I finished the third tapestry! Wahoo! Now I can begin working on all of the other things I need to (want to) do/make.

One painting left to go.

I managed to get some stuff done this weekend. Both of these paintings are going to be hanging tapestries that will hide my messy supply shelves. YEAH!

Click to view slideshow.

Atomic CD’s in Point Pleasant NJ is going to be carrying some of my goods for a while. My friend Biff stopped by and bought one of my tiny paintings. I used that money to buy burritos.

A birthday gift.

It was my step-dad’s 50th birthday the other day. I made this very accurate drawing of him to commemorate such a grand occasion.

My friend Chelsea invited me to participate in a small craft fair. I submitted an illustration for the raffle to raise money for MS. Chelsea ended up winning my illustration and gave it to someone else who was really disappointed that they didn’t win it.  That made me feel pretty awesome. Today I checked facebook and found I had been tagged in the above photo…also awesome.

one of the few things I accomplished this month, it was a gift.

In recent years, Christmas time has become a somewhat depressing, frustrating, and alienating time for me. It has a lot to do with crowded stores, rabid consumerism, out-dated traditions, and the pressure of pleasing the people in my life by trying to tolerate and half-halfheartedly participate in the previously mentioned  things for the sake of what many refer to as “holiday cheer.”

I rarely can be productive/creative in a depressed state and thus have been trudging through what I’ve internally been referring to as the Holiday Doldrums.  In addition to my feelings of yuletide yuckiness I’ve also been thinking about how I am 24 and still living at home, making very little progress in my plan to make a living off of my creative endeavors, and my student loan debt is accumulating interest.

Now that Christmas is over, I’ve decided to become proactive. I plan on becoming more organized and improve my overall physical and mental health. I’ve mapped out a list of things that I plan on doing differently this upcoming year.

These things include: trying to develop better sleeping/waking habits, keeping a dream journal (and sticking with it), keeping a regular journal (something I have never done), doing at least one drawing a day (and sticking with it), experimenting with new and unusual meditation techniques, applying for some artist residencies, submitting some of my book ideas to publishers, putting together a portfolio for freelance illustration work,  looking for places to put on art shows that are outside of my comfort zone, and starting to charge for my creative services rather than doing (often times very tedious) things for free. 2012 is going to be the year that I make shit happen…somehow.

This weekend was the Degenerate Craft fair. I went with the 2 Grandmaz crew. We drew free portraits and sold all kinds of treats. The days preceding the DCF involved a lot of last minute t-shirt printing, banner making, and button creating.

see more free portraits here

I also unveiled my new sticker packs. I’m currently working on making a promotional video demonstrating how much fun you can have with them. Once that is done, I’ll have them listed in my online store.

Just finished up this design and will hopefully be printing it tomorrow.