I'm taking art commissions for Jan/Feb, stream of consciousness and other announcements

I’ve been thinking about how to adequately and concisely say everything I’ve been thinking lately and I realized there’s not a good way to summarize everything I’ve been thinking. So here’s my tidied-up stream of consciousness:

Preamble

January really just told us to SLOOOOOW DOWN which is the message I’ve been receiving. I felt roaring and ready to go right at the start of the new year, so full of new ideas for art and yoga. I was excited to quit my social media job and become an artist. But you don’t become anything overnight. You need to work for want you want. Maybe you don’t need to, but I want to work hard at being an artist because I want to feel like I’ve earned the title of artist. I want my art to be

Good things don't grow overnight, they take time and care. And that's what I hope to do with my career. Very slowly but surely, I will achieve these big dreams of mine (maybe I'll do a post on my career dreams?). It's so crazy how connected everything is in life. For example, I am teaching two classes a week at a yoga studio currently and they are both "slow flow" classes. I always start class by saying that just because the class is called slow flow doesn't mean there won't be challenges. Slow flow just means we are moving at a slower pace. What a helpful reminder for my career - just because I feel like I'm moving slow with my career, doesn't mean that it's not a worthwhile career...doesn't mean I'm not doing a lot. I think this is the thing I'm most insecure in life, but I am starting to see some of the joy and little sprouts of the seeds I've planted in my garden that is my career.

Catalyst/Musing

I posted a funny story of my husband (yes, I’m still getting used to calling him that) being goofy and roasting me on my personal Instagram the other day. And then I followed it up with another story slide saying, "I really feel bad posting a funny IG story and not acknowledging the LA fires and the RVA water emergency but I've been thinking about both these things for three days and they make me so so sad and if I posted anything on here it would be depressing and I don't want to depress myself further so what more can I do than enjoy the little moments and play some mancala, and share with you in hopes it gives you a smile for half a second on these dreary days." I said this because truthfully seeing all this stuff in the news, that’s happening to real live fellow humans, makes me so so sad. So sad that it seems pointless to continue to be another echo in the chamber that is social media. So instead I posted something funny - a small glimmer of positivity and fun during a very bleak time.

And that’s what I want to talk about today. It’s the start of the Gregorian new year and I want to start ~fresh~ and make this year great! I was going to announce that I am taking commissions for January but I wanted the announcement to be very authentic and was waiting for the right time (within the first ten days of the month) to announce this. But then of course we get a little snow (yay) and that knocks out the whole city of Richmond’s water! And then LA starts having these CRAZY wildfires that are destroying homes. It’s a fight back from Mother Nature like we’ve never seen before (more on this later)****

So it seems like a terrible time to announce that "hi I’m gonna be taking commissions send me money and let me do art plz thx." Even though I really need to post that because lowkey I need to find a way to make money because unfortunately money is what we must use to acquire material goods and food in this world.

And even though the world seems to be protesting, I sat down to write out what I wanted to say in a post announcing opening my commissions - something that was really authentic to my heart, because that’s the only way I can handle social media these days (or any public displays of my life).

But it still feels weird to post about my commissions while people in California are literally losing all their homes and earthly possessions. Not to mention the animals losing homes and lives too. It feels insensitive and I truthfully feel depressed about the world right now. There’s so much sadness and darkness, it hearts my heart (yes, this is how the word "hurt" fell out of me as I was pouring out this post...i like this way of spelling it better honestly, it really shows how it's my heart that is hurting). I don’t want to post anything right now if it’s not helpful. But then I realized maybe this is how I can help…

Background context:

When I was younger, I was always a very happy person. After my dad died when I was 16, I stopped being happy all the time but I probably still had a light about me. I just find it unbearable to be miserable all the time. There’s always some sort of light you can find during any time, at least that’s been my experience. Thankfully I’ve done a lot of intentional (and some unintentional) healing work since I was 16 (and also I met and fell in love with my now husband) and I’m back to being really happy most of the time. And I feel like my happiness can help other people be happy in lots of different ways…and I think the way to a happier life for all of us is for us all to be happy ourselves (duh). So I’m always trying to be the happiest version of me that I can be (which isn’t always very happy, I promise. I hope you don’t think this is crazy positivity…) so that I can spread happiness (and love) to others.

My husband makes me so so happy! Our love is so beautiful. So I share about him and us often on my personal Instagram, because our relationship makes me happy so I’d like to share some of that to my friends and followers so maybe they can share in that happiness.

So that’s why I chose to post him wearing his hat silly and roasting me. Because it made me laugh and I knew it could make someone else laugh. And in the words of my friend Flora, "we need the light." This has been such a heavy week, a heavy start to the year....and it's BEEN heavy. it's been a heavy five years. And if sharing my life in this way helps other people laugh and be happy for a second while doomscrolling our lives away, then I’m happy to help in that way. Because we need more happy people in this world.

Here's the main takeaway/Announcement #1:

So with that being said…maybe me continuing to live my life and spread love through my art is the best thing I can do right now. If my art finds the right people, I'm sure my art will bring happiness and joy to someone's life. So even though it feels like a weird time to announce this, I’m hopeful that my commissions being open will fall in front of someone who needs some loving art in their life. Or art that is silly and cute! Perhaps some whimsical art? This is my real and honest truth of how I came to be here. I'm glad I got to tell you what I've been thinking about, here's what I was originally going to say in my official announcement:

I am welcoming space for two commissioned works of art for the month of January/early February timeframe. I am taking commissions right now to help support myself financially and because I would like to expand my art portfolio.

