is _Printing_

A series of images and a brief reflection on my most recent print (I think I'm improving).

This was designed for Peddler Brewing glass design competition. This was a hand sketch that was vectorized to sharpen the image and allow it to scale seamlessly.

This piece is inspired by my work with the novel Transistor Radio. The opening chapters are featured on this website. Check it out here.

There is no need to leave extra room for cream and sugar.

Coffee Shops

Artwork inspired by the writing I have been doing in... coffee shops. This experience is referenced below in the first novel from the Worthwhile Journey which is entering into its third draft.

Coffee Shops

I’ve been bopping between two different coffee shops while doing my writing. About 8.2% of the novel was written on my floor and 8.2 words were written on the couch. My apartment ends up being something of a coffee shop anyways; there is always coffee sitting in our Chemex or at least leftover grounds steaming up our compost – yum. My favorite haunt so far has been the Café on the Ave, but sometimes I sneak off to the seedier (read more hip) Café Allegro which is down the block and hidden in an alley. If would take my parents to Café on the Ave, but I’d probably bring my siblings to Café Allegro to give them a grittier, ambience not drinks, taste of Seattle. If they were girls I would consider bringing Café on the Ave home. I wouldn’t bring Café Allegro home – I’d be too scared to ask Café Allegro out. I might be a pseudo-employed, depressed, wannabe writer with an unclear grasp on reality, but she’s still a little too “out there” for me. She serves coffee in cool mugs though. If you’re wondering how this reflection and the very real cafes I’m referencing fit in with the Worthwhile, you can assume I made it out. I’m journaling after all, most of this shit is written in the past tense. (Ellie told me I’m supposed to stop referring to my writing as shit. I told her it was stylistic use of profanity – so it’s staying until someone wielding a bigger red pen than Ell gets their hands on this). The important part isn’t that I made it out - it’d be a sad journey if it didn’t bring me home - the real question ultimately is how I got out and what I took with me. Well, you get to determine what’s important for you as the reader, but that’s what seems important for me right now as the writer. The coffee shops break into the narrative because I’m in a new place today. Bulldog News is diagonally across from Café on the Ave and the titular hound stares down into my typical workspace. I love bulldogs, but I assumed it was a bookstand or bookstore until 30 minutes ago when I took my first break of the day – after one cup of coffee and twenty minutes of writing. I wouldn’t date this coffee shop either, but I would like to hang out with her in a purely platonic fashion. The place is littered with magazine and card racks; I’m not really sure what the main sell is here yet: magazines or coffee. There’s a table in the center of the place that is reserved for social interaction, so if you sit there you are expected to be open to someone sitting down and chatting with you. I love the idea. If I get the courage up I might drop in at that table one day. I’m going to have to stick to Allegro and Café on the Ave. though. The only seats in Bulldog are backless stools and I almost fell out of my chair twice while writing this when I tried to lean back and look deep in thought. Maybe I can come here for an hour at a time to work on my posture and those neglected lower back muscles. The crazy part about all of this is that I’m actually doing this. I’ve been writing consistently enough at this point that I can actually tell you that I broke my pattern. That’s new. It was good to leave school. I’m still convinced of that, but it did send me spinning when the rigid structure to my day was suddenly removed. That certainly did not help at first. An increase in my dosage of sertraline and my psychiatrist’s suggestion that I start writing seem to have gotten me going. Yes, I had some dark thoughts the other day. A week ago, when I drank too much I had really dark thoughts and threw eggs into the street – I’ve since given up alcohol for Lent. I’m still not completely balanced and mentally healthy, but I have structure now.