Goodbye December 2024
little health update, thoughts on failure, and another year in the books
It’s time to say goodbye to December and 2024 along with it. I suppose it’s time to stop saying I can’t believe how much time has passed; I’m starting to believe it now. 2024 was the first year I did art full time and it’s been quite an adventure. Lots of highs and lows, but I’m so grateful to have weathered this year with the support of all of you. In 2024 I published my first Glue Baby zine, started this Substack, opened my Patreon, had my first sponsored post, and finally convinced my cat to use her asthma inhaler. It was a big year!
Thoughts on December
In November I wrote about issues with my eyes and teeth, and those issues are still causing me problems, so much so that I took the better part of a week off from the studio. I went to a second dentist and they have no idea what the first one did wrong with my filling, all they know is that it hurting badly for 7 weeks is abnormal. It seems I will have to go back to the first dentist to see what the issue is since he’s the one who made the mistake (let’s see if he admits he made one). I don’t trust him at all now and am honestly quite scared to go.
My eyes were a problem all month, nothing but the steroid drops from the optometrist would help them. Last month I wrote, “I am just hoping at this point that it get completely better and doesn’t relapse when I run out of drops.” They did relapse, though not as badly as they were to begin with.
In good news, my elder cat Mr. Pants has been on all wet food for over a month now and his fur is way less greasy and disgusting; he’s even started grooming himself again (which was my job before, thank you Burt’s Bees waterless shampoo for cats). I think his stomach was hurting so badly he couldn’t find the energy to groom, poor guy. He’s now a bit more playful and trying to steal his little sister’s kibble because he’s a cat and doesn’t quite understand cause and effect.
In other good news, “Prism 9,” which was on display at the Creative Pinellas Arts annual, has found a home. Sometimes, as artists, I think we can get hung up on the idea that the pieces that don’t sell quickly aren’t “good.” It’s hard, especially in a society so focused on capitalism and productivity culture, to not equate monetary value to “worth.” But I had an epiphany this month while looking at my Spotify Wrapped of all things, about artists and the value of their work. It happen when I was looking at my top played song (“Better Give U Up” by FKJ) and realized I couldn’t tell you what the song sounded like if I tried. I have a playlist I keep on in the background in my studio and once you listen to a song a few times, Spotify just keeps giving it to you again and again. I had listened to it dozens of times without noticing.
Then I thought about songs I had intentionally listened to on a loop throughout my life and immediately thought of Ruby. This band was everything to me when I was younger. I listened to their EP and then album “Salt Peter,” on a loop for literal years, then the same thing when their album “Short-Staffed at the Gene Pool” came out. So I looked them up on Spotify and they only have 6,500 monthly listeners; several of their albums aren’t even on Spotify, they’re just gone. On YouTube, where someone uploaded the albums 9 years ago, none of the song have more than 800 views. I have listened to them more than 800 times, personally. I wondered if Ruby was thought of by the artists behind it as a failure. By all metrics it was, but Ruby was the exclusive soundtrack to my life for many, many years. It made me realize that, even if an artistic project might feel like a “failure,” it still might mean everything to someone, and if anything you make reaches anyone on that deep of a level, you have been the most wild success imaginable.
Anyway, give Ruby a listen.
December Lovely Things
And now, here are some lovely and interesting things from December that caught my eye.
This stained glass gown by Oscar de la Renta is transcendently beautiful. Iris blue and pale yellow is one of my favorite color combinations as well, very van Gogh.
On the topic of stained glass, nobody does it like Neile Cooper. Stained glass isn’t something I ever want to do (glass shards freak me out), but I see her work and I think “Wow, I wish I could do that.” Incredible.
Kiera Won’s work is so nostalgic and gorgeous. There’s something about it that reminds me of 90s anime.
What do women want for Christmas? Glue!
Speaking of the holidays, how gorgeous is this retro colored pencil illustration?
January 2025 Lock Screen and Wallpaper
I posted the lock screen and wallpaper to my Patreon and IG Stories, but thought it would be good to email them out to you all in this newsletter as well! Now it’s even easier to add a touch of Glue Babies to your phone, and we’ll match.
Thank you for reading the December recap and I will see you again next month!