Keen eyes may note: I have not updated this site since March 2011. It is now November. So, what the heck has happened in the last eight months?! Geez Amy, where ya been??!
Here’s what’s different:
- I HAVE A DOG.
I just accidentally typed “I hate a dog,” which is funny and apt. I do have a dog. I had never had a dog, and had no intention of getting one, before March 17 2011. That is the day that my lovely friend Sharon found a five pound chihuahua in the weed lot behind her library and posted this picture on facebook:
She was going to take him to Oakland Animal Control. Instead, I called up Oakland Animal Control and asked how they would feel about a concerned citizen fostering this found animal. They were like “YESYESYESYESYESYES, I mean, yeah, if you can, that’d be cool…”So that is how I got a dog. This is him now (play your favorite montage music in your head; I will choose Sarah McLachlan or Natalie Merchant):
- I LIVE IN OAKLAND AGAIN.
I do. This spring the library I work for was threatened with, essentially, complete shutdown. I jumped into the battle and put in double duty–full time work during the day, full time advocacy/activism at night. This is why no one heard anything from me basically from April through July. Unless they were following the budget battle.Anyway, the day after it all ended and we got our funding secured (yay!!), I found a fantastic apartment in Oakland. With studio space. And close enough to my work that I could walk the dog (see above) at lunchtime. So, immediately after the budget battle, I moved. This is why no one heard from me from July through August.
August through October, I was just being lazy.
October through now, I’ve been working on this lil’ thing.
I love Oakland. It is my true heart and spirit home. Blah, blah, burning sage and other woo-woo stuff. I really love being here. I do not miss living in San Francisco one tiny bit. Surprising considering how much I freaked out over the prospect of not living there, while I still was. But I love the sun shining over Lake Merritt. I adore the friendly folks, the community spirit, and the Occupy activists who refuse to pass lily-livered, defeatist resolutions against property destruction. You guys rock.
I also love the geese.
- MY ETSY STORE HAS LAPSED, AND I HAVE NOT BEEN TO ANY COMIC SHOWS.
You know what? I am super lucky. I have a job (thanks to aforementioned successful budget battle) that I really, truly love. I’m a children’s librarian. I spend my days evaluating art and literature, and presenting them to critics who do not hold back in their judgements; the result of their critiquing is an art form so powerful, it makes grown ass adults burst into tears when they see an image from a book they loved decades before. I really love that this is my job.This puts me in the fortunate position of not, for the time being, needing to make money off my art. Therefore, I am rethinking my presentation of said art. Do I need to commodify the things I create? I mean, I might. I’m not saying I won’t do things like sell pretty books or go to conventions again. Just that for now, I am not doing them. Not at this particular moment. I’m leaning toward things like… posting comics online, having shows, printing mini comics super cheaply. I want to get back to having fun with it and quit worrying about the marketing so much. I want to experiment with illustrating written text in addition to making comics and cartoons. There’s a whole world out there.
- I HAVE BECOME ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.
You know, one of THOSE people. I have a smart phone. Blugh!!
And after railing against them for years, I totally love it. Go ahead. Make fun.
Amy Martin Comics 