I'm Not Dead Yet!

Just What Change Do I Want to See?

2010-02-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mahatma Gandhi

The above quote fuels a dozen blog posts a day, many of them trying to rally their readers toward the writer's pet cause. Whether it's eco-consciousness or stamping out Twilight, most people have a cause that's dear to their hearts. Some causes have a thousand voices crying out to champion them, others have millions, and some are important only to a handful of people, but everyone's got something.

I don't have a pet cause. No one I know has ever been afflicted with some terrible tragedy, and the troubles I've had have all been fairly ordinary and -- though quite angst-ridden at the time, I'm sure -- nothing I couldn't get over without an army of people rallying to my side. I've never had cancer or some obscure, uncurable disease; I've never been assaulted or even mugged; I really don't have the mental energy to indulge in outrage for the sake of itself when I could be using that energy to make art (or play Mouse Hunt).

So I found myself wondering, what change do I want to see?

I want to see more beauty where people are creating ugliness.
I want people to have more compassion where there is now callousness.
I want more kindness, instead of deliberate or thoughtless cruelty.
I want to see people actually respecting each other, instead of grabbing at superiority under the false label of respect.

Some of these are easier than others.

As an artist, I create things every day that, I hope, add beauty to the world. From the paintings on my walls to the work I do for clients, I try to make things which are pleasing to the eye and the soul, even while they sometimes serve another function.

Compassion is harder for me. While my cynical apathy protects me from spinning myself out into nothing trying to help every person who needs or thinks they're in need, it also keeps a lot of things from really touching me. Every person's pain is deeply individual, and it can be very hard to resist the urge to play a rating game -- your pain is your own fault so it doesn't count, your pain isn't as bad as his pain, your pain is fleeting so it doesn't deserve as much. It's hard to figure out, too, how much or how far to be open to things -- my lines right now are pretty harsh, but if I move them too far I'll just end up raw and useless in other ways.

Kindness seems easy, but thoughtlessness trumps it a lot. Kindness requires attention, being in the present and recognizing when someone needs you to give them something, a moment or a dollar or a smile. It's a lot easier than compassion, though, because there's a ton of small ways to be kind, and being thoughtful and kind can even help develop compassion. Someone deserving of kindness seems to us then to be more deserving of compassion as well.

The hardest thing to remember is that everyone is deserving of kindness and compassion.

Respect is the last one, and that one's really hard on so many levels, because so much hides under the umbrella of respect these days. So many people equate "do what I say" with "respect me" and that's just not the case. I can totally respect you as a human and an equal, and still have my reasons for doing things my own way. What's ironic is that when people push it, shoving their way of doing and being down your throat, they're disrespecting you while demanding you respect them. A lot of authority figures run into this issue -- they want you to respect them because of their authority, but refuse to respect those who are answerable to that authority.

It's such a thorny issue, and it pokes into every sensitive place in our society. I'm not intending to write a whole essay here, either, though, so I'll let what I've said stand.

So, there's the things I need to work on, if I want to be the change. Beauty and kindness, compassion and respect.

What change do you want to see? How can you take a small step today to become more of what the world needs?

The Value of Staying Small

2010-02-11T15:13:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make: right now, as of this writing, I only have seven clients. One of those clients has been working with me since I first started out as a lowly desktop publisher back in 1996. One of those clients just hired me at the end of December for a single project. One hired me back in August for a single project that's just now finishing up, but another hired me for a single project in 1999 and has been with me ever since, so you never know.

The thing is, I never wanted to have so many clients that I needed a CRM and invoicing software just to keep track of them. My needs are, in all honesty, pretty modest -- though that's a confession for another post -- and I like having a lot of free time to do whatever I like, whether it's play Facebook games or participate in NaNoWriMo, make art or read books. It's that quiet time that gives me the energy and space to incubate my client projects and create something unique, or at least as good as I can manage, for every project.

This small list of clients means that when someone asks to have something changed today, pretty please, I can usually accommodate them. It means I can send out handmade holiday cards, and write something thoughtful and sincere in each one. It means every one of my clients is a person to me, and many of them start as or become friends. It means sometimes I can take a whole day off to go visit someone in their office so we can brainstorm their next big idea together.

I do want to do a little big of expansion this year, and some of that has to do with expanding my own skills. That free time I mentioned above has helped me develop my illustration style on the side, so I can offer some new services. I read marketing blogs as much for the advice I can give to my clients when we're building their sites as for my own business. What I aim to do is find a balance between money stress and work stress, so that each client gets the best of me, and knows that they're on a very short list of people who can say that.

Some designers do a wonderful job putting out a site in short time, for a wide variety of clients, and I even sometimes envy them, but that's not who I am. Every website, every logo, every cartoon requires thought and creativity, trial and error, and time to burble through the creative distillery in my brain until it comes out as refined as I can manage.

With a list the size of mine, each client gets individual attention from me, and while I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I get tired of hand-holding, most of the time I wouldn't have it any other way.

