I have a facebook page that EVERYBODY can add me to now! [link]

I know it says "become a fan" but you can add me if you hate me, too.

might as well go ahead and plug my twitter account too...god I'm such a social media tramp. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN - oh yeah when I started to want a career and junk

Groups is finally here! And to celebrate it, I've opened an official Thorns: Uprising group where members and fans can submit art, start discussions, and participate in games, polls and more. I'm thinking of using this space to bring another dimension to Thorns. For a long time I've wanted to make art just as important as writing; this will allow non-roleplayers to participate in a more meaningful way! I plan to have a few art memes and contests in the future.

The group name is #thornsrpg.

If you've created art based on the world of Thorns, please consider submitting it to the "Featured" collection in the group! It will get you extra exposure and allow everyone to see what a range of talent we have on the site. (There will be some quality control. Please only submit finished works, not sketches. I'll still be keeping my Thorns slideshow of favorites for every kind of submission.) Even if you're not a member of the game, or are no longer active in the game, you can still join as a fan.

Thanks, dA, for giving us groups!

One sentiment I hear quite often on this website is "real artists don't do art for money."

Putting aside the adorable naivete of this comment, the underlying assumption is that artists who sell their work are selling a part of themselves, in a way devaluing the very thing they create. To some, creation is the kind of thing only the gods do, and a monetary transaction sullies that divinity.

I can understand the allure of this opinion. It's nice to think of yourself as above such a petty thing as money. But I am more than a creator. I'm a consumer, and what I consume is food, and food is how I live long enough to create art in the first place. And even if I could make my money in other ways (for example, smuggling yaks), I wouldn't want to live in a world where every single bag, bottle and box of sustenance was devoid of artwork, nothing more than a flat, boring piece of typography (and it would have to be comic sans; every other font is a work of art in and of itself!). I don't think I'd like being treated to advertisements that amounted to "Buy this product" because no artists were consulted, no writers commissioned, to make that ad pleasing to the eye and worthy of my brain's attention.

These same folks more often than not believe artists are special, chosen, that if everyone could create art that art would start to lose its meaning.

There's something kind of distasteful and selfish about this attitude to me. I think of art as a language that makes the world more beautiful, or at least a little more interesting. Wherever you find it (and you can find it in places you least suspect) it's telling a story and doing its job. If you see commercial art as soulless and plastic and fake, fine by me, but I wouldn't care for the alternative - a world where art was planted like a flag at the top of a mountain and only the upper echelons of society could reach it and see it and understand it. Art on advertisements and soda cans and children's books may not seem culturally relevant or even always pleasing to the eye, but it has a purpose. It brings art to the non-artist. It makes life a little nicer.

(Besides...I wouldn't want to work in any other field. Getting to do what I love for a living is awesome, even if I am considered a sellout for it.)

I am currently working on the development of my post-adult-Arizona webcomic Madland again! It feels great to be putting more work into this project, since it's very near and dear to my heart. I'm restarting the comic from the beginning and putting way more time and thought into it, in order to make it as good as possible. This time around `alexds1 suggested I use a livejournal account to get good critiques, so I've been uploading concept art and talking about my issues with the story and design.

Right now I'm opening up some non-spoilery entries to the public, and if people comment regularly, I may add them to my friends list and let them see the secret/spoilery jank. Just remember a lot of the designs up there have been tweaked since I posted.

Here's the link - [link]

(oh and thanks for the DD )

Thanks everybody, for watching me, supporting me, being awesome etc. <3

10 funny/weird things I have experienced on dA:

10. Someone getting genuinely mad that I added them to my devwatch, apparently not understanding how deviantART (or, indeed, the internet) works.
9. People threatening physical violence...over an argument about Avril Lavigne's buttcrack.
8. Dude accusing me of copyright infringement for having a cookie monster journal header, apparently thinking it was my official logo.
7. The sheer number of people who got pissed off at my Harry Potter comic from like 2005. I got angry notes and comments for YEARS after.
6. The sheer number of people who corrected me on that picture I did of Luna Lovegood, some taking it personally that I didn't put the damn newspaper upside down. 99% of comments on that piece are in reference to the newspaper.
5. The guy who demanded to know why I had visited his page, as apparently I was too "popular" to do so; he apparently thought it was a conspiracy to make fun of him.
4. The bajillion pictures of eyes in the Photo and Photomanip categories...WE CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY EYES. Oh, and spiral staircases. Can't have too many of those either.
3. When I temporarily thought =cheezopath was my ex-boyfriend in disguise, or something. I still am not sure how that happened.
2. Many of the clever Time Warps people sent me. That meme has been fun even if it did get a little annoying at times.
1. The hilarious, outraged comments I've received over the years. Apparently after you pass a certain pageview gap you're no longer to have feelings, opinions or thoughts. I've been accused of such crimes as "blowing things out of proportion", "using this journal as an emotional outlet", "stating your opinion like you thought it was right" and a whole host of other offenses. People casually assume I'm dangerously obsessed, disproportionately furious or madly depressed when I so much as mention a negative thought. I've had people who became concerned for my emotional health after I ruminated on childhood memories; there have been bizarre misunderstandings that can't be entirely chalked up to a language barrier or age gap, and general reactionaries who thought I shouldn't discuss politics or religion on the internet, which, as we all know, is only for fan shipping.

Basically the internet is hilarious.

And now, as I have contracted the itis, I am going to slip into a food coma. Goodnight!