I am glad to see you are back, I was wondering how things were going for you. Sorry to hear that you are having a hard time, I can relate to some extent to what you described, I had to fight against sickness (lost too much weight) and some inner monsters who tried to take the spark away from me as well. Looks like this year is being in general a very complicated one. I truly hope you are feeling better by now, both physically and emotionally.

About family, please don't allow them or anybody to take the spark away from you, as I've said before, you have a gift to make beautiful things, no one can take it from you, don't let them try. It is usually hard to find support from people that don't understand or don't want to, in my case, I never mention to family about my art endeavors to avoid trouble. Your path is yours to travel, at some point they will have to accept it, it might just take a bit of time =).

Please take your time and go on your own pace, we are here for you and this won't change, a burnout now won't help you. If you ever need a pair of ears, feel free to message me, I care =).

Best wishes and shine bright.

Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts! Sometimes my wonderful watchers and friends are all I have. I am so lucky to have you all though

I'm glad that you have recovered since! Sounds like it was an awful time for you

I grew up with so much resentment and anger on my family's behalf. If I learned anything being here it's that your family is more the one you choose, and doesn't always have to be the one that you are biologically tied to. Honestly, my friends have been there for me so much more and their support is unwavering!

Thankfully I am getting back into the groove. I will be uploading one piece per day (at least on mon-fri), even if it's just a simple sketch. I can't run away from my destiny anymore. Since I was 6 years old I've been making art, and anything else I do is just foreign and a waste of my time. Not once have I gotten ahead with a boring old cookir-cutter jobs! Honestly the time I was thriving was a few years ago with my art career right before the guy I started dating destroyed that part of my life.

Luckily I have gotten wiser about the people I let into my life. I refuse to be unhappy! Life is so short already, we need some rays of sun.

Thank you very much, I will keep you in mind when I am having a rough go. Maybe we could do an art trade some time, too

You don't lose your spark either, your artwork is so lovely!

Of course! And I can put your name on my prayers as well if you want, I usually lit a candle once per week to meditate, heal and send positive energies to others =).

The recovery was far from pleasant, I am still underweight but not skin and bones as before, been trying to omnomnomnom a bit better ^^;.

Sorry to hear that things were difficult for you as you grew up, these aren't good feelings to be exposed to on a regular basis, I hope you managed or is managing to fly above the storm now. I was kinda raised to work work work, so there ain't a lot of room for feelings, art and the community here are my escape.

I believe that the family we find on our journey is far more precious than the one given to us at birth. The first is our safe port, the second is our challenge, while honoring both is important, I'd rather stick with the first when it has a solid base.

Makes me happy to see the spark is back with you, hold true to your light but please consider taking your time, we usually adapt better to gradual changes rather than sudden ones, it might help you to be prepared for the long run you'll head =). An art career is challenging but beautiful at the same time and I am crossing all my fingers (toes too) that it will be a very happy one =).

Relationships are something I generally avoid, I can't simply give a piece of myself to someone if the person doesn't care for it as a whole, specially if such piece is where art lives and pulses. No no, it has to be kept safe ^^;.

Do you know Kintsugi? I believe that the more cracks one being has the more beautiful he or she ends up becoming, we don't learn much without mistakes after all.

A trade would be a lot of fun, just let me finish my current art queue and we can talk about it :D.

Thank you, I'll do my best ^.^

I would be very appreciative if you could include me in your prayers, thank you! That is very sweet of you

Yay! Sounds like you're getting there slowly but surely. I'm proud of the progress you have made!

Oh for sure, our chosen family can bring out our main potential!

Oh, I have decided to mix things up with what I am working on. I found it helps me best to have multiple projects going on at once. For example; I am sculpting kima over my moveable art doll and I'll be taking a lot of adorable photos of her with huge stuff lol she's only about 4" tall

Yeah, I love having people in my life to care for me, but having a relationship definitely complicates our own journeys because we then become responsible for our own happiness and that of our life partner, and that gets exhausting if you haven't sorted yourself out quite yet (like me haha, but I'm headed in that direction)

Kintsugi? I have not heard of them or that, do you have a good link where I can read up?