Review: Havi's Testimonials Teleclass

2010-02-09T01:03:00.000-08:00

The actual title of the class is "Stuff Havi thinks you should know about how to get really really great testimonials and referrals," but that's a little long for a blog post.

I took this class when it was live, many months ago, and have just recently been reminded of how great the info in it is, so I thought I'd do a review. I'm doing "Other People Tuesdays" on the blog as an experiment, alternating guest posts with reviews.

Back to Havi's awesome class. First of all, if you're at all familiar with Havi, you'll know that she's a big fan of making things as easy on everyone involved as possible, and her advice about referrals and testimonials is no different. She gives you several ways to get both, too, that work in different situations; I won't give them away here, but I've used all of them to great effect.

Actually, I used the full suite of Testimonial Techniques just recently, when I was gathering people's reactions to being Cartoonified for my portfolio. A couple of people sent me great testimonials when they got their cartoons, and it started me thinking that I'd like one to go with each of the images on the page. I began to despair, thinking of how hard it can be to get even people who otherwise love and adore you to write up something like this, and then instead of giving in to that feeling, I went and looked over my notes from this class.

If you click the link above, you'll see that each one has a unique testimonial that fits neatly in the little box. I couldn't have done that without the info in this class.

Havi's advice is also brilliant for helping you get past that initial gulp of fear and into the ease of asking, too.

The Twitter version of my review of Havi's class: The stuff in this class works, if you remember to use it.

PS - If you do go buy the class, Havi's given permission for me to give away the secret:
Selma is her diva of a duck and business partner (she has her own wardrobe of fan scarves). Stu is her voice-to-text program who delights in tormenting her with really entertaining misunderstandings. Either one of these bits of info will get you $100 off the class, so don't forget to use them!

Why Do You Blog?

2010-02-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

Let's face is, there is no one real answer to why people blog -- there's daddy bloggers and Regretsy, Copyblogger and people who post photos of their pets. Everyone's got a different reason to start, and a different reason to keep on.

This blog is a marketing piece for me -- it's something I both enjoy doing and that comes naturally to me, but I wouldn't blog here, about the things I do, if it didn't help me out in my business. I do put time and effort into making sure that most of my posts offer something, even if it's only a cute cartoon or the chance to recommend your favorite brand of face wash.

I have had other blogs in other places, but they're for different things. I post photos of my cat licking milk off his nose, talk about my favorite books and tv shows with like-minded friends, and rant about poor grammar on the internet. Okay, I do that last one here, but it's a lot nicer. Those blogs allow me to connect with like-minded people for fun, to share things I've made or seen, and to be myself (okay, even there I'm perhaps nicer than in real life, where I'm actually deeply cynical and snarky).

What brought this subject up for me is a recent spate of high-end copy writers writing posts on their blogs talking about how it's a big sweat shop that they're forced to generate all this content for free, and to me, that seems like they've lost sight of the reason why they started blogging in the first place. I'm not talking about little hobbyist bloggers, either -- these are people whose blogs serve to bring them into the spheres of their potential clients and customers, so that they can sell services, consulting, ebooks and more. And yet, despite that, they're suddenly thinking they should also be paid for their blog posts.

So I have to ask, if their blog posts were paid, then how would people find them to know they wanted to pay for the posts? Would they have to start a second string of crappier, less useful blog posts to serve as their marketing? Would they just rely on their charming Tweets and good site design to lure people into subscribing?

There's a ton, and I mean a ton of great info available on the web for free, because people have chosen to make it that way. But the people who write the best, most informative blogs aren't doing it entirely out of the goodness of their hearts -- they're making a living off that time, effort and expertise, somehow, some way. Leo Baubuta writes a bunch of different blogs, but also sells books and gets ad revenue. Men With Pens gives a ton of great writing advice for bloggers, copy writers, and fiction writers, but they also sell a whole suite of services. Ittybiz writes excellent marketing and life lessons that are both entertaining and full of swearing, but she's got expensive consulting, less expensive ebooks, a membership site, and more.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Sony spends a ton of money on their commercials, sometimes ones that are entertaining enough they get shared on websites everywhere for free -- and yet, they wouldn't expect you to pay to watch them, because they're getting their return another way.

I'm not saying all blogs are advertising -- but this one is, and the blogs I've mentioned above have marketing as a part of their purpose. When I post kitten pictures on my personal blog, I don't expect to sell anything as a result, and a ton of hobby bloggers out there are posting for love and community.

So, I'll ask again, why do you blog?

Guest Post: Using Visuals on My Blog

2010-02-02T11:54:00.000-08:00

Bridget and I are trading guest posts today -- enjoy her unique insight!

I work as an intuitive. I have a very unique job. I look at my clients' chakras and in doing so, I see metaphors about their lives. Each chakra, to me, looks like a little room, or a set on a stage.

The intuitive experience is strange. It’s like Salvador Dali and Frida Kahlo and Lewis Carroll got together and had a party.

