Blind Story Studios giving Story a voice. Treet Deep are you a Betty?
Do you like to Twitter? And tweet? Come find this on Twitter at
Victoria's list tree tweet. Hello. This is Daniel Foytech and I welcome you
to episode three of Inside the Music Box are behind the scene interviews with the
folks that make the show possible. Today's interview is with Janetta Andromeda, are
creative director. As creative director, she is primarily responsible for the visual aspect
of the show. That means the art, look, the fuel, the
vibe, everything that you get from the website to the cover images Janette is
involved in. So sit back, relax, and enjoy our discussion about art
and some of the challenges in making art. We also talk about artists and
their responsibility to tell the truth as they see it. So today my guest
is Janette Andromeda. Jeanette is one of my favorite people on the planet,
and we're going to talk about art today. Already adventures, right, isn't
that? Isn't it your catchphrase? Or wasn't that your catchphrase at one point?
Already Adventures It was when I was being properly protective on YouTube, which
I have not been in a while. To those who watched my YouTube channel,
I'm so sorry, but don't worry. I'm not dead. That's good
to know. Even if even if you have been bitten by ticks and infected
with lyme disease, who knows. We'll find out after a month is I
don't want to get to eggs a month? Ah yeah, So it takes
about a month after you get bit by a tick to have any of the
I mean there's also starts of fun things that ticks can carry, so you
know, I'll get tested for a bunch of them and see if I if
I want the tick lottery at all. So so, just so we don't
scare anybody. So I just got by it, bitten by it to we
yesterday today? Uh like like two weeks ago. Oh, two weeks ago.
Oh well this I thought this was a new development. Oh no.
The new development was me looking at the bites and being like, wow,
they're still there and they look kind of terrible. Maybe I should deal with
that. Maybe you maybe you'll have like tick powers or spider powers or something.
Could be a spider spider powers would be better. I've seen the tick
and he's hilarious. But I wouldn't want his powers. He's nigh invulnerable.
Yeah, past oh, that might be helpful because I'm allergic to life,
so maybe being nigh invulnerable would be a benefit for me tremendous. So,
talking about arts, You've done art for all kinds of projects for me.
You've done stuff for Victoria's Lyft, and you've done stuff for the Wicked Library,
and you did stuff for our books and all kinds of stuff. So
you do you do? So what are some of the things that inspire you
when you sit down to create a piece. I mean, I know that
I'm usually pretty loosey goosey with you. I give you some general ideas about
what I'm thinking most of the time. Sometimes I've been a little more specific,
but for the most part, I usually just kind of throw general ideas
at you and let you run with it, because you're a lot better anything
that I tell you you're gonna do come up with something better anyway. So
I'm always curious, like where the inspiration comes from. Like, for instance,
as we're recording this, you're working on art for the Wicked Library season
eleven, And I know the only thing I really threw at you was Season
of sci fi and you don't have to spoil anything and tell me what you're
what you're doing. But how do you how do you come up with inspiration
whenever someone gives you something vague like that? Is that fun? I've always
thought it was fun to let you kind of pick, but I don't know,
maybe it's like I want more information. It kind of depends on the
project, Like I love the Artistic Liberty project, like what you said to
me, where it's like I need something wiged library slash sci fi like cool.
When I first came up with the idea for the season art that you
will have before the new season comes up, just a couple of days,
folks, a couple of days. It actually came from I was in New
Mexico and I went into this little secondhand bookshop and I ended up um finding
a couple like nineteen seventies, you know, like one cent reprints of early
fifties sci fi stories, and the specific one that I was reading was The
Legion of Space is low key, just sexist the entire way through, but
hilarious to read. But it kind of came from that. And what's funny
about that particular little shop is it was a day where I had. I
was wandering around after getting my septum pierced, because that's what you do.
