Whew. OK. We’re in the thick of the chaotic big life changes I alluded to way back when I started the 100 Day Project…but here I am still making art and surprisingly making way more art than I thought I would since I’ve lost my pre-work art time and my easy work from home days.
How is this possible?
I’d love to say it’s because I’m Art Bitch and can do literally anything I set my mind to but honestly, the reason I’m surviving this is BECAUSE of the 100 Day Project but not in the *structure and diligently showing up every day* way which would make sense.
Let me explain.
First we have to go back in time a bit.
Back to a time where I made stupid art for no reason.

Which is like the whole point of the exercise.
And then…$PEPE 😂

I’ve stayed away from making any sort of Pepe art forever because…yeah. After watching Feels Good Man I’m mostly ok playing with the meme but also still uncomfortable with it.

Sometimes you make art you feel uncomfortable with and that’s ok. There’s something to learn from it.
What did I learn?
Fuck. I’m too tired to tell you.
And then:

…I leapt into the void…

…the liminal space between the work I was leaving behind and the work I was about to begin…and every understanding and agreement I’ve had with how time works evaporated.

I set my monster free.

I traveled to Hollywood with the kiddo to see the Super Mario World thing which was…just wait until it’s less crowded if you were thinking of going.
But mostly I was sad about the way I would notice a pile of trash piled up next to a trashcan and then realize it was a pile of someone’s belongings and they were nestled into the middle of the pile. That happened a LOT. It was awful to see.
I could go off about how many of the people who live there could solve this problem with what amounts to a rounding error in their bank accounts but instead we’ve got Chachi announcing his departure because unhoused people are destroying his quality of life 🙄

But you know what I mean so I’ll just say fuck that dude.

Why am I obsessed with the way Midjourney renders underwater scenes? I’ve made hundreds of them so they’re gonna keep popping up.

Anyway, I started my new job, the one I’ve been eagerly waiting to start since early March.

I love it.

And I think I minted this one out of order because I know I didn’t make this after I started my new job but I’m too all over the place to do anything properly right now including writing this blog post.
Gonna soak up every bit of the working in the city experience because the last time I did this (15 years ago!) I wasn’t an artist, I was a poor single mom full time student full time paralegal fiber arts blogger who knitted on the train and did homework at lunch while gritting my teeth trying to keep all the balls up in the air soooooo…I didn’t really get to enjoy the city much.

Now I get to wander around at lunchtime snapping photos of all the monsters I see!
This is a dramatic improvement over the last experience.

This next one isn’t actually a Philly photo but it could be.

I’ve always been the sort of person who brings lunch to work but also I reallllly love food so I decided on Fridays I’m gonna work my way through all the fun places to eat.
Jose Pistola’s was a solid first choice, especially because I got to chat with this handsome fella for a bit. The shrimp al pastor tacos were BOMB!

This has been more of a life update thing than an art process thing but whatevs. It’s just chaos right now and adjusting to the new way of moving through my days is sucking the life out of me and that’s informing the way I create so here we are.
Would I have ever had the idea to pop AI generated monsters into photographs but not for the opportunity to sit in a park at lunchtime and breathe and drink a latte and ponder the what’s-next?
Probably not.
Let me remind you where this 100 day project started:

We’ve come a long way baby!
I’m so tired.
And also so happy.

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