In the chakras of my clients, I see swirling or dancing furniture. I see strange people. I see thorns. Broken Glass. Laughing Children. I see colors forming and reforming.

It's my job to see it and bring it out in the open where it can be useful for people. We use this information to help the client transcend their current conflicts and move forward in their lives.

In intuitive work, we take what's at the edge of consciousness and make it conscious. We make the metaphors that shape our lives visible.

I want my blog to use visual metaphor just as beautifully, or as interestingly as my clients' chakras do. So I look to photos and illustrations that capture the feeling of odd, yet familiar.

For example, I was recently writing about working at jobs that don’t sustain you. I wrote a blog post called "What to Do If Your Job is Dead." Originally, I wanted to find a chalk outline of a dead body. I thought it’d be good to show that you shouldn’t stay in a job that’s killing you, because all you’ll leave is a chalk outline.

I couldn't find a picture that I liked, but I found this foot with a tag on it, and a sheet behind it, that at first glance looks like ominous clouds. Feet are funny, too. There's some dark comedy to this shot. It's memorable, dreamlike and yet, it makes a point. Put a tag on it, it’s done.

Another example: I did a series on the Inner Me. This is an idea where we can talk with our soul and our soul talks back. We can access the warm wisdom within us. I wanted somebody that looks like me to appear in these posts. Since the soul seems ethereal, a hard to pin down concept, I knew I wanted the opposite. I wanted something very warm and accessible.

Coincidentally, I had taken Amy up on her Cartoonify Yourself offer. She had made a cartoon of me with a ball of fire and awesome boots. I realized that I was looking at the inner me! So I used her in a series of posts. Now I use her to illustrate my daily soul notes, a little note from the inner me for my readers. She will come up from time to time as I play with this idea of the inner me.

The most important take-away from this approach to the visual in my blog, is that it is mostly done from the place of "no-thought". I don't have a calculating plan of how I want my blog to be. I just find images that speak to me with visual metaphors that personify the idea that I am getting across.

Bridget Pilloud is an intuitive guidance counselor, an intuition teacher and a facilitator of energetic healing. She also works with people and their pets. Her work can be found at http://www.bridgetpilloud.com and at http://www.petsaretalking.com. On Twitter, she's @intuitivebridge.

Thursday Means Cartoons!

2010-01-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

At least, in an ideal world I'd certainly be able to post cartoons every week and be forced to find other days for actual content. ;)

I've finally gotten a chance to draw a chibi cartoon of a client, so now there's examples of someone other than me in all 3 styles. This is Camille Reigle, who's still putting her Etsy shop together, but I'll be sure to send you over there when she's got it ready. She knits awesome stuff (and is kind enough to make special non-wool things for me!)

And then we have the sort of thing I draw when I'm idle, and then make into a Valentine.

If you'd like to prevent more of this sort of thing in the future, feel free to volunteer to Be a Cartoon yourself! The price is going up March 1, so get it while it's still cheap.

Blonde Chicken's Share Your Thing: A Review

2010-01-26T14:35:00.000-08:00

This Monday was the third and final installment of Blonde Chicken's Share Your Thing teleclass, and I was kind of sad it was over! She had a ton of great things to say about making a living with art and handcrafts online. I bit the bullet and bought into the course right before the first call, and I'm really glad I did -- I can see how it will offer me a good return on my investment (and not just because of the affiliate link love).

Now, I've gone to a lot of free & paid teleclasses in the past year, and some of them aren't really worth the hour or three of my life they take up, but this one was worth the time and money both. I'm still trying to get Antemortem Arts off the ground, and one of the ways I've been doing that is with an Etsy shop. Sadly, though, I haven't seen much activity on Etsy, and so I wanted to see if this class could help point me in a better direction, since what I've been doing has clearly not worked.

Tara (that's the Chicken's real name) is a cheerful and enthusiastic speaker, and she dealt with difficulties with great aplomb. I'm not sure if I should tell this story, but the second class ran a little short because she spilled coffee on herself -- but you'd never have known it from the call! Her friendly tone never wavered, and her advice is rock solid.

The best part about the class was not only that she gives you a ton of ideas, but she encourages you to experiment with all the different marketing ideas and then stick with the ones that feel good and genuine for you. Not only does forcing yourself make your social media seem forced and fake, but you won't see much return. And she did discuss Return on Investment in a clear, awesome way -- you'll get to hear my charming voice on the Q&A call asking about it, in fact!

I don't want to give too much away, but if you do any kind of handmade awesomeness and want to sell it online, this call is a great place to start. She even gives you handouts for reference!

Click Here to buy the Share Your Thing Course (and give me an affiliate payment woo).

P.S. Just a few days after starting to implement her advice, I made my first sale to a complete stranger, followed by 3 more a few days later. Result!

How is a cartoon like copywriting?

