*Weekly Update*

The holiday shipping madness continues. A new challenge this week has been managing buyer’s expectations as to when they will get their orders. I set my holiday order deadline for Wednesday 12/15, because I have no way of knowing when packages will arrive. They should only take a few days to ship, but I’ve seen some crazy delays. I’ve been told multiple cities are completely backed up (like packages are piled up at warehouses and not moving), which is never something you want to hear. Even though I’m getting so many orders, part of me is excited for January, when I can finally exhale knowing that I made it through the holiday season!

In other exciting news, my art was recently featured on the cover of The Caterpillar Magazine (Issue 35 Winter 2021). They used one of my pieces from my 30 day painting series last year called “Figure Skates.” It was a huge honor to see my art on the cover.

Speaking of 30 days of illustrations - I’m debating doing another one this January. This time, I’m thinking of household objects. Thoughts? And is anyone with me?! One mistake I made last year was doing all the pieces in my sketchbook and making them edge to edge. It made the illustrations very tough to turn into art prints. Which, looking back, I can’t believe I didn’t realize that before starting. If I do another series, it will definitely be 8x10 paintings on white backgrounds.

Lately I’ve been very into painting ordinary objects and making them beautiful, which may be why I’m considering household objects for my series. I painted this Vitamin Water I was drinking as a challenge. I thought, if I can make a bottle of Vitamin Water look beautiful illustrated, the sky is the limit. By the way, Vitamin Water Zero is our go-to lately - mainly because it has healthy sugar substitutes. Painting my art supplies illustrations last week was a great exercise in this as well. I never understood why people would paint ordinary objects, and now I get it. It’s a serious challenge, and it’s also really enjoyable to paint from life. It’s like documenting little snapshots of your existence.

So what else have I been up to this week? Well, I finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which was really great! I could not put it down. Because I loved that book so much, I started Malibu Rising, which is by the same author, Taylor Jenkins Reed. I’m only halfway through the book, but I think it already tops The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is hard to believe.

Since I like to have a non-fiction book going at all times too, I’m reading The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin. I can’t recommend this book enough for any artists struggling with sitting down and doing the work. It’s a real kick in the pants, and a great reminder as to why we make art in the first place.

Other than that, I’m looking forward to some downtime over the holidays. I’ll finally be able to exhale knowing that my print shop has made it through the holiday season. Because I’ve been shipping so much, I haven’t had time to paint complex pieces. My sister is coming over next week, so we can have a painting night. I’m hoping to create a new art print then. I’ll share what I come up with in next week’s update.

Thanks for reading along! Hope you all have a great weekend!