It was like my first day after the fourteen day COVID quarantine, after traveling
to New Mexico, I was finally able to go explore. So I got
my piercing done, went down the street, went into the store, found
these books, and specifically the Legion of Space, and then I ended up
in a long conversation about how the dudes who were running the store evaded the
draft and did lots and lots of psychedelics for quite a while. And I
ended up stuck in that conversation for a hot minute until this lady came in
rolling a suitcase, grumbling about how her daughters had betrayed her and sold all
of her books and she was trying to find them. And I'm like,
yep, I'm gonna follow that lady out by my daughters have betrayed me and
sold all that. As someone who loves books, that sounds pretty awful,
you know what. Yeah, She's like, they think I'm a hoarder,
but they don't understand these were like first edition books. I'm like, I'm
so sorry, Please tell me more because I really want to leave this conversation
about psychedelics right now. Um, and then I'm gonna hung around for the
conversation about psychedelics personally. But that's just me for a while. I think
that I'm a book hoarder. But I think that's like I don't know if
you can call it hoarding if it's something specific, like maybe if you just
like have books just to have them, it's hoarding. But like if you
actually read them or lend them to people, or as she had said,
you know, their first editions, their collector items, they have some monetary
value. Um, I don't know if that's hoarding. I think I think
I defined hoarding is like if you have too many ballpoint pens that don't work
anymore, or a boxfull of bags, or a bag full of boxes,
or a boxful of burned out light bulbs. Like to me, that's hoarding.
That's hoarding, whereas like a room full of books is called a library.
A library. Yes, so yeah, that she turned into an interesting
conversation. Walking down the street with her while she's rolling her suitcase and betching
about her her daughters, I kind of asked, what was what's up with
the suitcase was was the suitcase full of books that she had found. Yes,
she was trying to like that was how she was storing the books that
she was buying back. Um, she was on a hunt to find,
like, not necessarily the copies that her daughters had sold, because she had
given up hope on that, but like ones that she'd lost in the process
of her daughter's downsizing for her. Um. Interesting lady. I appreciated our
talk as we wandered down the street, and she told me about how her
son used to play the drums down in the corner and how his girl take
psychedelic car across the street. No, he wasn't doing psychedelics. He was
just, you know, a non psychedelic drummer. Okay, non psychedelic drummer.
Believe it or not. I know they exist. I'm sure there's lots
of very clean and sober drummers. Maybe my experience with rock music from the
sixties and seventies is that that's a rare commodity. But you know, so
that's where the idea. So the idea is the lady, or the idea
is the books that you were because I like the idea of the lady being
the lady with the suitcase sounds like a fantastic cover. Maybe we should do
a joke cover for the Wicked Library with this woman that's rolling down the street,
you know, with a with a piece of luggage trying to find that
sounds that sounds like a great story to me, you know, like especially
if the books have like some kind of power or something like that, like
maybe they're books of spells and she's like, my daughters have no idea.
They just got rid of the necronomicon. They've unleashed chaos into the world by
selling. That's right. I hope no, I hope nobody opens the books.
Oh yeah, they will swallow your soul. That gives some urgency to
her character. Like now she can be like, you know, dressed oddly
and eccentric, with her hair all wild and everything because she's out there on
a quest to save the universe by getting her books back. I love it.
That should be a Wicked Library episode. Someone might just have to write
it. Yeah, contense listeners, if you're an author um free game,
that's right. So for this scenario, you were you were inspired by pulp
covers from the fifties and sixties. Is that right, yep, um,
So I really wanted to do something kind of like classic sci fi horror,
and currently in its current state, there is a female astronaut who is about
to fire back at a giant monster in space because she has her library card
and she's allowed to take the books that are clutched in one arm. That's
awesome. Yeah, So I kind of like, in my head, this
monster is like protecting a planet that is a library, kind of like doctor
Huvianum. And she's gone in and like grab some books and it's like those
are referenced section only, and she's like, fun, I have my library
hard. That's the story that I imagine is going on. Well I like
that. I like that there's a there's a story behind it. I think
the art is always more interesting when you know the actual story behind it.
So hopefully the bizarre story I came up with comes across well. Otherwise,
I mean, at the very least it's a lady with a library card loading
in space versus a monster and like alien thing. Yeah, I mean,
at least it'll be pretty. I mean, your stuff's always beautiful, so
thank you. So, I know one of the things that I've I've commented
on before, and we've talked about before with your artwork, is the use
of lights in your work. You have a fascinating use of light. So
I'm curious kind of where that came from and maybe who your artistic influences are.