2010-01-21T14:57:00.000-08:00

I'm Holly, and thanks to Amy, I am now a cartoon. I am also proud to call myself both a client and friend of Amy's. So, while I could easily spend all day telling you how awesome Amy is, if you're reading this, you probably know that already. So, what I'm going to talk about today is going to sound like one of those Alice in Wonderland riddles, but it's really a simple concept: How is a cartoon like copywriting?

For some background, I'm a copywriter. In particular, I'm a copywriter who specializes in capturing voices. Clients come to me with a sales page, and then a process starts. I listen to them talk, I read their material, and I find out as much about them as I possibly can. All so I can write the wordy equivalent of one of Amy's cartoons. Which is quite honestly why I wanted a cartoon for my website. Her cartoons capture people in the same spirit as my copy does.

But rather than sound like an ad, I really want to talk about how cartoons and copy are similar, and can serve the same purpose on a website. It's a whole different way to express yourself on your site, and equally valuable and interesting. Cartoons, by nature, reflect the truth of a person. Cartoons, by nature, are also exaggerated for effect. People are larger, louder, and more colorful in a cartoon. It's still them, but maybe not the person you'd meet in a business setting, or at the park on a weekend. But that's great, because if you're a business, part of the key to making money is being yourself. Not just in a quiet way, but in a loud, colorful and powerful way.

Good marketing copy does the same thing. It captures the essence of you, and then exaggerates it in a way that draws people in, and shows off your personality loudly in the best possible light. Like a cartoon, this doesn't always equate to loud and obnoxious writing. The true sell is in the details. On my cartoon, it's the little sweater on my dog that has a royal crest, because he's named after the canine knight from the movie Labyrinth. Someone is going to see that on my site and know what kind of person I am, just from that little detail. In the amazingly fun world of the internet, I would bet real money that someone would make a copywriting inquiry on that detail alone. That wasn't something I planned or requested: it was something Amy added from her knowledge of me, and of my love for muppet movies and my dog.

In an ideal world, that's what great writing does too. It captures the small details that make up who you are, and presents them in an intriguing and marketable way. It's not about neon orange and green, or about large bold text with yellow highlighter. When it comes down to it, good marketing, in whatever form is always about people.

That awful overused saying that a picture is worth a thousand words? Sometimes, in marketing, it's really true. And sometimes, you need the words too, but they need to paint their own picture; one that is equally real, and equally cartoony.

Holly is the founder and chief pirate queen of Cottage Copy, along with her canine co-manager, Sir Didymus. You can find her on twitter as @copygeniusgirl, and on her blog.

More Cartoons & A Winner!

2010-01-19T14:50:00.000-08:00

First off, congrats to CaZ (@candysbytes) for winning the Tiny Painting (and answering her email)! These take a bit longer than the cartoons, but I'll be sure to post here when it's done.

Second, we have a pair of cartoons. First up is Avonelle Lovhaug (@AvonelleL), who wanted to see herself with a sassy Code Poet t-shirt and her tablet PC:

And then Holly Jackson (@copygeniusgirl) let me draw her up "weeble style" with her beloved puppy, Didy:

I've had a ton of fun doing these, though they do seem to take longer than I originally thought, so if you want one, get yours soon! I'll be upping the price on March 1 (once the awesome art sale is over).

Buy Some Art, Be a Cartoon

2010-01-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

Not Dead Yet Studios wants to help out.

I went freelance in January of 1998, so in a way my ittybiz is firmly in its tweens. Antemortem Arts, however, is only a few months old and just starting to learn to walk. So, to give the art site a boost, I'm doing two things:

Buy any art piece off of AntemortemArts.com or my Etsy shop for at least $100, and I'll make you into a cartoon for free (including the original, that's a $45 value). Multiple pieces that add up to $100 will also get the cartoon -- just make sure you let me know that's your intention.

For every sale I make, I'll donate $10 to Doctors Without Borders (or a charity of your choice) to help with the crisis in Haiti. If I make $1000 or more in sales, that'll go up to $20 a sale or $100 total, whichever is bigger.

The cool thing about this sale is that it includes pretty much everything the Antemortem site. Painting, prints, sculptures, you name it. The world is your oyster. And if you don't find anything that really speaks to you, this offer is also good on commissions! You can commission paintings in several sizes and price ranges, all custom made to reflect your personal passions -- and as long as you make the deposit before the deadline, it counts.

Sometimes you really need the perfect gift, but you can't seem to find it. Well, I'm good at gift giving! I can help you take the stress off your plate and find a great gift for someone important in your life. (I won't mention That Holiday, as it is scary and can cause panic, but this can help you with that, too).

Now, like anything in this world, there is always fine print. Orders made after February 5th may not arrive by the Big Holiday, as I am human and drawing a cartoon of your lovely self (or the person you love) takes time. I'm going away that weekend so I won't be available to ship anything ordered after Wednesday the 10th, but the sale will run all the way through the holiday -- President's Day on Monday, February 15th, of course. (What, you thought I meant a different holiday?)

