My Winter Hibernation

It's been a problem for as long as I can remember. It's something that has affected me even before I was cognizant of it: Seasonal Depression. Every fall, fresh off either World Con (in the past) or more recently Dragon Con I enter this state of vegetation. When pressed by Jon I often excuse it as burn-out from spending my summer months working on preparing new artwork and prints for upcoming shows- but if I am to be completely honest with myself I'd have to admit it comes from something deeper. If it were mere burnout I would be back on my feet after a week or so of downtime- but my creative hibernation tends to last nearly all winter.

I've been like this since I was a kid, though I didn't fully understand this until much later. There was a point post-college where things had reached a boiling point: I was sitting in the gym and was overcome with inexplicable sadness- a sadness that had been gripping me for weeks. It wasn't just lethargy anymore; it was now a melancholy that I couldn't shake and whose origins were completely unknown to me. You see, my life was going great at the time. I had been freelancing consistently, I was 25 and looked better than I ever had before due to my dedication to working out, I was finally starting to gain an audience for my work, and I was living with good friends. I really had nothing to be particularly sad about- but it was there, oppressive and constant. So I gave my mom a call and asked for her Doctorly Advice. It was then that she informed me that this has always been a thing with me. Every year my grades would dip in the winter and I'd get less sociable. It was a trend I was completely unaware of while going through it but seemed so obvious in retrospect. She then recommended a few things that could help: daylight lamps and Vitamin D. And while it definitely helped me escape the horrible sadness it didn't really solve the state of creative lethargy that overtook me every winter.

Flash forward five years and it is a problem that continues to frustrate me. The amount of work I could get done if I wasn't shut down for 4-6 months out of the year is infuriating to contemplate. If I could just find a solution to this problem- along with my growing suspicion that I suffer from Adult ADD- I can only imagine how fast I could improve my art and how much more I could produce.

So here's my goal for this winter: try different techniques to break past the lethargy caused by Seasonal Depression and get to work trying to produce art all year-round, not just in the summer months. I also want to talk to someone about options for diagnosing and possibly treating my adult ADD. I really do think that having a dedicated Studio outside my bedroom (in the form of the Castle Braid Library) will go a long way in helping to motivate me (in the sense that I need to be down there using the space or I'll likely lose it)- but it will take more than that to solve this problem. I'm just hoping I can discover the proper solution and make this the first winter that doesn't turn into a complete waste of time.

POST NOTES: I do understand that my Freelance work is always most busy in the winter months, which means my capacity to get more work done is still limited, but it's important to eliminate the biggest obstacles anyway- and that is honestly the Depression and ADD, not the workload.

Showcase at Little Skips

Starting today until the end of the year (barring unforeseen gallery showings) I will be exhibiting my artwork at Little Skips (941 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn NY 11221). On one wall will be my current full line-up of Nüdtendo shadowboxes and the opposite wall will house select pieces from my Inner Demon Series. The show will feature a combination of originals and prints (the prints are mostly of pieces that have already sold). So come on by!

The show itself is only half-finished at the moment, but once I have all the work on the walls I'll be scheduling a night for an "Opening." But until then most of the work is already up and you should stop by! Little Skips is one of my favorite local Coffee Shops with fantastic sandwiches (my current favorite is the Gluten Free "M-Train") and they really work hard to support local artists.

OCT 1 2014

Print Collaborations

Ever since I began creating work outside of college I've handled all the reproductions myself. I went off, bought a $550.00 HP 13" large-format printer, and have been dealing with the headache, frustration, expensive inks, expensive papers and lengthy time investment ever since. It's become clear to me over the past couple years, however, that this just isn't sustainable. It digs directly into the time I could be spending creating new work- something I've needed to be more motivated to utilize efficiently.

The good news, however, is that within the span of time between then and now there have been a multitude of fantastic sites that have sprung up catering to artists and their reproductive needs (pun not intended). And now, finally, I've decided I am going to begin experimenting with these various sites. At the moment I've narrowed my search down to 2:

NUVANGO.COM : Nuvango was, up until recently, my go-to place for gorgeous skins and cases: GELASKINS. And while they are still creating these products they've undergone a name change and a philosophy shift. Instead of concentrating solely on these device covers they want to center more on catering to artists looking to sell reproductions of their work. From the samples sent to me their print quality is remarkable and their website relatively painless to use. And, most excitedly, they not only offer Canvas Prints, but they also offer to ship them pre-framed! The only drawback I've found thus far is that they only give the artists a 20% commission of the total amount sold or their work. And while that isn't horrible, it isn't optimal either.

Which brings me to my second experiment:

INPRNT.COM : While the product line isn't as diverse, and the size of the pieces are limited to a max of 24"x36" I've so far been impressed with their refined system. Most importantly, however, is that 50% of the total money made from sales of the work goes towards the artist.

So here is my experiment:

From now on, use NUVANGO.COM if you are looking to purchase my work in the following forms:

• CANVAS PRINTS

• DEVICE DECALS

• PHONE CASES

nd use INPRNT.COM if you are looking for:

• FINE ART PRINTS

I will be using these sites for a bit and see how the process feels. For strange prints and art books I'll likely still be making those myself, but for general prints of my work? I want to try and outsource this process and see how that works for me.

SEPT 8 2014