That is that something that you developed on your own. Is that something
that was inspired by the work of any any specific or particular artist. Ah,
it actually came from when I worked in theater as a set designer.
I would always work very closely with the lighting designers because light always brought everything
to life or killed it. Yes, the wrong color light will flatten out
your entire paint treatment, the wrong angle of light will make something that is
luscious look fake, or vice versa. And I would always pay very close
attention to what they were doing, the angles and the color and the contrast
so and how like they could take this three dimensional object or flat painted thing
and make it and like heighten it. Oh yeah, I mean light is
so important in especially in theater. I mean, yes, I've seen some
productions where their professional productions and the light is too bright and they just wash
everybody's face out. And I've also seen ones that were like the local community
theater and they had excellent lighting, you know. So it's really it's really
dependent upon how qualified, how good your your lighting person is. I mean,
you can have the best set and the best makeup and costumes in the
world, but if the lighting is off, it's it's a bad time.
Like it's so for people who don't like maybe go see live theater very often.
Imagine just going into the hospital, right, you have just flat,
flickery, unpleasant fluorescent lighting most of the time. Now imagine you're in your
favorite coffee shop. There's usually softer light, and it's usually lower, and
it's just more gentle and it's more comfortable. There's lots of different ways to
shape a reality just through light, And I think about that a lot when
I'm drawing. There's still a lot I can improve with my lighting in my
art. I'm constantly thinking about it, and I do find other artists to
pull inspiration from, especially artists who work a lot in black and white or
inks like Alex murd I actually love her stuff so much, and I look
at how she uses her her contrast to just really shape things in negative space,
and I find that very very inspired. Yeah, it's really cool.
She she does have a very deaf hand, you know. I think some
of that comes from having a comic book backgrounds type of thing, you know,
where she does a lot of comics, and when you're working with boxes,
you know, there's the use of negative space in those panels I think
is pretty important. Not that I'm an expert on comic books, just as
a reader of and an admirer of. That's one of the things that I
always admire and find interesting is how those boxes, how those panels are used.
Yeah, the flow of a comic page can be a beautiful thing.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's storytelling. I mean we've had this
conversation obviously multiple times before about how important um storytelling is in everything that we
do, and especially for creatives, you know, whether it's writing or arts.
I mean, there's there's a lot that you can do in arts that
is not something that you can do in the written word. What was the
old saying a picture is worth a thousand words, So you know, there
are there are things that can come across with subtle facial expressions if you're you
know, doing characters and the angle of a head or the clothing that they're
wearing or you know, all that stuff is just so it's fascinating to me
because it's something I can't really do, um, but it's it's just amazing
how much can be conveyed just by looking at an image. You know.
