Changing focus, following my heart

As an artist it’s always been important to me to create from my heart.

As a commercial career artist, it’s always been important to me to balance that with creating work other people want in their lives as well.

Because I need to sell my creations to put food on the table and pay my bills.

It’s a fine balance, and one I’ve been pretty lucky to have a lot of cross over with. It’s humbling that so many people connect with and enjoy my creations.

What people have wanted, overwhelmingly, for the last few years has been colouring books. They have been my main focus for a while, but I’m at the point again now of re-examining my path. What do I want to create, from my heart? I enjoy creating the colouring books, and I LOVE that it is a way I can help people. I love that my designs have a positive impact in people’s lives, offering them some peace and joy when they are suffering in other ways.

But they also conflict in some ways with who I am.

I have some pretty heavy political tendencies. Inside, I’m a roaring progressive humanist raging against what I feel are crimes against vulnerable people and our world.

People have a lot of different opinions on how outspoken a creator should be about political things. I’d like to be more outspoken. I feel as though it’s my duty to speak up, to fight back, to raise awareness and stomp out misinformation. But I also understand that particularly as an artist of escapist fantasy and colouring books, my work is where people go to get AWAY from the horrible parts of our world. Fantasy art and colouring should offer relief. And people NEED relief sometimes.
Having the creator then also sharing some of the most depressing issues facing us hand in hand with pretty fairy colouring? Not a great combo.

But I need to vent. I desire to make a difference. So what do I do?

I start writing again.

In the final episode of Game of Thrones, Tyrion says “There’s nothing more powerful than a good story.”

And I believe that. Stories teach us and change us. It’s proven that reading books increases empathy.
I have so many things to say, and paintings just can’t say enough anymore. A picture tells a thousand words? I dunno. Many things can happen in one thousand words of story. And I plan on writing a lot more than that.
I dream to create something that becomes a transformative part of our culture. I know that’s a BIG goal, but I’m not putting a deadline on that one. It mightn’t be until my 50th novel that I achieve that, or never.
But I will never get there if I don’t start.

What does this mean for colouring books? 
I’ll still be creating them. I’ve worked out a schedule that’s a split between writing tasks and colouring book tasks, so you can expect new releases to continue on the colouring front for now.

What does this mean for my art?
I’ve made the decision that any painting or art I create from now on will only be art that is part of some larger project or publication. That means things like story concept art, cover art, colouring book art, or tarot deck art, but not stand alone fantasy paintings.

What’s next? When will there be new novels out?
I’m keeping the content of my writing projects pretty quiet for the moment. I want them to be close to the point of completion before revealing them. But the plan is to have books (yes, multiple) out by the end of 2019. Stay tuned for official announcements, soon.

What about kids books? 
Picture books were on my list of things to work on this year as well. It’s something I felt like I should do, being as I have some skill in both writing and art, it seemed like a no-brainer. But picture books are a whole different career and huge learning curve in their own right. I dipped my toes in and started developing a couple of stories, but I just had too many doubts and questions about the direction at every point. I’ll keep tinkering with those ideas in my “free time” (*laughs crazily at the idea of free time*), but they will be side hobby projects for now.

Ultimately…
This is about doing what I feel driven to do. Life is short and I WANT to do what I WANT to do. And I’m so privileged to be in a place where I CAN. Of course it’s still scary. Maybe no one will like my new books. I can’t deny that external validation is super important to my ego. Those likes and good reviews are my mana from the heavens that buffer the damage of my own crushing self doubts.
But this feels right, and while I’ve been pondering this change and decision I’ve had a number of signs confirming my choice. I mean, I got a flippin’ Bookbub, first one approved in like five years. Other authors will know understand what a big deal this is.

Thank you for reading my ramblings, and I hope you join me in the journey of reading my even longer ramblings in book form soon!