Escape From Mom Jail

Day Care Begins Alongside My Very Slow Rediscovery of Self

We finally started day care!

After nearly 3 years of me slogging through life as a full-time mom.

I’m so grateful to have childcare at the moment— it’s completely changed my life for the better.

But now that I have the space to finally reflect upon the last couple of years I have to say:

I am shocked by the number of people who have casually implied that full-time parenting is not real work!??

No one would say that to a full-time child care worker, so I don’t understand why anyone would say it straight into the face of a full-time parent.

I have to assume it’s because it’s unpaid labor, which feels like a real weird punch down.

I have worked many jobs in my life: part-time, full-time, on-call, at-home, in-office, food service, office work, sales, management, freelance— you name it.

But nothing has compared to the labor of a being full-time parent.

There are no breaks.

There is no:

“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere”.

It’s a lot more:

“There’s a 3 o’clock diarrhea with corn kernels in it somewhere.”

All of this to say:

I’ve finally been able to start rebuilding my art career for the first time in nearly 3 years.

It’s only been a couple of weeks and my daughter’s already gotten her first day care cold.

It’s a lot.

I feel behind, which makes me feel rushed, which sets me up to make impulsive decisions.

I’m trying to fight this by allowing myself to be exploratory: to rediscover what it is I want to make and accomplish.

Like, who even am I as an artist?

I can’t say I really know.

I Google searched myself a while ago and it gave me a hilariously over-glorified AI description of me, alongside some completely false information.

(Apparently I live in Brooklyn, which— cute for me!)

This is how it described the art I’ve been making:

^ Is this… who I am?…

Drawing cartoons has always been my artistic bedrock, but I’ve been craving more from my art in these past couple of years.

I think I’m getting tired of making digital art.

Digital art is legit, but with the rise of *barf* “A.I. art” (not real art), it makes me want to flee the scene of computers completely.

tried to regulate my moodiness by painting last night

Being online and on computers in general has been making me feel increasingly disconnected from joy and humanity.

I want to get paint on my fingers and stain my pants with oil pastels.

One of the ways I’ve been exploring new art is through making Linoleum stamp / prints!

I made this T-shirt for my friend’s birthday last week:

I’m hoping that through being exploratory in my art I can find new ways to make some art income.

I’d like to start creating some fun, graphic wearables (T-shirts, hats, totes, etc.)

What do y’all think?

I also made this tote last weekend for another friend.

I’m Thirstin’ for a Pivot

I’ve come to find that as exhilarating as it can be to be published by The New Yorker, it’s just not a sustainable way to make an income given the astoundingly high rejection rate.

I am swimming in rejected single-panels and humor pieces!

Some of my fav recent rejects:

Maybe someday I’ll put all of my rejected cartoons into a book. Who knows!

Until then, I hope you’re all having a wonderful start to your summer seasons.

*Unless you live in the southern hemisphere, in which case I hope you’re enjoying your reverse spiraling toilet water and the beginning of winter.

Comments (Let’s Chat!):

• I’m contemplating making some illustrated wearables!

  • Does anything sound particularly interesting to y’all, like a preference for hats, totes, shirts, etc.?

  • Any particular drawings of mine sound fun on a wearable?

• I’m just throwing shit to the wind at the moment (immediately visualizes this and regrets the comment).

• Did you all have a nice Juneteenth??

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