Funk.

Hellooooo blog!

You may notice I haven’t been around in awhile, and it’s not because I shut down my business, pushed it to the back burner because of the hair business, nothing like that at all.

I’m just in a funk and have no idea how to get out of it.

There’s a lot going on with my art that I just don’t share. But in order to fully understand where I’ve been and what’s going on in my brain, I have to share some of it.

My business is at a turning point. I’m outgrowing the festivals I’ve been doing for years, and I need to start applying to bigger ones. That’s really hard for me because I love my following, the people who show up at my booth every year even just to say hi and catch up on what’s been going on since we saw each other last. I love some of these festivals, the people who run them, and saying goodbye is going to be hard, but I’m not letting go just yet. But getting into the bigger festivals is challenging. I’m not quite at the point yet where I’m fully ready, but getting outside of my comfort zone is something I’m really trying to work on. So the goal this year was to apply to some of the bigger shows and see how that went.

I’m still in the process of illustrating Boathouse book 4, and it’s KILLING me that it’s not done. I just can’t bring myself to work on it. And I don’t fully know why. Part of it is because I put so much time and detail into the illustrations just for them to get lost in the book. Don’t get me wrong, I love the illustrations in the book, but when they’re compared with my originals, it’s not quite right. Each book is getting better as I upgraded to a better scanner, but it’s just so hard to put so much work into something and not see the full fruit.

I miss my art. I really, really do. So I’m doing what I can to get out of this funk:

• I just dropped off a piece at Dansville ArtWorks for their upcoming gallery exhibit!
• I’m updating my website! Check it out, explore, let me know what you think!
• I’m GOING to start working on Boathouse next week, no matter what. I miss my buddy and we gotta get him done!
• I’m taking the no’s from the bigger festivals and using them as fuel to push me harder to grow and improve.

I might not be posting here every day, but I’d like to post at least something I’m working on once a week. Feel free to check out my Facebook and Instagram accounts as I’ll probably be posting over there a lot more often than here; I always feel like a blog post has to be this big formal thing and IG and FB are just quick little snapshots. Must convince myself that blogs can be little snippits, too….

With all that being said, I’m back. I’m ready to work and create and be here. No more funks allowed!