Just remember, commissions require a collaborative process, and while they count toward the offer they definitely will not be ready by the Big Day. So take advantage of the sale, but make sure you plan ahead.

Got questions, comments, or want me to help you pick out the perfect gift? Drop me a line and I'll get back to you!

PS - if you're one of my recent Be a Cartoon clients, never fear! I'll refund $45 of any purchase you make that qualifies. Or draw your dog. Whichever.

Cartoons - result!

2010-01-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

I haven't yet heard back from my Tiny Painting winner (check your spam folders!), so I'm going to delay that announcement for a few more.

Until then, we have -- Cartoons!

First, there's the official Contest Winner, Diane Stokes! She's @DSinAZ on Twitter, and she's already splashed her new face all over the place, awesome!

And then, the wonderful Bridget Pilloud (@intuitivebridge on Twitter) decided to buy a cartoon of herself, which was awesome. I had great fun designing her Chakralicious fireball, not to mention giving her designer knockoff boots.

I'm working on a third one for another paying customer (yay!), plus I got to do a great custom Moleskine of Anais Nin for Holly (@copygeniusgirl), as well as an elephantalicious custom journal for her. Sharpie Marker ftw.

Wanted: Face Wash

2010-01-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

I usually just do my VPAs on Havi's Blog, but I already did one and when this one came to me in the shower, I wanted to share it with a different audience.

Wanted: Face Wash

I'm looking for a new way to wash my face. While I love the facial cleansing oil I use now, using it takes up too much time and energy at a time when I'm usually at a low ebb. My new favorite face wash needs to:

Be great for combination skin
Be something quick and easy to use in the shower
Clean pores, and it would be a bonus if there was also pore shrinking
Neither dry out my face nor add too much oil
Be hypo-allergenic, non-comedogenic, and generally very gentle
Bonus if it active helps with acne and/or exfoliation
Not require I use it more than once a day
Not require extra products to make it awesome
Not contain any of the following

Mango
Pomegranate
Passion Fruit
Pineapple
Papaya
Guava
Tomato
Papain
Lanolin

Preferably be mostly natural, for all that
Not be crazy expensive, though a bit pricey is okay if a little goes a long way
Smell awesome, or not like much of anything at all, but especially not be perfumey

I'd also love to find a moisturizer that doesn't give me zits, but as I have never seen such a mythical product before, I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Reading this list it sounds a bit like I'm always battling the zits for my life, but it's really not true -- I'd just like to go from few to very few, y'know? I'm 36, I shouldn't be dealing with this crap still.

Anyway, if anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

Contest!

2010-01-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

Actually, it's two contests in one. I'm promoting both Not Dead Yet Studios and its sister site, Antemortem Arts, so I'm giving away a prize from each site.

The Prizes:

Be a Cartoon! Get yourself made into a nifty cartoon character, for use in web or print, however you want to do it. Since it's a giveaway, I'll even send you the original free! A $45 value.
Tiny Painting! Brighten up a corner of your world with a teeny little painting on its very own wooden easel, of nearly anything your heart desires. A $60 value.

The Rules:

Comment here to enter, and include a valid email address so I can contact you if you win!
Let me know in your comment whether you want the Cartoon, the Painting, or Either. It will be two separate drawings, with two different winners.
Random numbers will decide, probably using polyhedral dice for maximum geekiness.
Drawing will take place at the end of the day on Friday 1/8/2010. Unless I forget, and then it'll be Saturday.
Winners will be notified and, once they've accepted, posted here so you all know who got lucky.
Prizes are good for 6 months, though of course I'm hoping you'll be so excited you'll want to get started right away!

Got any questions? The comments are good for that, too, or you can email me privately.

Good luck!

Entries are now CLOSED! Winners announced soon.

Be a Cartoon!

2010-01-03T22:35:00.001-08:00

I've added a new service (actually, I had it all along, but it didn't have its own page) -- Cartoonified You.

I've been developing my own style as an illustrator over the past few years, and I'm finally feeling comfortable enough doing little comic-art people to offer it as a service to someone other than me.

I've done pets before, and I'm happy to add them in, but pets are as individual as people, which is why it's on the "extras" list. A few props are fine, and in fact expected to add to the you-ness of it, but your giant mad science machine for summoning the Elder Gods to this dimension would definitely require an extra fee. Your laptop, on the other hand, would definitely be included. Unless it's got Cthulhu on the screen, because risk of insanity is always extra.

So how much, you ask? A mere $40 for a cartoon of you, for use in web or print.

Come on, you know you want one.

Happy Christmas Commission

2009-12-24T11:42:00.000-08:00

This year two of my very good friends commissioned me to design their Christmas cards, and I had great fun with the illustration. They've got 3 cats, who we decided needed to be the stars of the show, as it were, all up to their usual mischief.

That's Eddie down at the bottom playing Godzilla with the Nativity, Lucy at the top making contact with the Cthulhu tree topper, and Jessica can be seen playing impostor ornament in the middle of the tree. It's done with ink & Copic markers, and was a lot of fun (except inking the tree, which was insanely tedious, but I love the effect so I will pretend to myself it was fun).

