Hey all, here's an update on how things have been with me lately.

Been browsing for day jobs to keep rent over my head (have an interview on Thursday!), but in the mean time I'm applying for grad school. It took a couple weeks, but I've been in communication with various people and I've decided on a place (even if it's online study) and a major. It's hopefully going to be invigorating and ideally it will help me take the next step in my personal and professional art careers. For now, it's barista boy or line cook or whatever I can get in the mean time.

I'm going for a MBA and want to focus on art production and direction. Running a studio is more than creating the art, it's full-time management. I've seen so many different creator's experiences over the years with their own private business art practices, and seen plenty of successes and horror stories. Many a great skill has been lost to the mire of marketing mishaps. Many self-employed artists mix their private with their public when promoting their personal work (hey I've been there) and it's not a good strategy. So much pressure to buy goods and services to keep people afloat, too much insight into personal problems, and little to no separation from the emotional responsibilities of artist and client. A client must have the choice to investigate or be involved in the personal matters of their chosen artist, or to take a step back and disconnect. Those creators that last commercially and continue to improve their practice are those that have a business-focus at least equal to their artistic focus. Either that, or the person creating the work has a manager or gallery director that assists them in production and distribution of their goods as well as communication management. I want to run a studio with my own work as well as host and curate the work of others. I'm excited to go back to school, I miss the learning, I miss being challenged by professors, and I miss the academic environment. I want to really key-in on getting myself up these next steps.

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I was on a family related trip recently to be a part of my grandfather's scholastic memorial in Southern California, and while I was there I had to visit Vroman's, one of the oldest independent book stores in CA if not the US. While I was there I bought books as gifts for my friends, partner, and for myself! One of them was art studio focused, another one history focused, but the treat for me was a comic book titled "I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup". <-- SPOILERS ON THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE! I love gender bending stories ever since I was an egg and the title immediately got my eye. A quick flip-thru showed a pleasant and detailed art style with some cute comedic moments, so I decided to buy it. It's a collected edition of Vol. 1 & 2 put together.

It's GOOD. It cuts to the chase and progresses the story right away, with later chapters doing a callback in the timeline of the characters. It feels great to read a story that doesn't waste time with a "will-they, won't-they" "secret keeping shenanigan" timeline. The meat of the story is in how it all plays out, not the tension! Sometimes when the drama is funny it can work, but most of the time I find the drawn-out suspense to be less engaging than the actual situational fallout. I recommend it for anyone eager to read about gender non conformity in comics, or who just likes reading about friend groups growing closer together. Also cute girls without obnoxious sexism. Hooray!

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I've been trying to write more. Turns out, writing fiction is hard and often ridiculously convoluted for me. Sometimes just writing about what I see works better, and forming it into an entertaining story with poetry is a slog. Don't get me wrong I love the craft of guiding the reader's mind into places and viewpoints and building characters through interactions, but I've been stuck thinking that all the writing I have to do has to be fiction. I love writing ABOUT art, and ABOUT people, and I enjoy showcasing the work and accomplishments of those around me. So often we don't take time to contemplate what we see or hear or feel, especially in the social media era. Slowing down to write it out, and even more slowing down to read about it can make a small moment of time into a larger more celebratory awareness. Scrolling good art is not as impactful as taking the time to honor it with a few words. Artists always love comments and treasure them over likes or views. I remember the first comment that stuck with me over a decade ago on an illustration I posted online. The commenter wrote just a couple sentences with some heart emojis and I printed that comment out and put it on my wall. I was so jazzed! I could actually tell how my art had made someone feel. The private experiences of creating art and viewing art became a shared public event, even if for an ephemeral moment on a digital platform buried in now millions of submissions, posts, and other data. I don't know where the comment is now, and I don't know what it said in detail, but I will always remember it.

All that said, I need to spend more work and time writing my comic and my novella. They're waiting for me.