:toot:

just a quick poke of my head in here to announce that yes, I finally got a new apartment and am still unpacking/settling in/learning the quirks of the place.

But also wanted to post this link about an anthology that I did the cover art for and it's featured significantly in the article.

Things are looking up!

:halloween:

:sketching with light:

I seem to be using my point and shoot camera as a sketchbook of sorts as of late. Here's some random images from the past week.

: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.

:spooky sale:

Just poking my head in here to note that I'm selling my Halloween cards through Etsy, to see if I can make it work. There's other Halloween stuff I'll get into in a later post.

:crawling from the wreckage:

I made some tentative steps out of my creative doldrums last Sunday, when I returned to the Boston chapter of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School for the first time since, well, the first one. It's quite a new way of figure drawing in case you haven't heard of it. Perhaps there's a branch near you.

Thankfully I have not lost the ability to draw, I didn't really think I would after only a few months, but it definitely shows what has been lacking in my life as of late. I've also tried to do some daily sketching, but I still find I can't do it inside my apartment and have gone outside. Yes, still seeking a new place. At least with the legal help I have now the stupid eviction process seems winnable or at least delayable, but the bottom line is I'm still fighting to stay in a place that I don't want to. People keep leaving the building (how they can find new places and I can't I have no idea, although I'm guessing they have lower standards than me), clueless new people are moving in, no doubt students like too much of the area right now. I am somewhat determined to stay away from Harvard Square until next summer, I swear they get worse each year in their inability to realize what is the street and what is the sidewalk and how to GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Spent most of the summer with the camera, as ever you should check out my flickr or JPG pages.

:status quo:

Just checking in to inform any that still reads this that, no, nothing has improved, in fact it's worse; the slumlord is starting to evict us. The legal help I got this past Sunday and the picketing we did on Saturday give me hope, but it's ironic that I'm fighting for a place I don't even want to stay in. The search goes on, with disappointment the rule more than not. Tired of responding to ads that turn out to be from "west African missionaries" renting out empty apartments, or losing places because I can't flex my schedule to just go and view the place, then get told the next day that the place is rented. Why is this so difficult?!

Needless to say, no art. Most of what I own is in boxes right now, why wait to pack? I still take pictures when something catches my eye. So you should spend more time on my flickr page.