I decided to do an animation for my final project for the Comics in Journalism class I took at SVA, which wrapped up yesterday. It feels great to have officially graduated! I'm proud of the work I did and highly recommend taking a class with Sarah Shaw if you can, I am forever spoiled by her woman-focused, BIPOC prioritized curriculum. It's like eating a freshly boiled lobster that was caught on the boat floating next to the dock you're standing on, after a lifetime of living landlocked - you didn't know it could be so good - standards forever ruined by thoughtful intersectionality.

It kinda sucks that of all my hobbies, comics is one of my most adored but by far the most time-consuming. I love making them but they are a bear to do complete. I no longer enjoy spending hours chained to my desk, my life priorities have shifted this year and sitting in a room by myself on sunny days is a bummer I can't keep ignoring. As a result, my goal over the next few weeks is to figure out what that sweet spot looks like for me to find between alone time and hangout time. Pre-pandemi I was a hardXcore extrovert, but over the last 2 years I have grown to see the many perks of being an introvert and so now I find myself to be a switch ; ) for the very first time in my life. My first experiment will be to see if I can tap into my circadian rhythm so I can write more in the morning, leaving my evenings free for more spontaneity. It's an interesting journey I've been on, thanks for riding along side!

This animation spells out "ENJOY IT WHILE YOU GOT IT," as I've realized lately we often fail to recognize how good something is when we're in the moment - sometimes it takes something bad to happen, insert COVID, to realize how special a moment was when in the moment it was a "mundane," ordinary thing - that's why I wanted to use ghosts to represent the haunting feeling that sometimes comes with the disconnect between now and then. I'm working harder to be more present, and not so concerned with what was or what will be. I'm blessed to say the future has often been better than I could've imagined and the past carries the fine line of appreciation and inprisionment, because it's easy to freeze-frame a time, a place, a person to only be that thing. The truth is the only thing that stays the same is the reality of change, to revere the past sidetracks the present moment. 

​Here's a comic I made for class this week, I want to push myself to see what other definitions of a comic I could come up with. This comic uses the mechanism that is often used to build puppet crankies - the idea of taking 2 handles, attaching a scroll between them and then scrolling the image across a window that's usually cut out of a wooden or cardboard box. I write more about this building process on Substack, sharing it here because that platform doesn't support gifs - so I'll be using my blog as a repository for my animated work to link out to from there.

Food has been a lifelong passion of mine, as has writing - yet the two only ever cross paths every blue moon. My audience has always encouraged me to write more food-focused work, so I decided to throw my back into it this year and commit to publishing on Substack. You can sign up here for my free newsletter if you want food-centric essays and comics like the Chicago-Style Hot Dog delivered right to your inbox.

UPDATE: My original goal was to publish weekly, however through the process of trying to keep to that rigorous schedule, I learned my life doesn't allow for that frequency. So I've changed my publishing cadence to whenever I find the time, because if it doesn't bring me joy - it's outta here!!