I got word via Discord yesterday that a project I’ve been keeping an eye on for about a year now is finally opening up applications next week, on March 2nd — Fat Craft Zine, which is tangentially related to The Fat Folks Tarot Project (in that there are a lot of artist crossover) is a recurring zine project that raises money for NoLose and has a different theme every run. This year’s theme is “Death and the Divine,” and when I tell you, I already have so many potential ideas I’m excited about, and I can’t wait to apply. Obviously, I once again have no guarantee that I’ll make it in, but I’m hoping that their desire to amplify newer voice and the fact that my work is at least somewhat known to them will help my case.
My wife reminds me that I can, obviously, create the pieces I’m brainstorming for the zine whether or not I get accepted — which is of course, true — but also sort of not the same? If I feel strongly enough about them, yeah, I may pursue them anyway, but it’s so much more motivating to do a piece that you know is for sure going to have an audience that appreciates it, and/or going to support a good cause.
But I’m not going to get ahead for myself anyway. Apps open next week and I won’t get word about acceptance or rejection until May, so I have a while to wait. I’m excited for this opportunity, though; I had almost forgotten about this project and had almost missed the announcement, so I’m very fortunate that I decided to check my (often neglected) Discord notifications, ha ha.
It continues to be a quiet break; Bear is sick, though it hasn’t affected his attitude or energy level (mostly just effected the amount of mucus pouring out of his face, he is so gross, why are children so gross), and after testing repeatedly to be sure it wasn’t COVID, didn’t really affect or influence our plans to hang at my mom’s house and seeing my family. We got some promising developments on the job hunt front for Kira, and I likewise had some potentially promising work-related news (though I’m not technically able to really discuss it yet), Bear had a very positive therapy session (his first since a very, very positive week at school), and I’ve been spending most of my free time working on the follow-up to my deer painting and watching (and/or re-watching) comfort media.
It feels like it has been a while since I’ve had overwhelmingly positive personal news to report; there’s always a caveat, or a condition. Not everything I’m hearing about right now is set in stone, but they’re all more of a concrete possibility than we’ve seen in a long time, and that alone is heartening.
I’m not quite ready to go back to work yet, but I’ll return to work already on a seven week countdown to my next week-long break, so I suppose that’s a positive.
I hope you are all staying safe in the midst of an even more frightening than usual world. I hope you are doing what you can do to spread light in your small corner of the world, whether that is through philanthropy, helping out those within your social sphere, spreading awareness for a cause, creating art, or simply being kind. I hope you are doing what you can to find moments of respite and happiness, and finding ways to refill your own cup so that you can fill up others.
I hope you are all doing as well as can be expected.
Cheers.
All Your Crooked Heart 