here's the thing: i have an awful memory. just terrible. this makes it horribly easy for me to look back at any given year and say "wow, i really did nothing this year, huh", even if i did, in fact, do a whole lot of cool things. 2023 was a rough year for a lot of reasons, which makes it even harder to remember the good bits of it, so to refresh my memory and yours: here's a list of cool things i did in 2023!
january
๐ wrapped up work on the witch's wings and other terrifying tales, my first traditionally published graphic novel!
february
๐บ had my art used as the endpaper illustrations in the barnes & noble edition of trang thanh tran's she is a haunting
โฐ participated in hourly comics day for the 5th year in a row
march
๐ threw a cat mitzvah birthday party for my old roommate/bff's cat, guacamole
๐ญ drew an illustration for meanwhile... a comic shop anthology
april
๐ designed my very first washi tape with the washi station!
๐ฐ started ironing out ideas for a future comic pitch!
๐ป zine: on whimsy
may
๐ traveled to the west coast for the very first time! first to seattle to explore for a week & visit the seattle art book fair, and then to juneau for the alaska robotics mini-convention and comics camp. i'd never actually seen proper mountains before, and i hadn't done anything really outdoorsy since i was a kid, so i was a bit nervous about spending 4 days out in the woods without cell service or wifi, but it ended up being an absolutely magical experience.
๐ got 2 new tattoos from one of my favorite tattoo artists!
๐ธ zine: where is everybody?
๐ผ anthology: tower vol 1: end
june
๐ญ finished up work on the relentless lark #2
๐ฌ saw sir babygirl in concert at the brooklyn museum
๐ฎ my first washi tape designs were released as part of the washi station's pride collection: sapphic street & haunting hearts
july
๐ป drew some more washi tape for the washi station's halloween collection
๐ค book: the relentless lark #2
august
๐ฅ tabled flamecon for the 4th time! a bit of a weird one (i had an awful migraine for half of it and hid under my table for a while, though thankfully i had a friend there to impersonate me) but still one of my fave cons as always
september
๐งต started learning how to sew on a sewing machine! (with lessons from my grandma, a professional theater costumer!)
๐ฎ deck of spirits 2.0 begun
october
๐ the witch's wings and other terrifying tales released! & i had a book signing/launch party for it at dreamers & make-believers
๐ง tabled at the baltimore horror club's halloween market
๐ started a new part-time job
๐ก guested on jacob geller's sword stream, an annual 24-hour charity twitch stream (this year raising money for the brigid alliance)
๐ฃ cover art & illustrations in wrong publishing's you took the wrong turn anthology
๐ turned 25! a bit of a weird birthday, since i didn't really do anything to celebrate and was in the midst of sorting out some meds issues, but hey, i made it to 25, that's something!
๐ชก zine: pocket-sized poltergeists
๐ book: the witch's wings and other terrifying tales
november
โ๏ธ tabled at the boston art book fair! i'd only been to boston once as a kid, and i don't remember anything about that visit, so it was really cool to explore a new city. the art book fair was also lovely โ it was a slightly different crowd than i'm used to at comic conventions, but everyone was super nice and i got some really cool zines!
๐ zines: tiny houses
december