If you are starting to brainstorm Valentine’s Day gifts (I know, we are just getting over the December holidays), a custom painting is a very nice gift!

Or is there a dream piece of art you want to make but are too scared to try for fear you’re not creative/artistic enough?? You definitely could do it if you tried but if you still don’t want to try, call me! I am a mixed-media artist, meaning the materials with which I create are limitless. I primarily paint and draw, but I love collaging and creating 3D objects (think crow confetti boxes!! And I have been known to make a mean cooler or two). I am very willing to try new mediums and I get fired up by figuring out how to bring a creative vision to life.

Okay now that I’ve given you my elevator pitch, message me for commission inquiries! And if you love me a lot but don’t want a commission from me at this time, I’d greatly appreciate if you’d share this message with your friends/connections who might want some art/like my art style :) thank you, I love you!

Other commission ideas I'd want to work on if you want more inspo for what I can make for you:

-mancala board with cute mover pieces

-herbal/few ingredient/clean beauty and skincare products

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Circling back and random other thoughts:

***oh yeah I was just gonna say that yeah there’s only so much mistreatment Mother Nature will take before she starts fighting back. She is an entity on her own and she allows us to inhabit her. Be grateful you’re here and treat her with respect. And also it's funny that the universe is really showing us that we can't be slaves to capitalism, hustling 24/7. We must take time for rest, that's what winter is for! So Mother Nature is really making sure we hear her, it's time to rest and go inward.

Other things on my mind right now...

-I want to remake my website so I can show people my portfolio since I won’t be posting my art to Instagram and TikTok anymore. Do I make a Pinterest? Only if AI doesn’t read it.

-I can also make signing up for outdoor yoga classes easy in this new website

-I want all my own designs and illustrations on my website. The about section can have a little alter with all my favorite things: 28, mourning doves, spring water, my butterfly wings I found. There should be a tip jar.

-If we could measure my tears I’m sure I would be able to make a small little river. That would flow to and from my meditation forest.

-I eventually want a king bed.

-I should have two hours of silence/alone time a day.

Things that I am doing to stay uplifted during these trying times:

-sudoku in a physical sudoku book (trying to stay away from devices)

-coloring in my coloring book

-playing mancala

-drawing whatever drawing idea pops into my head

-going to bed by 11:30pm

-waking up early

-going for walks outside and connecting with trees

-hanging out with my husband

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the reason you should always read a post in entirety because here's Announcement #2 and it's a big one:

If you have an open mind and promise not to think I'm totally crazy, check out the unedited and uncensored version of this post on my substack. (aka the full stream of consciousness dump...it's very jumpy but you can see my train of thought and see how I get a thousand thoughts at once popping into my head at times) (it's pretty interesting) (and I didn't censor anything in the substack version meaning you'll see me making my own spiritual connections throughout my writing...which may make you think i'm crazy, but that's why it's under a paywall.)

There are lots of good changes coming (slowly but surely). As mentioned earlier in this post, I am shifting away from Instagram and TikTok (I don't think I will be posting any new artwork to those platforms) and am beginning the daunting process of moving my website off wix to squarespace and redesigning it.

This is the really important part:

To help with this transition and to help my income because I’m trying to quit my day job, I have created an account on Substack. There I will offer a mix of free and paid content, each tier explained below. All blog posts going forward will be posted to Substack in exchange for your email, as well as my irregularly timed newsletters (whenever inspo has built up and I feel like I have adequate shit to share I'll send you a newsletter), and I'm sure some IG-like snapshots of the art I am working on.

Paid content for $5/month, which pretty much directly helps me to continue to create for a living, which is my dream job, will include all of the free stuff PLUS any and all blog posts/content regarding spirituality (it's just a very new topic for me to be sharing publicly, and it's very close to my heart so I'm scared of judgement so hence why it's being published under a paywall for now), and eventually I will be posting long-form visual media on there similar to what I post to IG/TikTok (i.e.: uncensored looks at art pieces I am working on, behind the scenes, day in the life of an artist...maybe some vlogs, whatever really strikes my fancy) but just longer.

And then my founder ladybug tier gets all the free stuff, all the regular paid stuff, PLUS some of my direct conceptual downloads about the nature of knowing (aka i would call them spiritual downloads but tbh I don’t really know what to call them??? I’m telling you, spirituality is a very new topic for me, i’m very uncomfortable by it quite honestly. I love it so much and am also so uncomfortable talking about it to strangers) (these downloads are a mixture of written and audio files).

Okay okay the most important part, it's super quick:

I invite you to stay tuned on Substack if you'd like to support my work and/or hear my musings and updates. I love you! Thank you :)

---

Subscription Tiers Described in a neater and more concise way:

FREE to read without email subscription:

• All of my notes/public messages (think of this as equivalent to my Instagram stories, i.e. quick little six-picture series with little writing, poll questions for community to weigh in on, status updates? Maybe some sneak peaks of paid posts)

Email Subscription:

• Regular Blog Posts (no spirituality)

• Irregularly Timed and themed Newsletters

• Standard Visual Media (current work, work in progress, short-form videos, sale announcements, in-person events, sketchbook pages)

  
  

Paid Subscription ($5/month):

• Regular blog posts PLUS all blog posts regarding spirituality

• Irregularly Timed and Themed Newsletters

• Premium Visual Media (all standard visual media + long-form videos)

  
  

Founding Ladybug Subscription ($180/year):

• All the perks of free content, regular paid subscription content PLUS some of my direct downloads (written and audio files)