One of my favorite things that you've done for me is the art work that
you did for the first von Hamlin story where we had Victoria being led with
the other children by the piper. In fact, it's my desktop wallpaper and
I'm looking at it now. That's a and uh yeah, I mean,
I know we went kind of we went back and forth a couple of times
on like colors and things like that, but I mean, like when I
look at just the facial expressions on the individual children and and you know,
the way that the light is used, and there's little dots of power,
energy, light whatever we want to call them, that are surrounding him,
and just the vapid expression on some of the faces. And you know,
we talked about the clothing too, like how it should convey the fact that
these are children from multiple time periods and that sort of thing, and it
just continues to be something like every time I look at it, I see
something else. Oh that's awesome. Yeah, I got I got kind of
lost in that one when I was making it, just in the trying to
live in that moment where you were you wrote in the story, just like
the description of the trees being alive and how the entire or forrest had this
power to it. I wanted to try and try and capture just a little
bit of what you had described. I think there's still there's always more you
could do, you know, but I am pretty happy with the amount of
story that made it into that image from what was written, because it was
just that whole series was so much fun too, so it was nice to
like have just dig in and make something well more detailed than usual, you
know. It's I've always been like I remember growing up getting I mean,
I was always I've always been a voracious reader and just getting books, reading
the stories and falling in love with the story and the characters, and and
then like after reading the story, looking again at the cover and being like
the artist never read this book. That always annoyed the hell out of I
mean, I get it, I understand why it's that way, but it's
just like it's very obvious whenever, like it's the artist's interpretation of the very
little information that they were they gleaned from the story, you know, yeah,
or they were just given like a description and they made up the rest
or something. Yeah. I haven't done a whole lot of book covers yet,
but all of the books that have done covers for I read first,
because there was no way I was going to be one of those artists that
was like, yeah, I mean it was about a castle, right,
there's a lot of leeway there. What kind of castle? When is it
set? Is it a newcastle or an oldcastle? Is it really important that
that castle's on fire for the cover because it's like a pivotal point in the
story. I don't know, these are all important things. I mean,
yeah, I mean at the very least, it always spoke to me that
they're well, not back then, but I mean as I've as I've started
to create things myself, and you know, I've worked closely with you and
with Alex and with with other artists. Um, you know, not always
is to do people get a chance to read everything. And I totally get
that, especially if you're a book cover designer and that's kind of your thing
and you're doing multiple projects for multiple authors. But I mean that's when the
collaborative description back and forth kind of becomes so important. And that's one of
the things I've always enjoyed with, you know, working with you and the
other artists that we've worked with for the show, is is just the back
and forth, you know, like the collaborative Okay, well this isn't quite
this and this is what I'm kind of looking for. I think that becomes
so important, especially whenever you know, like I said, you're in a
situation where maybe you don't have the opportunity to look at everything or read the
story for or the time because it does take time to read an entire novel.
Yeah, no one can expect a cover designer to read every single book
project that I get it, you know. I mean like, but as
a kid, grown up, I was like, this sucks because this doesn't
look anything like Bell Grith. But anyway, when the cover art was made
by someone who either communicated really well with the author or actually knew the story,
yeah, which I think is why a lot of when you get reprints
of books, you get like a better cover or something. Maybe the new
artist has read it, or you know, they they figured out which points
the really resonated with the readers that they wanted to like Highlight. Yeah,
I mean, you know, it's now that I'm older and now that I
kind of work with authors and artists and everything. One of the things that
to me is always interesting is I almost feel like indie book cover art and
small press cover art is better than the stuff that's put out by the big
publishing houses. And I'm sure that there's exceptions to that whenever you're talking about
like I don't know, Stephen King or Dean Koon's or you know someone that's
a really big name. Um, but it's I guess it's because there seems
to be more of a collaborative efforts. I don't know, I'm probably just
making stuff up. That's just the way I feel, you know, like
I admire small press and indie art covers better more than I do like the
stuff that the big publishing houses put out. And now I'll ever get published
by anybody. Nailed it. Good job. We've ostracized ourselves from an entire
like branch of reality. Just disagree with me and you'll be fine. Just
let me take the fall. Oh yeah, Dan, why would you say
that? Do you see that bus let me let me see if I can
get under it. All right, cool, Thank you for taking that dad
for me. That's right, that's right. So since we're ostracizing ourselves,
let's talk about politics, shall we? Oh God, no, bye.
I do want to talk about politics, but I want to talk about it
in a very abstract way. And what I mean by that is there have
been a couple of times that The Wicked Library and Victorious Lift have gotten reviews
from people who were very hung up on the fact that some political ideas and
societal value ideas made their way into episodes, stories, production, that sort
of thing. And I've always kind of had this feeling that art is in
its very nature political because we are part of a society, and as artists,
as part of a society, part of your job is to look at
society and report back what you find. So I mean, if I go
back to old Twilight Zone episodes and old episodes of Star Trek and even Next
Generate, I mean, we can talk about a ton of examples of it,
but I mean, I'm a huge fan of Twilight Zone episodes, and
I think that those always had an underlying current, and I think when you
look at even stuff that's any anything that's written, really you have to look
at the context of the time in which it was written, and I think
that certainly applies to art as well. So I guess my question is,
after setting it up that way so that you don't have to fall on one
side of the spectrum, is why is art important to society? And why
are societal values and politics an important part of art or are they not.
