Skip to main content

Art is a wound turned into light.



Hello Patrons, Clients and Friends,

Thank you once again for your patience and kind words, here and on the socials. It's been a hard year, and a particularly awful month. For those who don't follow me on the social media sites, I lost my mom, her mom (my grandmother) and my aunt (my mom's sister) in the span of 6 months. One year ago, on my birthday, I lost my birth mother. I've lost two of my pets who were elderly, and while that wasn't unexpected, it was still awful. A truly terrible year.

I only share all of this because I want to take the time here, on the platforms for the patrons of my art, to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. We are all separated, isolated from loved ones, scared and anxious for ourselves, our families and friends, our jobs. It's a terrible time for so many. And yet it's been my art friends, clients and patrons reaching out to me most and I'm so grateful.

The art has been all that gets me out of bed some days. Because I know someone has requested something, or suggested a subject, or requested a commission. So I have to get up. For the art. For my friends who support my artistic endeavors. And it's been the most rewarding thing to be able to pour myself into that. it gets me through everything else.

So thank you for your support - in all of the many forms it has taken. You are, all of you, a gift.

May you all keep safe and well through these challenging times,

Mari / Orionlodubyal / Infinitetango

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Star Trek Artists: Tips for Getting Your Fan Art Approved by the Brand

One of the abstract Obsidian Order (commissioned) pieces CBS approved on RedBubble.   Another commissioned set of designs approved by CBS this week.   I finally have a handful of artwork that's been approved by CBS for sale on RedBubble! It only took 6 months, but at least now I have a better understanding of what they're looking for, and what they're rejecting. What follows is only slightly above hearsay but it's what I've learned from other Star Trek artists and from representatives at RedBubble and TeePublic (which have now merged.)   I only recently found out a lot of this stuff when RedBubble and TeePublic joined forces. TeePublic reached out to me upload my fanart over there and I asked them what the brands, particularly CBS/Star Trek was looking for. The rep actually gave me some really helpful info that isn't on the Brand Partnership page. Here's the TL;DR if you don't want to read the whole thing: Avoid actors' face...

Why I Can't Delete My Art Off of TeeSpring, but I Wish I Could

I wanted to love TeeSpring, I really did. The art placement dashboard was easy to use and the products described seemed really high quality. They are also one of the few Print-on-Demand sites that offer two-factor authentication, which made me very happy. So I loaded up some art and got started. Within two weeks, I knew this was not going to work out. Here's why. 1. Use our amazing marketing tools - after you prove you don't need our amazing marketing tools. You can't use their marketing tools, or be visible in their marketplace, until you prove you don't need their marketing tools or their marketplace. You have to drive your own sales for some unspecified number before your "Trust Score" is high enough to even appear in the site's search results. Also, they want you to "optimize your listings for search" but you can't use tags. ??? Wait, what now? Like a lot of Print-on-Demand sites (TeeFury, Threadless etc.), TeeSpring let...

The Glory of The Expanse Rewatch

WARNING - Spoilers ahead, probably. Especially if you haven't seen seasons 1-3 of The Expanse. I don't remember enjoying a rewatch of any series as much as The Expanse! (Season 4, as well as the previous seasons, are now available to watch on Amazon Prime.)  As soon as I finished Season 4, I started the entire series again. It's like the series was designed to be watched again and again, just in the sheer density of goodies left for fans. Here are my top reasons to watch the whole again and how to get the most out of the experience. (Click on the pictures to enlarge.) 1. The Soundtrack Get the soundtrack if you haven't already. There are Belter versions of pop songs, beautiful instrumentals from Clinton Shorter, all that country music Alex is always listening to and so much more. It's an outstanding soundtrack at a time when most soundtracks I hear just haven't been that inspiring. The quote below (with link following) really gets at why the sco...