… which is a line from a traditional song that I really like to sing this time of year. Not that it has anything to do with anything else in this post, but since I haven’t posted since last month it seemed appropriate. Also it’s a very nice song to listen to while you’re reading this!

So, what have I been doing?

All the work for my Feline Fancies show, in my living room before hanging it at the venue!

I’ve been getting ready for a show at the Shatterbox Coffee Bar, a lovely little place in Victoria BC that makes absolutely divine coffee. This was just about the right amount of work to fill the space available. I’m looking forward to doing some hang-out-and-draw days there, drinking lattes, signing comics (I also have a basket with my cat comics and prints on the counter) and talking with folks about the art.

I generally do all my own framing, so this was quite an undertaking! I highly recommend to other artists: get your own mat-cutter, and learn how to put your work in different frames. It’s so satisfying to carry the art through the whole process to the finished piece, and will give you total control as well as saving you money!

I just posted the ones in the blue mats, which are “catfish”, as my Mermaid Music webcomic today. Take a look!

… and then…

I left behind my island home Wednesday for Saskatoon (where I’m posting from right now), bound for the Saskatoon Comic and Entertainment Expo, where I’m at Booth 912 in Artist Alley! This is the first convention I’ve done in a while for which I had to take a plane trip, and let me tell you, the packing was… interesting. The baggage limit was 50 lb for check in, and I was juggling comics and my table display gear back and forth between my main luggage and my two allowed pieces of carry on until the bathroom scales said that I was safe. Then we were off!

I’m travelling with a fellow comics artist, kd prosser of ThinkInk Comics, who has family here that we are staying with. They’ve been wonderful, picking us up at an insanely late hour when our flight from Vancouver was delayed (and delayed, and delayed), feeding us beautiful homegrown veggies, and showing true prairie hospitality to this stranger from the coast. Today we got a tour of the town, and I got to see the Mighty Saskatchewan River (as made legend in the Arrogant Worms song, “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate”) at long last! Today we set up for the show.

Besides all this, I’ve been working on illustrations for two books; one for an educational project that is now done, and one for a children’s book, to be finished soon. I’m waiting on the publishers’ go-aheads to talk about those, so I’ll say no more right now, but hope to be able to show you some of what I’ve been doing for these sometime soon!