A Merry, Mischievous Christmas to everyone, whether or not you celebrate -- it's still an awesome excuse for a day off!

Procrastination Musings

2009-12-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about procrastination. It's been a lifelong habit of mine, good or bad, and it's funny that I interact with it on so many levels and for so many things.

For instance, showering. I love being in the shower, it's warm and there's water and when I'm done I'm clean and it's awesome. And yet, every single day, it's a battle to get myself into the shower. It makes me wonder what stuck I've got about showering, though I have a sneaking suspicion it's more about what comes after. After the shower comes work, starting the day, doing the things on the to-do list. Before the shower, the day hasn't really started, right?

And then I wonder, is making one change at a time another way of putting off my Somedays? Many of those sorts of people who supposedly know about these things say make one change at a time, concentrate on one thing. But if I'm spending up to 3 months developing one habit, what else am I putting off? Yeah, I need to floss every day, and that's an important habit to create, but at the same time there are other habits that are equally important, but they're for scarier goals. I want to draw every day, too, but I can put off building that habit simply by saying I'm learning to clean the catbox every day first.

There's also "structured procrastination" (which I often find myself doing accidentally), wherein I schedule the Big Scary Thing, and then a bunch of lesser things I've also been putting off, and find myself barrelling through those lesser items tick-tick-tick to prove I'm busy so I don't really have to do the Big Scary Thing just yet. Which is awesome when you do it on purpose, and slightly less awesome when it happens by accident (but still useful).

I finally got around one big procrastination step by having my darling Mum get me something really useful for Christmas this year -- Havi's Procrastination Dissolve-o-Matic. I haven't read more than the awesome Fairy Dust yet, but I want to say that I already love it, not so much because I tried it but because she gave me permission not to do the part that was hard. There was a nifty face mudra thing with pressure points, and I started to do it but my glasses got in the way and my fingernails poked me so I stopped and read down the page -- and Havi gave both permission not to do it, and an alternative for people with glasses and fingernails and other in-the-way-nesses.

And that, I think, is an important piece of the puzzle -- permission to find a different way for myself, whatever that way will be.

Decorated!

2009-12-05T18:01:00.000-08:00

Since I have a young and rambunctious cat, I don't have a tree this year, so I repeated last year's holiday decorations with a few variations. Different ornaments along the top, a better distribution of lights, and my newly cleaned-off games bookshelf gave me an opportunity to better display my complete fangirly dorkiness.

If you click the image it'll get bigger, and you can see the nutcracker matryoshka dolls down in the lower left, the various ornaments strung along the top with the lights, and the Winnie-the-Pooh tree sculpture down the row from the nutcrackers. From left to right the ornaments are a lovely standard Christmas ball, a One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish ornament from Hallmark, a Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas ball, a Jack-in-the-Box snowman, Oogie Boogie with a wreath, a rainbow glass lightning bolt, a pewter Pooh-n-Piglet, and a blue plushie Peep a friend of mine converted to an ornament.

I also strung up some icicles to spruce up my other wall:

The items in the shadowboxes stay there all year round, though I did move the bronze roses up to the top boxes instead of the middle ones.

There's also a few stockings hung up here and there, my Nightmare Before Christmas one is out of frame next to the shadowboxes, and I put up my set of 3 Pooh Bear ones (Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger) in the bedroom where they'll smile at me as I drift off to sleep.

In addition, for the curious, this is the work in progress currently sitting on my easel:

All this holiday cheer is mostly for me, something to look up at when I'm working and make me smile, to remind me of all the reasons I love this time of year.

So, happy holidays to you all, whichever and whenever they are -- and remember, when someone insists on a "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays," it's always appropriate to wish them a miserable New Year in reply.

How to Find Flow

2009-11-29T11:29:00.000-08:00

Flow is that magic place where work keeps happening smoothly and easily, and the next time I look up from what I've been doing it's done and time has passed me on by.

I can get into a good state of Flow with writing, designing, and even seeming scut work like website updates, and when I do, it reminds me of why I do what I do. It's when I can't seem to find my way into that space that I get frustrated and behind, so this post is to remind me of the things that (sometimes) work to get things Flowing.

Make a cup of tea, and don't forget to drink it.
Just get started.
Make a list of what needs to be done, and check things off as I finish them.
Play a game of something brain-stimulating.
Open one file, and do something easy.
Close a bunch of tabs until the browser no longer mocks me with its waiting articles.
Eat a piece of chocolate or two.
Set up all the equipment for it - open the Scrivener doc, get out the Wacom tablet, pull out some paint tubes, get out the Copic markers, take the computer to the scanner desk.
Put on some really embarrassingly rockin' '80s tunes and go clean something small, just to get the blood flowing.
Take a shower.
Move to a different spot.
Put up an away message on IM and tell people I'm working.
Pick one thing, and start.