I definitely fall in the camps that I think art is a vital part of
culture communicating what their values are. So the stories we read, the art
that's on the walls, all of it, like really matters. The plays
that are written, the stories that are on the radio, the music we
listen to, all of it. The best stuff has a reason, even
if the reason is I'm feeling this, let me try to convey this feeling.
Or I'm part of a revolution and I need to share that, or
I'm gay and I want to celebrate that. Like, it all needs a
voice, and art is a great way to give voice to it. So
I definitely think I don't know if that really explains why why do we need
to manifest our thoughts and ideals and art? Well, I think as human
beings. It's an essential part of how our brains work. We need to
voice and give outlets to the thoughts and ideals that we value. Otherwise we're
just kind of floating around in space, not feeling connected to anyone. I'd
agree with that. I mean, I think that that art is a vital
way. And when I say art, I'm not just talking about visual art.
I'm talking about any any type of creative endeavor. It's I think it's
vital that we challenge society and we challenge long held views because I mean,
if we want to go back a hundred years, you know, um,
in some countries, being gay was illegal in in the nineteenes until the nineteen
seventies, you couldn't be. And I know this because we have a character
coming up in Victoria's Lift who works for the FBI and one of their mentors
works for the FBI, and their mentor is a gay man, and it's
that's something you had to keep secret, like you couldn't tell anybody that shit
if you wanted to keep your job. And I think the only way that
that has changed is not only through protests, not only through the work of
you know, a lot of tireless effort, but also through the arts,
I mean comedy, you know, shows like Saturday Night Live, art,
pop culture, arts, music, books, movies, all these things that
are influenced. I think that's part of the job of an artist is to
say, here's an angle that you haven't looked at before, and and maybe
you change somebody's mind and maybe slowly it's you know, it slowly changes minds.
But that's our job, I think, is to even if it's just
to say, hey, I'm here and this is who I am and this
is what I'm like, and you're gonna have to deal with it because I'm
not hiding it and I'm not going away. Important it absolutely is. I
mean I feel like cultures have risen and fallen and all that's left is the
art that they made some times, whether it's sculptures or stories or you know,
the I would argue architecture as a form of art as well, you
know, because it tells the story of the people that that lived it,
that wanted it, that built it, what their values were. And yeah,
it is important to have those voices be heard. So where do you
find most of your inspiration? All over? Which is a terrible answer.
It's a great answer. It's a great I only ask that question because people
expect that question to be asked, like what inspires you. Um, it's
the same thing that inspires you to make a certain dinner. It's the same
thing that inspires you to redo your living room. It's the same thing that
inspires you to take up a new hobby. It's it's it's it's um,
it's that, it's it's everything that you would come into contact with your within
your life. You know. It's it's all those mediums that I was just
talking about and more. It could be a conversation. I mean when we
were talking at the beginning of this, we were talking about the lady rolling
her card around. That's a real life events that occurred. And you know,
I mean to me, that's like that's rich story fodder right there,
Just that one little description of this woman who lost all her books and is
rolling around a suitcase trying to find them again, you know, And there's
so many directions you can go with that story. You know, my head
automatically goes to, um, Okay, these are these are books that have
some sort of you know, power, and it's going to unleash unleash horrors
on the world if if we don't get these books back, but somebody else
might just go the you know, the the very emotional connection to your past
type of thing, which is probably what it really is. But yeah,
but it could ways. But I do. I find a lot of inspiration
in I guess, and a lot of it's in the people that I meet
and through them. It's like like from you. It was your podcast in
Victoria at the very beginning. I found your podcast at a very tumultuous and
pivotal point in my life and found a lot of inspiration there. M I,
oh gosh, I don't know. It pulls from everything. I read
a lot, I watched movies, I watch YouTube, but I listen to
podcasts. I listened to a lot of music lately. Music has been a
big part of things. Yeah, I don't know. And living you just
gotta go live life, Go experience something, get lost in the desert and
try to not have Oh my god, that's a whole story. It's so
important, and I mean I think that if you know, if anybody's listening
that wants to do arts, create things in any medium, that's such an
important part of that. I mean, and I think that as we get
deep into creating things, and at least for me, I want to do
it all, you know, It's like I want to say yes to everything.