Yes! A trade would be so great! I have a bit of a que too, but I just wanted to have the option open for us both once things have slowed down.

Much love and all the positive vibes back at ya

Will definitely do! I usually prefer asking before as some people don't like or don't believe sending positive energies work ^^;.

Thank you, things are improving slowly but steady, at some point I'll need to control the noms otherwise I might start getting chubby XD.

I am the same, for some reason I feel far more productive and generally enjoy the process more when I start several projects at once, today I have 6 drawings on my queue and I am really considering adding another one ^^;.

I look forward for seeing this sculpture you are doing, your character is beautiful so I am sure a 3D version of her it is going to be as well =).

Here where I live I am generally the one taking care of people so sometimes I really feel like just hiding and staying on my own. With this community however it is quite the opposite, I've met so many kind, fun and helpful people that the minimum I can do is trying to retribute in some way ^^;.

The way I see it, a relationship has to empower the lives of both souls, it is a bound to take the parts beyond the individual. If this doesn't happen it becomes tiring and troublesome. Since finding this level of communion is very difficult, learning to enjoy our own company and be happy with it seems like a wiser choice ^^;.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold, it has a beautiful philosophical value because the more broken a pot was, the more gold it receives and the more it shines, usually looking infinitely better than before. I like to imagine that the cracks and breaks we pass on our way only help us to fill the spaces with the gold of wisdom and virtue. Tradition says it is the art of precious scars =).

Here is an example: https://www.lifegate.com/app/upload.....ugigrigia1.jpg

Will definitely keep the trade idea for when things a bit calmer, on the meantime, shine bright! I look forward for what you'll be doing and again, it is really good to see you back =)

Oh I hear ya, people definitely have diverse beliefs. Fortunately I am all about natural healing and magical properties from the earth.

I am a little squishy, but sugar is honestly the hardest thing for me to resist.

IT'S BEEN POSTED http://www.furaffinity.net/view/28809010/

I definitely know how it is being the care-taker. Very energy draining.

Agreed. AND THAT IS GORGEOUS! I love the whole idea, thank you so much for sharing that with me

That is exactly the fields I aim for :D. I am 100% earth, been studying & attempting to include shamanic practices on my daily life for a while ^.^

Where I work there is a machine full of kitkat, I hear it calling me all the time XD.

It is super duper energy draining, that is why I rely on my crystals and stones for recharging, I have a green jade for dreams and a black onyx to relief stress and anger ^^;.

I am glad you liked, it is a beautiful philosophy and helps with self-esteem on the moments we feel a bit cracked, I am thinking on doing some art about it in the future =).

That rocks! Keep practicing :D I'm very much air and fire elemental. I enjoy the water and the earth respectively as well, but more for environmental and visual purposes.


Kitkat? Like the candy?

Oh I gotta recharge my crystals and gemstones! It's been so long and they are currently sitting in a velvet sack.

Definitely do art of it! I can't wait to see

Been gathering materials for crafting my own drum, the dreamcatcher already hangs on the window ^.^

I deal with air sometimes but I am pretty much just earth ^^;, fire and air are more subtle yet powerful enough to make their presence seen when necessary, these are good traits to have =)

Yes, the candy, it is hard to resist when it is just a few steps and coins away XD.

Yay, you have stones too :D, I keep mine in a tiny basket, but I have a small leather sack with a string to carry one or two with me =).

Been thinking on doing a whole series called Precious Scars, you could give it a try as well, it would look great with your marker art :D

Take pictures of all your beautiful shaman and magic stuff some time x3 I would love to see your materials!

I know I need to charge them in both sun and moonlight but I haven't been seeing much of either lately. Too many clouds and all that rain.

Aww, you're so sweet to let me use your beautiful idea, maybe we can incorporate that into the trade piece?