Obviously, some of these tricks are me-specific, but some of them would work for other people. I've often found that, no matter how much I'm avoiding something, if I just start it then that resistance skulks away in the face of my obvious productivity.

Also, chocolate really does help.

Do you have any tricks you use to get into the Flow of things?

Antemortem Arts is ALIVE!

2009-11-13T14:24:00.000-08:00

I finally got the Antemortem Arts site put together enough to admit that it exists. There's still a lot (seriously, a lot) of art left to be put up, and some things need refining, and a certain minion's got to help me get the gallery plugin working this weekend, but...

It's up!

Go visit Antemortem Arts -- even if you're just looking, it's okay. That's what art is for, y'know?

Wow, That's a Lotta Art

2009-11-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

Last night I went into the depths of the guest bathroom (for use only by cats) and brought out two big dusty boxes, still sealed from my move. I cleaned them of their lightly-scented clay dust coating, opened them up, and pulled out a big pile of my history.

And holy crap, that was a lot of art.

It was pretty cathartic to go through, deciding what I liked well enough to eventually put up on Etsy or my (soon to be launched) new art site, and what I wanted to keep for sentiment or self-archiving purposes. The best pile, though, is the rejects.

Stuff I was never that happy with, but kept because I had teachers who said, "Never throw anything away." Stuff I liked once but have grown out of or away from. Stuff that just never quite came together right. Stuff I hated right off the bat.

Old Stuff.

I have a pile of it in the corner now, but one piece has already been sacrificed to the Etsy gods -- I took a mediocre monoprint, cut it up and remade it into a gorgeous blue origami gift box, sturdy and rough and interesting. And now it sits atop that pile of Stuff and reminds me that there's no such thing as a failure in art, because old art becomes new art supplies.

And the best part, of course, was revisiting old pieces that I do still love, and thinking about whether I'm ready to show them to other people, to send them off to new homes, to get them out of their dusty prisons and into the world where they belong.

And you know what? I think I am.

Gifts - It's the Thought

2009-11-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

I always have trouble deciding, when asked my favorite time of year. I love the growing warmth and green of spring (despite the pollen), but all the best holidays are at the end of the year when winter's on the way.

Halloween, of course, is one of my favorites, with its emphasis on identity and mystery. And Christmas, when the whole country stops being quite so nasty and remembers that charity really is a virtue worth pursuing. Plus, I love giving presents. And getting them. I know other people have other winter holidays, but secular Christmas is pretty unavoidable in the US, both the rise in charitable donations, and the ridiculous consumerist push.

So here's my one bit of gift-giving advice that works every time: Give the person something that, when you hand it over, you can genuinely say, "I thought of you when I saw this."

It really is the thought that counts, too, because often in the rush to check names off of a list gifts are chosen quite thoughtlessly. Rather than finding one item that makes you think of a friend or loved one, you rush and grab and move on to the next store and the next holiday sale, because that's what everyone else is doing.

As decluttering is on the rise, let's try to do this for each other this gift-giving season -- don't add to someone else's clutter. If your dad hasn't been hinting about wanting a new electric razor, don't give him something he won't use because he's always preferred blades. If your mom isn't a perfume wearer, don't clutter up her bathroom or dresser top with another bottle that'll evaporate before it gets used. And for goodness sake, don't buy those kitschy wooden apple-themed teacher gifts unless the teacher actually collects such things.

So what do you do when nothing stands out? Try rethinking the reason why you're struggling so hard to get them a gift in the first place. If it's someone you wish you knew better, considering giving them the gift of a dinner out together, so next year you'll know that they have a secret collection of undead bunny figurines or they love anything with a frog on it. If it's your child's teacher, consider a donation to education, a classroom fund, or a gift certificate to a favorite restaurant so they can enjoy a night away from grading and lesson plans.

It is the thought that counts -- so make sure you really think this year about what would enhance the lives of your loved ones, instead of trying to fill a quota.

Today I Am Just a Very Small Animal

2009-10-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have those days where you feel like a very small animal in a very big world? I think of them as my Piglet days, and when I drink tea out of my Piglet mug it fortifies me greatly, but those feelings still lurk under the caffeine bravado.

Sometimes they're brought on by something specific -- a comment someone makes, something I've read, something I've seen. Sometimes they just seem random, coming with the rain or just out of the blue. My Piglet moods never last for more than a few days, replaced by my more usual quiet, easy Pooh bear moods, taking one thing at a time and not worrying too much unless the cupboard's low on honey.

This week's a bit of a Piglet week for me -- I've been reading a book with a lot of art processes alluded to in the fiction, things I've never had the chance to learn about. I feel a bit of a fraud when I read about people working and working on their art, day in and day out, learning new ways of seeing, new ways of using light and color, glazes and washes and underpaintings. I never learned any of those things, really, and I always just feel lucky to have remembered to use light at all, let alone tried to do so in a way that would make someone remark upon its uniqueness, for instance.