And when you do that, you cut out all your time for you
know, just kind of sitting and looking at the clouds, or going out
and like you said, getting lost in the going on a trip and getting
lost somewhere, you know, going out for a day without an agenda and
just letting things happen. Those things are so important to recharging the batteries and
to inspiring us. And if you don't do those things, you eventually get
to the point where you're just like, I hate doing this. Well,
burnout's a real thing, very like, it's not an ego thing. It's
not like, oh you can't you can't burn out if you if you're good
at it, you can burn out all over the place. I had one
particularly dramatic burnout in my life, and now know the warning signs when I'm
getting there, and I know how to how to get off life a little
bit when I need it now, which is good. That's very good.
Um. Back in the day, I well before I got into podcasting or
blogging or YouTube or any of it. Um. I did film. I
was a production designer for cheesy, cheesy sci fi and like Chiller Channel horror
movies. Um, it's good stuff, it's fun. Yeah. You know,
everybody likes bubblegum. You know you need to eat a balance diet and
good nutrition, but every once in a while you want a cupcake. Yep.
And I made cupcakes man um. And I got very burnt out doing
it because I just pushed myself and pushed myself and would do like the sixteen
hour days without sleeping for days in between, and like, you know,
like I put my body through way more than it should have. And I
took a long break from film thankfully, I you know, took a detour
into the world that I in now, which is podcasting and blogging and art
and just like focusing on my own illustration and stuff. And actually recently I
started to get back into film and now it's just like, oh wow,
I'm I can do this without like giving up my own sense of identity.
This is great. I love this. Yeah. I mean I think a
big factor in this burnout stuff too, is like, especially when you're creating
stuff that I don't know, when we first try to get our stuff noticed.
We put a lot of time and effort into it. Not the people
that are well established don't continue to do that, And not that that's not
important, but I think that part of it too, at least for me,
part of it was like nobody knows, well, not nobody, very
few people, very few listeners probably know the amount of work that goes into
the creation of something like the Wicked Library or Victorious Left, I mean all
the different opponents, and some people do. I mean, some people know
very well the amount of work that goes into it and appreciate it. But
like there's just so much that you do, and sometimes you're just like,
I'm doing all this stuff and nobody ever knows nobody's and nor should they.
I mean, it's not like you're supposed to go, well, I do
this, and then I do this, and then I do this, and
then I do this. People just want to listen to a story and have
a good time, right, But part of it for the creator is like,
man, I have to do all this just to get this one thing
out there. So it's not just like here's an audio file to listen to.
There's like a ton of stuff that goes on behind the scenes before you
get to the point where somebody can actually download it and listen to it,
and that can weigh on you whenever you're producing like four or five different shows.
Essentially, Yeah, I gotta be better at that. I completely understand.
That's part of why I just like I had to take a break from
YouTube too, because it was just like, there's too much going on in
my life right now, I gotta I gotta drop something for a minute.
So yeah, I mean, did you see, um, did you see
the bow Burnham thing that he did for Netflix? Oh my god, I
honestly could not watch the entire thing because I was so triggered. It's just
like it's it's beautiful, but at the same I felt so like, I
mean, it's just it's just I don't want to say it's a slog,
but like emotionally it's taxing to watch that. And I think it's important,
you know, Like I think it's important that he shared that because I mean,
that's something that we we usually don't do that as creatives. We usually
don't just like pull down all the barriers and say, Okay, here's all
the ship that goes into it, and like just the emotional turmoil the poor
guy was going through the entire time, and you know, just continuing to
try to find that inspiration. I mean, I'll be honest with you,
I've watched half of it. I made it halfway through, and I'm like,
I need a break from this because it's hard to watch. Um.
