Life Update - September 2019
Since my last update, the most intense season of our convention year has passed.
Anthrocon came and went, with it's own set of developments, which you can read about here. Long story short, there were a lot of pros and cons to the event (getting to meet good friends in person, working with our friend Julie... but also several very uncomfortable interactions with attendees), and it crystallized into me deciding to stop taking commissions going forward, to better focus on the work that matters to me the most.
During the lead up to Gencon, while crunching to get several big oil paintings ready for the show, I had to go through some big emotional processing which led to me doing a better job of asking for what I need in day to day life, to make getting my work done easier for me. At that particular moment, it meant that in order to meet my goals, I had to ask Jonathan and our friend who was staying with us to work around my staying up late and getting up early, as well as taking over things like cooking and cleaning that I just didn't have the time or energy left for.
And with a lot of coordination and many long hours of work, I was able to get everything done that I wanted to.
There are a few reasons that I placed such importance on Gencon and getting things pulled together for it. For one thing, as I didn't get into ECCC this year, it's the only major con I'm doing which is not a furry con. So it was my main chance to really pull together my body of personal work, especially the things that I can't really take to a furry con.
For the prior two Gencons, I had been trying to pull together a lot of this work, and always fell short on the time and means to do it. This time, I felt that I needed to get that right. That was the whole reason I was doing Gencon-- to prove to myself that I could bring a body of work I was proud of, and that wasn't just whatever I had around from my other events.
In the end, I as able to not just bring that body of work, but to go a really long way in improving my table presentation and setup as well. It made for a Gencon where I did better than I have any previous year at that event by a third, and had way more interactions with people who understood exactly where I was coming from with the core meanings of my work. It was all absolutely worth it.
As soon as we got back from Gencon, we had less than a week to pull things together for our annual international convention, Eurofurence in Berlin. This year, following our friend Zelaphus's invitation, we flew in to Nantes, France a few days ahead of the convention.
We got to spend a day walking around the city, looking at old (sometimes seemingly out-of-perspective) buildings, sitting in cafes drinking wine and people watching while making art.
My impersonation here may seem mean-spirited, but there was a man sitting outside this cafe making this VERY French facial expression while smoking his cigarette and drinking wine, and we already had the same hat, so please forgive me.
Following our day of France-walking, we took the train with our friends all the way to Berlin, where we got straight to setting up for the convention. Arriving in Europe early made adjusting to jet lag MUCH easier, and that plus my looking up last year's sales numbers to do a better job of packing made for an easier and more successful convention overall.
Since arriving back, the past couple of weeks have mostly seen me working to get back on top of admin tasks and wrapping up digital commissions. We've just started streaming again after a long break during the busy season, and being home for a full three weeks has given me a chance to at least feel somewhat grounded again.
At least for the moment. Normally returning from Eurofurence would mark the end of our convention year until early December, with fall being the quiet period. But this year I've added Gender Unbound back into my schedule, and we're Guests of Honor at Confuror in Guadalahara, on top of already having our annual trip to Illuxcon.
So, for the time being, I'm just trying to focus as hard as I can on getting my final couple of commissions off of my plate, so that I can be completely freed up to work on my personal projects from here forward.
The change in seasons feels as though it has come on very suddenly this week, and it leaves me both intimidated by the tasks ahead and excited to rise to the challenge. I have more to excited about than not, if I can keep up with it all!
-S