xworks

So, sea changes.

I've never experienced what I now consider to be a sea change—the kind of thing that jolts you out of your life and sets you on a new course. But, wow, when they come, they don't pull any punches. 

My own personal, and pretty damn unpleasant, sea change came in the form of losing the person I was closest to, my mom. I still have trouble typing that and it's why I never mentioned anything in my last two posts—it was just impossible. The reason I'm posting this now is because I can still say that she died last year. 

Perspective being everything, my mom was pretty amazing. She was also an artist, but a real one, the kind that did art every freaking day. I've gotten to know her even more intimately through all the work she left behind. If any of you have enjoyed my art over the years, you can thank her. I was blessed with her keen sense of color, her strong sense of design, and her lovely, lovely drawing skills. 

Being without her is weird. I'm still struggling. Everything has changed. My art has gotten crazy, my moods are everywhere, I've started a couple dozen projects without finishing one. Luckily (and boy, am I lucky) my relationships with my family and friends are tighter and stronger than ever. 

A good friend—who's no doubt reading this—says you never really get over losing your mom and I can see that is gonna be true for me, too. Thinking of my mom is like sitting in front of a hot plate I want to touch. I know if I do, it's gonna hurt, hurt, hurt, so I don't. And now I'm just numb. 

Yikes.

So I guess all I want to say is I haven't left fandom. I'm still writing and hope to post something soon. More than that, I'm still reading your posts and loving your adventures and feeling little bits of happiness that you're all still around and kicking it. 

I hope 2024 brings us something good (okay, stop laughing).

Love, even though I haven't met some of you,
x

 So how's everyone doing? Hanging in there? Life is pretty weird/stressful/strange right now and being creative is just as weird/stressful/strange, too. I'm slowly growing interested in participating in fandom again (something definitely different from being interested in fandom). To wit, I:

• Posted a new story that took me a short time to write and months to edit. It's for Spider-man: No Way Home, involves the two older Peters, is called Anything Like Relative Beauty, and can be found here
• Fell head over heels for The Old Guard and can't wait for season 2. I'm not interested in writing for the show (I think) but I've got an idea for a fanart trilogy. So excited to get going on it.
• Fell equally head over heels for Our Flag Means Death. I watched a few minutes of it when it first came out, couldn't get into it, so I mentally shelved it. For whatever reason, I tried it again in June and yowza… I love all the characters, especially the Swede and Black Pete (Bonnet and Blackbeard are a given). It's my comfort show these days.
• Got a good creep-out from Nope and have a story in mind. I don't even know about that one because it's so much A Pairing That Has No Reason To Exist, but yeah, gonna write it.
• Am still thinking of selling my fanart online but we'll see about that.

I hope you all are doing well and managing to get through your days with some semblance of sanity. What with Monkeypox, Polio, and pilots threatening to crash into their local Walmarts, not going crazy is kind of an amazing thing:)

Like so many of you, life has been a little challenging. I can't believe we're going into year 2 of a pandemic (supposedly, we should be calling it an epidemic now). It's a crazy, crazy time.

How are all you? Good, I hope. 

I'm checking in because I just posted the first story I've finished in 2 freaking years. What's up with that? It's for The Mentalist fandom and it's a story I've had in mind since 2008. It's Jane/Cho, naturally, but an AU set in 1939—just a warning for those of you who don't like AUs. I'm posting it in 2 chapters because I haven't finished the final edits on the coda section.

The next thing I'll probably post will be a short Jimmy/Duncan piece for the show Shetland. I have fallen hard, I have fallen fast. It's so much fun:)

I hope everyone is surviving the insanity. If you feel like it, drop me a line at x_art2@yahoo.com or in this journal.

:) g

Hey folks,

So is the first new piece of fanart that I've done in 5 years. It's been a long haul and I really struggled with this new piece—it's made of over 100 layers and there are 6 similar-but-different versions. I'm not sure if it took me so long because my mojo is gone or because I absolutely cannot concentrate.

In any case, this is a Christmas gift for Keiko Kirin—KK, I hope you enjoy it:)

Darnit—forgot that hitting 'enter' posts the entry. But I wanted to add a word of thanks to Riesling777 for taking a look at the work in progress and for all her help in helping me figure out what the hell I was doing wrong with the poses:D

x



At AO3:
In the Park 

Two posts in one month. It's a miracle. And I updated my site, design-wise, and that's a miracle, too. Most of the art is up but only a few of the stories are linked. 

I'm also going to see about selling prints, etc, on the site. It might work, it might not:)

The new site is at: http://xart.squidge.org/. Let me know if it works for you. I haven't tested it on mobile yet.

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday:)