The Last Eight Months In Five Minutes Or Less

Keen eyes may note: I have not updated this site since March 2011.  It is now November. So, what the heck has happened in the last eight months?!  Geez Amy, where ya been??!

Here's what's different:

• I HAVE A DOG.
  
  I just accidentally typed "I hate a dog," which is funny and apt. I do have a dog.  I had never had a dog, and had no intention of getting one, before March 17 2011. That is the day that my lovely friend Sharon found a five pound chihuahua in the weed lot behind her library and posted this picture on facebook:
  
  She was going to take him to Oakland Animal Control. Instead, I called up Oakland Animal Control and asked how they would feel about a concerned citizen fostering this found animal. They were like "YESYESYESYESYESYES, I mean, yeah, if you can, that'd be cool..."
  
  So that is how I got a dog. This is him now (play your favorite montage music in your head; I will choose Sarah McLachlan or Natalie Merchant):
  
  
  
  
• I LIVE IN OAKLAND AGAIN.
  I do. This spring the library I work for was threatened with, essentially, complete shutdown. I jumped into the battle and put in double duty--full time work during the day, full time advocacy/activism at night. This is why no one heard anything from me basically from April through July. Unless they were following the budget battle.
  
  Anyway, the day after it all ended and we got our funding secured (yay!!), I found a fantastic apartment in Oakland. With studio space. And close enough to my work that I could walk the dog (see above) at lunchtime. So, immediately after the budget battle, I moved.  This is why no one heard from me from July through August.
  
  August through October, I was just being lazy.
  
  October through now, I've been working on this lil' thing.
  
  I love Oakland. It is my true heart and spirit home. Blah, blah, burning sage and other woo-woo stuff. I really love being here. I do not miss living in San Francisco one tiny bit. Surprising considering how much I freaked out over the prospect of not living there, while I still was. But I love the sun shining over Lake Merritt. I adore the friendly folks, the community spirit, and the Occupy activists who refuse to pass lily-livered, defeatist resolutions against property destruction. You guys rock.
  
  I also love the geese.
  
• MY ETSY STORE HAS LAPSED, AND I HAVE NOT BEEN TO ANY COMIC SHOWS.
  You know what? I am super lucky. I have a job (thanks to aforementioned successful budget battle) that I really, truly love. I'm a children's librarian. I spend my days evaluating art and literature, and presenting them to critics who do not hold back in their judgements; the result of their critiquing is an art form so powerful, it makes grown ass adults burst into tears when they see an image from a book they loved decades before. I really love that this is my job.
  
  This puts me in the fortunate position of not, for the time being, needing to make money off my art. Therefore, I am rethinking my presentation of said art. Do I need to commodify the things I create? I mean, I might. I'm not saying I won't do things like sell pretty books or go to conventions again. Just that for now, I am not doing them. Not at this particular moment. I'm leaning toward things like... posting comics online, having shows, printing mini comics super cheaply. I want to get back to having fun with it and quit worrying about the marketing so much. I want to experiment with illustrating written text in addition to making comics and cartoons. There's a whole world out there.
  
  
• I HAVE BECOME ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.
  You know, one of THOSE people. I have a smart phone. Blugh!!
  
  And after railing against them for years, I totally love it. Go ahead. Make fun.

Make Some Noise, Pop

I don't go to a lot of shows.  I'm an old lady.  Most nights, I stay home carefully arranging my shoes in a perfectly straight line, so the toes stick out a precise 1/8th of an inch from underneath the bed... no, I kid.  There is nothing orderly about my shoes, and anyway I keep my clothes under my bed because my apartment is tiny and so's my closet.  But it's true that I don't go to a lot of shows.  This is the face I am currently staying home to most nights:

However!  When James Sime of Isotope Comics invited me to contribute a piece to Noise Pop 2011 in Comics, I was like yeah!!  How fun.  My assignment was to interview Social Studies, a San Francisco band that is quickly becoming everybody's darlings.  They're big in the local music scene, and they just made a hell of a splash at SXSW.  I? had never heard of them.  (See above: "I don't go to a lot of shows.")  But I got to know them... I spent some time listening to their music and watching their videos, and then I had the pleasure of seeing them perform live before I met them in person.  Imagine my delight at being alone in a crowd at dark old Bottom of the Hill, clutching my whiskey, knowing that in less than an hour I was going to sit these cutely dressed people currently tuning up guitars and plugging in amps down and ask them two very personal questions:

1) Please tell me a story from when you were seven.  (If you don't know for sure that you were seven [when it happened], you may guess.)

2) Now imagine you, the adult you, could be dropped into this story, so that you are present with your seven-year-old self as they experience it.  What would you do?

They did not disappoint.  The responses started out silly, traveled through poignant, and ended with a conversation with a stranger that had me blinking back tears.  Please enjoy my illustrated account of the time I spent with Social Studies.  And then go enjoy their music....

You can see all the Noise Pop 2011 Comics, including pieces by Susie Cagle, Roman Muradov, Greg Hinkle, and Jamaica Dyer, right here.  Be sure to visit my piece on their site while you're at it.  I'm proud and honored to be a part of this brand new project and hope it continues year after year.

Buy original art, support 826 Valencia!

So it turns out I have a philanthropic side.

I'm participating in 826 Valencia's Spelling Bee for Cheaters, to be held this Thursday, Feb. 17, at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco.  I'm not the designated speller, but I am on a team... and it happens to be the hottest team in the history of the Bee.  And that's because we are (almost) all librarians!!  And hey, doesn't that lady in our logo look familiar?!

We DO get to cheat---a lot, thanks to the fact that we've raised more than $12,500---but our competition is fierce.  Along with several other civilian teams, we face the following formidable opponents:
Adam Savage
Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket)
Lisa Brown
Michael Chabon
Tracy Chapman
Thao Nguyen
Joy Loya, famous bank robber
The editors of 7x7 Magazine
LAWYERS

So, what does this mean for YOU? Because it's all about YOU, isn't it?  Right?

Well!  I have made a series of cheating librarian paintings, and you could own one!  How, you ask?  Donate $100 to my fund before noon (Pacific time) on Thursday, and one is yours!  Check out the paintings below. 

As each sells, I'll update here.  Email me if there's a specific one you have your eye on and I can hold it while you can your donation in. 

This is your chance to own original art (for a steal, I might add) and support an awesome arts organization at the same time. 

Oh, and wish us luck in the Bee!!  It'll be broadcast on City Arts and Lectures (on NPR) in April.

--Amy

Paintings are all gouache:

SOLD     SOLD     SOLD    SOLD   SOLD    SOLD

SOLD     SOLD        SOLD          SOLD           SOLD

SOLD     SOLD     SOLD    SOLD   SOLD    SOLD

What's going on here??

I've been painting.......

Stay tuned.

My favorite person of 2010!

Hopefully you remember Nicola Briggs---I will never forget her.  See her tell her own version of her story here.  And for more resources on fighting street harrassment, check out the awesome HollaBack!