#artvsartist2021

December 13th, 2021

A lot of my favorite people — my artist friends — have shared their #artvsartist year, and I am nothing if not a wannabe waiting outside the house party, watching my breath freeze in the cold, so here is mine. These posts are also often about gratitude, and I have no shortage of that.

I decided to do an original piece with all original characters; you might recognize some or none of them, but if you recognize them all then you have definitely been a fan (or friend) for a long time.

This framework accurately represents what my brain is like: the Brady Bunch meets Fight Club. And you know the first rule: Marcia cannot catch a football.

Now for the gratitude part.

I have said it at least a million and one times, but there is not another feeling out there like the one you get when someone “gets” your work. There just isn’t.

And there’s a difference between an overall appreciation of art or the work we do (which is the bulk of what we receive), and when a person really understands something to the particular wavelength it resonates on.

I have been unbearably lucky to have met people who truly get what I do, and as an artist, I can’t actually express how much that means. I just want to tell you thank you — thank you for taking your time on me, thank you for being patient with me, thank you for keeping me alive.

These characters are a big part of the Vogenverse (I’m just gonna keep calling it that until it sticks or dies), and I have plans for all of them in 2022 and beyond. Who are you excited to see? Who am I missing? What kind of merch actually gives you warm fuzzies when you find it? Let me know in the comments.

And I hope you’re either basking in the glow of the holiday season, or hanging in there like I know you can. I am literally doing both, so I see you.

All my love.