Will do ^.^ I don't have many things but will try getting em all together for a photo =).

Oh, I am in a similar situation, not having enough sun & moon, and specially time. When things are like this I usually ground them so they work just as energy filters.

Sure thing, I believe more people should know about it since it helps empowering oneself so the more people making art about it the better :D. That sounds like a great plan to me ^.^

Okay awesome :D there was a sequence in my older version of the comic I'm working on where the characters would crack and eventually crumble like ash that I can maybe play with too

as ARCR said. if they want to live mundane, meaningless lives, it's their loss; don't let them tell you how to live.
and all that extra stress can make you sick, too. been there, developed a rash behind the ear, had to quit that poisonous job right away. :P

I'm somehow lucky, in that my family doesn't care what I draw. despite me doing my arts at the dinner table for all to see. I even showed my portfolio to two aunts who paint, too, and they were delighted, even over the fetish stuffs. :) the rest of the family doesn't really care, so they are not hindering me, either. :)

Haha that's right! I watch each one of the older family members bitch about their jobs and they gossip about our own family SO MUCH like the amount of toxicity is just too much. I have a theory that they want to see me fail at this so they can feel a little more accomplished in their own lives and continue to view themselves as my superior and not my equal.

That's so cool! Heh they saw the fetish stuff eh?? A few of my family members like my artwork, but mostly my younger cousins and my sisters. My family KNOWS I'm talented, but they just won't recognize my art as a job as well, some people will forever be ignorant.

quite possible. instead of trying to improve their own situation they keep on with their status quo, probably out of fear of failure... so they want to see others fail before them.

maybe that's why fail video complilations are so popular on YT... in times I like to watch them, but after a while they get boring. win compilations are better, because who dares, wins. :)

the best thing was, that my aunties then closed the folder, and one said, "well, he seems to know the basics well, so... do you have a GF yet?" at which I turned red as a lobster. XD

Yeah I think that's exactly why they are popular!

Hee hee they made you blush

That's another thing though, this conception that every person needs another person to be seen as successful in life, when really, our successes is whatever we want it to be as long as our dream and motivations are strong enough!

I am quite actually enjoying the single life. It has been giving me a good chance to focus on getting my career a stable foundation. Honestly what I lack right now is exposure for my work. I plan on selling prints and merch of my stuff at conventions (maybe I'll split a table with a friend at first) Once I have my stuff out there and some business cards circulating I hope for this to sustain me well enough to pursue my own projects, like my comic for instance. My dream is to get that bad boy published some day, but as it is now, I don't have the extra time due to low funding.

some people are simply unable to think outside the frame.

aw. good luck and much success with it all. :)
hm, maybe an occasional trade would help. or some fan-art... we'll see. ^.^

They're just envious that you are creative.

I know how to feel about "traditional work". Maybe at some point there was a benefit. if you got a factory job or textiles, it was soul sucking work but they took care of you and your family. Those dont' exist any more. It's a cut throat business. I just lost my job and I'm working on my own thing + trying to get something better at a place that will actually take care of me.

Don't let them discourage you! You are creative with valuable work. They can't say the same.
Depression is rough too. I suffered with it last year. Just take it a day at a time, do small thing for yourself~. Even if it's exhausting.

Stay Determined~!

Yeah, or that they had to be stuck with jobs that cause them misery, and they would rather me also be unhappy.

Yeah, I don't know why the older generation hasn't seen just how shitty the economy has become, no one really offers full time positions anymore because it costs their company money to offer employees benefits. I would rather be my own boss if I am not going to get those extras anyway. Definitely makes having a flexible schedule easier so I can take care of my health (I have severe insomnia, anxiety, and P.T.S.D. and don't always get enough sleep)

Doing my best! Thank you I'm really glad that I didn't stay brainwashed by their religion. I feel like my eyes are so much more open since I decided to follow my own aspirations and beliefs.

I hope you keep thriving as well

I am going through some similar shit. :<

We can get through these trials!