Starting Where You Are
I was perusing some creative illustration books online and stumbled across the jaw dropping work of a cool Philly illustrator. I immediately went to her instagram account and thought ohhhhh that’s what a professional creative online presence looks like. Hah. It was inspiring and humbling. It was an, “oh shit what do I think I’m doing trying to be an illustrator” moment. I had been hoping to get to work on my portfolio in my basement surrounded by stacks of junk and had the very loud thought, “I CAN’T KEEP MY DESK CLEAN, WHY DO I THINK PEOPLE WILL WANT TO LICENSE MY ARTWORK?!”. So I wrote about it in my lil journal. I wrote about what I want. What are the steps it’s going to take to get there? What can I actually accomplish today to move me closer to that goal? So I cleaned my desk and then wrote this newsletter and am going to get to work on my portfolio. Because that’s all I can do today. I have no choice but to start where I am.
Things worth sharing
One thing that we’ve been enjoying lately is creating scavenger hunts for our yard squirrels. I bought a bag of unsalted peanuts at the store and E hides them all over the yard and then we watch the squirrels find them. I know folks have feelings about feeding wildlife, but once you see a squirrel eating a jar of Nutella in a tree on garbage day you will put those feelings aside.
If you have a partner please consider setting up a shared grocery list on your phone. Jason did this for us and it is wildly helpful. We both pass the grocery store multiple times a week and now we can help each other out by grabbing the things on our shared list. He did this through the reminders app on our iPhones.
We were supposed to go out on Friday for our anniversary, but I was sick with a cold so we ended up staying home and watching all the Wes Anderson Roald Dahl shorts on Netflix. They are so weird and so beautiful. There’s The Rat Catcher, The Swan, The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar, and Poison.
After my last newsletter my friend Lana mentioned Kidzen as another great option for used kids clothes. Thanks Lana! You can also shop Lana’s store Hoste for incredible vintage and thoughtfully made finds.
Listened to this podcast about Sam Bankman Fried and crypto collapse. The audacity of this man! It’s called “Where did the 8 billion dollars go?”
Here’s some art I want to buy. And this!
I think this is the best art I’ve ever made.
My Shop: phillycornerstore.bigcartel.com
E-mail: halestormenator@gmail.com