I was just starting to really get back into art around this time last year. After years of nothing, I finished two paintings in 4 months, which I was immensely proud of. I started sketching from life in my sketchbook, which was quite daunting. More than anything, I was (and am) proud of the progress I've made as an artist, despite being largely inactive over the years. I guess I was always looking at art, always observing things in real life, that when I finally got down to business, my eye and my technique had somehow improved. There's a lot of fluff on dA but it's also been a great inspiration, especially looking back over the years at where some of the great talents here started from. There is a painting in the works, based on a line drawing I got at a show at The Hive Gallery here in Los Angeles. I don't remember who the original artist was but I really ran with his/her work and made it my own. It's maybe 50% finished and I look forward to getting more time to work on it.

I got laid off in November and have been working my @$$ off freelancing for the last however many months. It's hard to keep focused, hard to not be stressed trying to get clients, keep clients, deal with clients and chase down the paycheck. In addition, I'm returning to school in the fall to study marine biology. Being a designer is not what I had in mind when I left school. I so rarely get to be innovative or create beautiful or even eye pleasing solutions. There are few pieces I've been proud of since I graduated, as often the client doesn't have the eye that my art- and creative director professors did. I look forward to the coming challenge, and to a future of meaningful work, and hopefully a return to real creativity once the commercial world is done sucking the life out of me.