an artist from Mexico, Joel Garcia, to create original pieces and to hold workshops for others to create their own. For too many years I kept meaning to go to one of these, I made damn sure I remembered this year. We made spooky spiders:

As ever with me, the trick is to know when to quit. I wanted to add even more to the skull but I think it would've been overkill. I don't have photos of the other spiders but each was uniquely different, which Garcia commented on - in Spanish, he didn't know much English, but that didn't seem to inhibit his instructions to us. It helped that two other participants did know Spanish, while my high school Spanish lets me understand like every fifth word. I fully intend to learn it, some day.

Also related to Dia De Los Muertos, this piece will be on display and for sale at a Day of the Dead-themed show at Uforge Gallery in Jamaica Plain, MA. Actually, the original was sold last year, so this will be a digital print of it. I'm also allowing it to be downloaded for free on deviantArt for this month. Just as a test, I guess, since people don't buy any prints of mine on there, maybe I can see if they're actually even interested.

And Halloween-related as well, Halloween is my Xmas postcards available on Etsy and locally at Fools Mansion in Salem, MA. Why not.
- -
Now that the commercials are over...I've been absent on here, still due to the living situation (which has not improved and I have a concrete deadline now to add stress to it, but despite that there is hope). I found a book titled "Steal Like an Artist." I have to force myself to avoid bookstores, I really can't afford them regularly and have not the space for more, and really, how many books does one actually re-read over and over? Though I do have a few favorites, others remain for sentimental reasons.

I like quite a bit in it, and plan to apply it to my creative life, hopefully enough to update this more regularly. One thing touched upon is that nothing is truly original, something I agonize over even just in my sketchbooks, and I should be drawing and letting it go where it may. Also the idea of copying other's artwork to learn from it. I've never really done that, just created my own artwork, so perhaps that's something to explore.

I also like the idead of not throwing any of yourself away. The author stopped doing music for a time, and felt the "phantom limb" of its absence. I've been a creative amputee for much of this year. And I've heard the advice of focusing on one thing to get best at it, but I have too many interests for that. I want to keep on DJing. I like making the spooky dolls along with taking photographs. All pieces of my puzzling life.