winter 2020 update + artbymags face masks!

I guess I haven’t updated here in a long time. I always forget I have an art website because I don’t use it for direct commerce – it’s mostly just a blog. And my art/design biz has been on hold these last few months so I haven’t had anything to write about. But the quick update is: I had brain surgery (really) October 13th and I’ve been in recuperation mode ever since. I have not been working and have been focusing solely on my health – a privilege I’ve had thanks to my sweet friends setting up a GoFundMe for me prior to surgery and literally hundreds of folks in my community and networks chipping in to support me during this time. I am so humbled and grateful, and trying to take all the time I need to get back to normal.

I am making a very strong recovery, despite being left with a few nerve-related deficits. (My benign tumor that was 100% removed was on my brain stem and entwined with my 10th cranial nerve, or vagus nerve, which controls things like breathing and swallowing and speaking.) So I’m battling double vision and paralyzed vocal cords, but making slow steady progress via physical and speech therapy. It’s just a waiting game for the nerves to repair themselves, but I hope to be back to business as usual after the holidays.

My post-brain-surgery self hasn’t had a lot of physical/mental/creative energy to make art or do any actual printing, but sitting in front of a computer isn’t that taxing for me. So the wonders of technology have enabled me to set up a bunch of my designs on print on demand site Teespring, and now you can get some of your favorite artbymags designs on cloth face masks!

https://teespring.com/stores/artbymags/collection/face-masks?page=1

*I have ordered a sample to check for quality but it has not arrived yet, so I can’t tell you anything about the quality of the mask yet. Sorry! I will update when it arrives. But I’ve generally been pretty happy with everything I’ve gotten from Teespring so I’m hopeful they will be great!

I’ve also been adding all kinds of new weird products like pillows and fannypacks, as the designs allow, to my regular store. Not every design looks good on other kinds of merch, but if you visit my artbymags store on Teespring you’ll find lots of new stuff with old designs, in a ton of different colors. I’m still updating so check back often!

https://teespring.com/stores/artbymags

I’m hoping to get back to the making of art soon, but I’m having to slowly re-integrate various activities so as not to do too much too soon. But overall, I’m doing pretty amazing after such a major surgery so I’m trying to have patience with the process and just go with the flow.

Thanks for checking out my site and supporting my creative work.

Happy holidays, everyone! Be safe!

army of lovers shirt is back…

so the brass band shirt campaign is over – thanks to the 4 of you who bought one. lol. i didn’t do so well on that campaign – actually lost money because i tried a facebook ad for $7 which ended up being totally useless – but i’m glad a few folks got the shirt and i’ll be donating all that i made to the roots of music. (about $20 – hopefully next time it will be more.)

the hustle continues. this is my new reality since i’ve cut back on my dog walking hours to make more time to make art and focus on new work… but in the mean time while i try to get new stuff going, i’m hustling a little with the old designs. people are always asking me to rerun these teespring campaigns, even though you can put in your order for any shirt in my storefront at any time and all it takes is like 3 shirts to be ordered and the campaigns will automatically restart and the shirts will get printed.

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mens/unisex american apparel crew neck – slate color

but i have relaunched the army of lovers campaign, the light colored shirts, since it’s starting to be spring and summer is in front of us. i’ve added a ton of new styles and most are available in either white or some variety of grey (the design really doesn’t look good on anything else). so definitely scroll through your options when shopping.

and for this campaign, i’m going to make a donation to the astraea lesbian foundation for justice which is an amazing organization funding important work for the LGBTQI community around the globe. i have enormous respect for the folks at astraea and hope to be able to make a nice donation from the proceeds, while also helping to pay my own rent!

it’s up for 7 days so get those orders in! and please share with anyone you think might be interested! here’s the link: https://teespring.com/an-army-of-lovers-2016.

because it’s festival season…

i just wore my “last night a brass band saved my life” t-shirt out to the downtown super sunday / keep n it real 2nd line and had several folks take my picture and ask about the shirt – yes i handed them business cards – so i though maybe it was time to offer it up again.

the campaign is live for 7 days. various brands (american apparel, canvas, bella, hanes), styles (crew neck, v neck, mens/unisex, womens, t-shirts, tanks) and colors (royal blue, several different shades of grey, and i think even one chocolate brown) of shirts here, so be sure to scroll through them all. i tried to change some of the offerings but apparently teespring won’t let me do that – i have to just run the same as i had last time- so this is what it is for now. (and please note that the hanes t-shirt does go up to size 5xl.)

also don’t forget i have the stickers available for purchase directly from me.

happy spring everyone!

****edited to add: i’ve decided i’m going to donate part of the proceeds to the roots of music program here in new orleans, an after school music education program for kids age 9-14. i’ve seen and heard the roots of music marching band in mardi gras parades and at other various events around town for years and think it’s an awesome program doing great work filling a gap in the new orleans elementary and middle school system post-katrina. check them out!