I don't know if it's hard to watch for everyone or if it's just hard
to watch for someone who has gone through a lot of you know, like
it was created stuff. Yeah, and maybe a little bit of a mental
health crisis there. That's what I saw in it. I saw Maybe that's
just me projecting, but you know that's what good art makes you do.
You see yourself in it? Right? Yeah? Yeah, I mean you
and I both had some some turmoil. I think everybody has had turmoil over
the last couple of years. But I mean, you know, I mean
I recently went through and I'm stole. In the process of therapy. I
finally found a therapist that works for me, and um, you know,
I was diagnosed and tested for autism and I'm autistic, and it kind of
put everything into perspective because there's so much of the stuff that I've been doing
all my life with masking and camouflaging to act neurotypical, that I wasn't even
realized, Like I didn't even realize that I was doing it. I didn't
realize that not every I thought everybody did this, and so it was very
eye opening to be like, no, not everybody struggles with these things,
Like people that like small talk at part actually like small talk at parties.
And for me, it's just like, I want to leave immediately. I
understand that. It took me a long time. And I'm I, you
know, I am neurotypical as far as I know, but like small talks
hard, dude. Even when you know the people, you're like, hey,
so I have a drink in my hands, and hugh of them,
you become interesting. Though. If I have enough of these, you become
interesting to me, and maybe I become interesting to you. So cheers to
keep going. Oh no, I think I think most people struggle with small
talk. But yeah, it's that's gotta be one of those things where you
realize, oh, that's that normal. Yeah. There were a lot of
things that I found that like I was doing that. I'm I thought,
you know, everybody had this script these things out and plan these things out
and apparently not. Apparently most people can go to the grocery store without feeling
like claustrophobic and overwhelmed by the lights and the noise and people being too close
and all that fun stuff. Ok Now you know why yea? Or just
accept it because it's just part of how your work. That's it. I
mean it, you know, it's absolutely is accepted because it makes things.
It takes a lot of pressure off, you know, Like I spend a
lot of time being angry at myself for being angry in certain situations. And
now that I understand that it's not it's not like I don't want to say
it's not my fault, but it's not. It's the way my brain works,
you know. So I mean, there's ways to work at and get
better, um, but it's not what I was doing. Um. You
know. So it takes the pressure off to know that things are going to
frustrate me that don't frust frustrate most people. And by taking that pressure off
of like I'm like, Okay, I understand that I'm angry, but I'm
not angry at myself for being angry. So that allows it to kind of
dissipate sooner. Otherwise it's just this loop. Yeah, it's really hard to
explain, and I probably am making absolutely no sense, but this is my
brain. This is my brain on autism. I I do get it.
It's just I mean, like I usually am one of the I'm a chill
person, high energy, and I hate losing my temper like it is the
worst thing to me. I get more angry at being angry than I do
at whatever pissed me off in the first place. So I kind of get
it. Yeah. Uh, it's not a common moop for me, but
it is I understand being like good. Yeah, you know, I used
to say I was fueled by rage, and I don't think that's changed.
I'm just fueled by I'm constantly It's like, it's like what Banner says in
in in the first Avengers movie, that's the thing. I'm always angry.
So that's for me. I'm always angry. Oh well, I hope you
continue to find ways to find some joy instead of just oh yeah. We're
gonna go ahead and take a quick break here, and when we come back,
we'll share more of our discussion on art and creating things. What for
you means being successful as an artist, Continuing to create things that speak to
yourself is really hard to do. And I think because like my life has
just been pure chaost a minute. Now, you've been on an important journey.
I have been on an important journey for those listening, Yes, I
got divorced. I went to New Mexico. I wandered around the desert for
a while. I discovered, you know what, I think I'm gay,
and then I figured out, yeah, I'm a lot gay. And life's
been interesting. And during all of that, I've continued to paint and write
and use art as a way to process all of the stuff that's been going
on and the chaos and rediscovering my own identity and all that. It's been
vital, vitals the key word in this conversation, I think, And despite
everything that's been going on, I feel like it would have been easy to
just be like, oh, I just I can't even touch a paint brush
right now. I can't even think about trying to work on my stories or
any of it. Like it doesn't matter, you know. But I feel
like if people take the pressure off of trying to make art that is quote
good and just make art that speaks to yourself, you'll get a lot further
faster, because it is you're touching that thing that is vital, giving voice
to the things that need to be voiced for your own soul. It's and
you know that sounds so like artie hoity toity, but it's true. Make
but speaks to you, and usually it ends up speaking other people too,
because they see themselves in the truth of what you're saying or painting or writing
or singing, etc. Yeah. No, honesty is so important in art,
and being open is so important in art, and being okay with that.