But I keep painting anyway, trying to hang on to the inspiration that also comes with the Piglet feelings, to give my inner Piglet lots of warm bear hugs and tea.

New web technology gives me this feeling sometimes, too. I was a coder, once, back in the mists of time, and let me tell you, I hated it even when I was good at it. So whenever web design starts to slide further and deeper into coding, I get the heebie jeebies and want to back away. But then someone wants something from me -- or I want it from myself -- and I fall right back into those Piglet feelings. Even though I know I made a conscious choice to move in this direction, it's hard to remember why it matters when faced with all the things that I not only don't know about web coding, but don't particularly want to have to know.

The best solution I've found for code-related Piglet is to find him a nice Rabbit to work with, who knows just what to do and how to do it. Well, plus tea and bear hugs.

I've mostly soothed Piglet's worries about Woozles, though sometimes it slides more into Eeyore for a day or two before Pooh takes back over. Today I raise my mug and set the Woozle worries aside to work on projects for happy clients, projects for myself, and just being me.

And that's the very best thing for a bear to do, even one with a Piglet lurking inside.

Illustration: 24 Nicks

2009-10-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

My friend Nick asked me back in August, if I was going to do something for his 25th birthday party invitations, what would I do? And I immediately thought of this:

With this on the inside:

Nick tells me they were a great hit, and I have to say, I had a ton of fun doing them. He sent me dozens of photos from his childhood that I'd never seen before -- I have to say, before I did these, I never realized how big Nick's ears were! Poor kid.

They're all done with pen & Copic marker, and then scanned and (after realizing how bad my scanner is with blond/brownish midtones) color corrected by hand. I delivered via emailed pdf, so he could print them onto his own cards at home, and then mailed the originals along in his birthday card as his gift.

Happy (now long past) Birthday, Nick!

Art: Molten Sky

2009-10-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

I sometimes manage to paint even when it's not for a commission, but I tend to be shyer about those pieces, more reluctant to post them. This piece has been done for months, hanging on my wall and becoming a part of my surroundings until I let myself forget that I hadn't actually posted it. I actually did forget to take any "in progress" photos while I was working on it, though there weren't too many stages this time around, either.

This painting was inspired by Roger Zelazny's Amber series, in a roundabout way. In it he postulates a continuum of realities from the Pattern of Order at Amber to the Courts of Chaos at the other end, with the realities becoming stranger and more dangerous as they get closer to Chaos. I imagined a world where the sky had cracked open one night, its rough-velvet texture tearing down the middle and letting molten gold spill forth, sparking and changing and becoming like stars as it spread across the sky. I tried to capture that sense of motion, of chaos, with the three metallic colors of droplets (gold, bronze and a scarab red that shimmers and changes to old-bronze-green at certain angles).

Title: Molten Sky
Medium: Oil on canvas, 24" x 24"
Price: $650 (free shipping in the US)

Films about Ghosts

2009-09-17T19:15:00.001-07:00

If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts.
-The Counting Crows

When I moved in to my most recent apartment, I bought myself a lot of really nifty small appliances -- a rice cooker big enough to also be a slow cooker, a bread machine, a shiny red toaster oven that reheats pizza like a dream, a food processor. I use them to varying degrees (I have bread in the freezer right now that I baked a few days ago, but the food processor gathers dust until I need shredded carrots), but I love them all to bits.

The one thing we had when I was a kid that I didn't buy was an electric wok. Despite being very midwestern white folk, my mom had this great big green-enameled electric wok that she used to make us stir fry this and that, usually chicken and broccoli and carrots. I don't think she even went so far as to use soy sauce, just the usual sort of spices she used in everything else, but it was a favorite meal of mine anyway.

So, my birthday's coming up, and usually she sends me money, which I fritter away on things like eating out and iTunes music. This time, when she asked me what I wanted, those old ghosts of meals past bobbed up and I said I wanted an electric wok. I figured, she knew what hers did back ages ago, so she'd be better at choosing one that I would.

Let me tell you, I was so right.

I got it in the mail the day before yesterday and joyfully unpacked it, having been warned to expect a box from Best Buy. It was way, way snazzier than I remember.

It's huge, for one thing -- as big now as I remember the old one being, which means it's probably a lot bigger, given I was 12 at the time. It's sturdy and well-built and I can even wash everything but the detachable cord, so I can't accidentally ruin it with misplaced suds.

Yesterday was our local farmer's market so I loaded up on veggies and locally made curried tofu, and tonight (because after all that veggie shopping, pancakes were required last night... okay, and time for the wok parts to dry thoroughly) I finally broke it out. One cubed eggplant. One big bundle of rough-chopped broccoli. Some random things from cupboards for spicing and cooking (chicken stock ice cubes, oil, soy sauce, more curry, etc), and some chopped garlic & cilantro, and we were in business.

It's nothing at all like my mother ever made, but it makes me remember helping in the kitchen and being happy with what was for dinner, and I love this first, haunted meal from my new toy.

Thanks, Mom!