Smooth Move
I’ve done something sneaky since I last updated this newsletter: I have moved. Again. Well, perhaps it is not so sneaky given this is the fourth time I have moved over the past two years. In any case, I feel as though these previous moves have been leading up to this particular one and I very much hope I won’t be moving again anytime soon (good gods, please no).
While any move is going to be exhausting and bring a fair amount of stress, this latest move has gone quite smoothly, with one notable exception. The ample recent practice I’ve had with packing, unpacking, and rearranging has prepared me for this moment. Or to put it another way: having my studio change multiple times in quick succession has shown me what is actually important and essential to my working environment and I can now concentrate on leaning into those aspects as I once again set things up.
Regrettably, it’s this setting of things up which has proved to be the one exception. After deciding where my drawing desk was to go, I proceeded to adjust the height and angle to my preferences. This is a task which I have performed countless times over the years and my familiarity coaxed me into an act of negligence. With the large desk surface angled nearly vertically on the front hinged supports, I adjusted the height of the back supports and in so doing I briefly took my hand off the near vertical desktop. A couple seconds and far too many decibels later–my sincere apologies to my new downstairs neighbors–the desktop was on the floor upside down, having fallen backwards, ripping out all of the hinge screws in the process. After a fair amount of wood glue, measuring, drilling, self-loathing, and many hours later, my desk was shaken and scarred but almost back to normal.
My own stupidity aside, I am very happy in this new studio space and relieved that it combines the most positive aspects from my two previous studios while also eliminating the worst negative aspects. My studio a year and a half ago was the perfect size and layout for an effective and welcoming work space but it had the profound disadvantage of not being located within my home. This discrepancy lead to all manner of logistical challenges I found taxing after working long and odd hours from a home studio for so many years in a row. Conversely, the studio I just moved out of had the advantage of being located within my home, however, it was a very very small apartment I was living in which greatly truncated my studio space. I was forced to get rid of one of my work desks and to keep my computer on my drawing desk, something which bothered and shamed me from the first day to the last–now you know why I never posted a full photo of my new studio over this past year.
This new studio I have just moved into, however, is both large enough for me to have my computer on a separate desk, while also being located within my new home. A new home alongside my partner–making the transition all the more special–to whom I am deeply grateful for offering up the spare bedroom as my studio.
The coming weeks will largely be spent unpacking, arranging, and rearranging my new space as I prepare to lean into some new projects. In spite of the current disarray, I am already attached to this new studio and I know it will eventually be a highly efficient and conducive creative environment. If, that is, I can avoid being a dullard long enough to keep my desk from giving up the ghost.
Dullards Anonymous
Speaking of dullards, I have a new little book! While Advice to a Young Dullard is certainly an indulgence of my love for pencil sharpeners, it combines this love with with some practical maxims for those who don’t feel quite as sharp as they would like to be. The book is available in my shop, but if you order now through the end of June, use the code DULLSTICK at checkout and you will get and extra 10% off as well as a complimentary pencil sharpener sticker.
CAKE
Shortly before I moved, I tabled again at CAKE (the Chicago Alternative Komics Expo). I always love doing this show and interacting with all the visitors. Many thanks to everyone who came by as well as to my table mates on either side, Sarah Becan and Eddie Campbell, both of whom do work that I greatly admire and who helped make the entire weekend all the more fun and manageable.
Cemetery Saturday
My cemetery drawings over the past month have brought me back to a couple of favourites (both Rosehill Cemetery and the Hebrew Benevolent Cemetery) as well as to St. Henry Cemetery, a small cemetery/churchyard on the north side of the city. I had not been to St. Henry before and was pleased to see how it bears some resemblance to an old English churchyard with the large church spire looming in the background. After drawing St. Henry, I now only have three more cemeteries left to visit and draw out of the twenty-one within Chicago city limits.
State of the [repaired] Desk
