Daily Collage: December 26 - 31

Sunday, December 26: Grateful for growing and learning.

The hamster in a maze image I got out of an 80s/90s kids science magazine that someone had left in one of those Little Free Library house boxes in my neighborhood. The plant sprig I cut out, like, literally two years ago for my 2020 collage-quilt project and didn't wind up using. But it's cool, I keep an envelop of collage pieces that don't make the cut (well, obviously they made the cut, they just didn't make the gluing to the final piece) in case I can use them for something else. Something else, like a collage about being a little rodent in her maze who is figuring out how to pop her little head above the walls and actually internalize some of the lessons she's been learning so she can finally frickin' grow as a person. Er. Hamster.

Monday, December 27: Grateful for medication.

After a couple blessed years of dormancy, my upper lip finally had a cold sore flare-up so I was poppin' mad Acyclovir to keep it under control. God, that anti-viral medication is a fuckin' game changer, I tell you what. 

Tuesday, December 28: Grateful for endings. 

Patrons who have been around a while or who have  taken a dive into the archives of my craft posts may recall this little "collaboration" I did a while ago. I bought the book for a couple bucks at Goodwill and then drew my own lemon tree's branches into the background of this one page using a ballpoint pen. 

There, that's what it looked like before I defaced it. 

What does it mean to be grateful for endings? How does this represent gratitude for endings? I dunno, man. I've enjoyed doing this daily collage gratitude project and I'm looking forward to finishing it. I'm looking forward to starting my next project so that I can eventually finish it, too. Something something opening doors something something closing doors something about the end result being repurposed and reused and reborn into the next thing. You know me, I fuckin' love an overwrought metaphor that's all up its butt. 

Wednesday, December 29: Grateful for Matt and our marriage and the life we share together.

Beautifully illustrated pages from another children's book I got out of a Little Free Library.

Matt and I have filled our house with treasure. Just. Objects. Everywhere. Every single one has a story. We collect and compile and display and name all the strange, delightful things we bring into our home. We're like two little creatures filling our burrow with bits and bobs and then nesting down into it with each other in our little den, our warm little home.

Thursday, December 30: Grateful for my community.

Local illustrator Christa Pierce sold me that Portland Has My Heart card at a craft fair the previous weekend. I have some of her other work up around my house and I just generally love her art. It is: my jam. Oh my god, and now that I looked up her Etsy page so I could link that card, I now see that she has that design available as a frickin' print???? HUAHG I NEED IT???? ahem, I digress.

Yeah, so obviously I destroyed that beautiful card. Oh! And I accidentally cut the background paper too small and had to tape a sliced-off piece back on. It's ok, I used the gold washi tape to cover up my cutting sin, and then I was like "Hey, I could add more washi tape and make it look like I was intending to add this cool-ass grid from the get-go and noooo one will suspect anything was amiss!" so that's what I did.

I keep stumbling over my words as I try to explain what my community is in this piece. I'm not a part of The ___ Community, whether it's Queer or Comics or Sex Positive or whatever. I'm terrified of Capital C Community because it means internal politics and backchannel gossip and purity testing and all the ugly little rituals that humans have developed to exclude and ostracize when the group grows big enough. So I'm a queer, pervy, weirdo cartoonist who doesn't belong in the spaces where, on paper, you'd think I'd fit in. But it's ok, because I do have a community, in fact, I have many. My Lower C Community is a dozen mini groupings- oftentimes just a pairing with one other person- composed of individual people I hand-selected for being smart, funny, kind, creative, and in some way just delightful. I have my micro communities (with a lower case C) of cartoonists, of perverts, of queers, and of sweet, wonderful weirdos who fill up my heart. I'm so grateful to them and for them. I couldn't hope for a better batch of humans to share my life with.

Friday, December 31: Grateful for 2021.

Little bean growing up through the staircase, that's what 2021 feels like. Growing up, growing roots, growing healthy, growing strong. Of course 2021 had its hardships, but overall it was a pretty good little year to me, when you look at the big picture. This collage was supposed to turn out a lot prettier and complex, but I encountered many technical difficulties that interfered with my fancier paper tricks. You can still see what it is, though, it gets the point across, so I'm willing to call that a win- just like 2021, eh??? ;D

December Daily Gratitude in Review:

(The collages are sharing a photo album with my pictures from my trip to visit Lucy and Danielle in August, as seen on the left side)

I missed a day or two but, hey, who's counting? You can read my deep dives on each piece by digging through the Daily Gratitude collage archive. It's 11:39pm for me, I'm callin' it a night. Thanks for following along with this dumb little project. I really had fun with it.