I mean, that's like the That's one of the things that I think
a lot of new creators struggle with is revealing the ikey parts, the parts
that you don't necessarily feel comfortable with everybody knowing. And I think that's what
you have to do because people respond to things that are honest and means something.
It's it's it's this constant thing that I've always wondered, like you know,
like sometimes I'm sure you've had the experience too, when you're drawing or
painting or you know, creating in a visual medium, Like something that I
do will touch me emotionally, you know, so like I'll get emotional over
a particular scene or a particular piece of dialogue or an exchange between a couple
of characters. And that's always the tricky part is like am I am I
emotional because this is good? Or am I emotional because I'm too close to
it and it means something to me? But it doesn't mean something to someone
else. And what I've kind of constantly been told by other creatives is,
yeah, if it touches you, it's going to touch somebody else because it's
open and it's honest. Yeah, I've definitely discovered the same thing as the
pieces that I make that are just dent art or just something for me to
just deal with something or celebrate something. Those are the things people are like
that or like I need to buy that, or I just I appreciate this
because or like I mean, you and I have both had this experience where
something we made made an actual, like tangible difference in someone's life, which
is crazy to realize that something you made made an actual difference to somebody.
Holy cow, it's honestly that keep that if nothing else other than might just
constant need to make things keeps me making things is to just know that there's
someone out there who is writing because of the Ninth Story podcast. You know,
someone out there is drawing something because I shared a tutorial and they're like,
yeah, I can try that or or or the like. There's actually
people I know that have met and gotten married to each other because of a
piece of art that I made that connected them somehow. Like that's just mind
blowing that you can make an act like a genuine difference in someone's life making
something so selfish. Yeah, No, it's it's it's it's that. Yeah,
that's that's the beautiful thing I mean about collaborations that you know I've worked
on, is you know I see other side projects develop where people begin to
work together that didn't work together before. And those connections that people make I
think are so important. Um and yes, I mean whenever you get feedback
from from somebody saying that you know, listening to something that you created,
or seeing something that you created, or reading something that you created, you
know helped them whenever they were down, or it got them through a tough
period, or you know, it made a difference in the way that they
looked at the world. I mean major create. I mean like what we
would consider like the the the big stars of creation, even those folks are
touched by I think it's part of the human experience. Like if you know
something that you did actually really truly meant something to someone, we all want
to hear that, right, because we've had that experience ourselves where something we've
read, watched, herd looked at impacted us and changed our perspective or changed
our day or got us through something hard. So that's that's part of the
creation process. That's beautiful is when something that you've done impact somebody's life in
a way that you're not expecting it too, yeah, or intending it to.
Really I don't think. I don't think any of us set out to
be like, well, this story is going to save somebody's life someday,
and that would be really fucking arrogance, wit And it's like I'm gonna create.
I'm gonna create something that's gonna keep someone married, or I'm gonna create
something that's gonna tell someone you know it's okay to go and seek out other
things. Um, yeah, you do it for you, And if it
means I think that's the wrong way to do things like this is gonna be
an important piece of work. Anytime someone starts a sentence with this is an
important piece of work, I'm like, no, it's not. That's right.
I will tell you whether it's important or not. It's so um a
little more esoteric. Do you have like certain routines that help you create They're
certain times of day or certain things that you do that put you in the
right mindset to create or is it just kind of sit down and whatever comes
comes. At one point I had routines. I'm not a point in my
life where I do not anymore. Lately, it's been wherever I can find
the time to make something, I make it. So for example, this
past month, I was working on on set as an onset dresser, So
basically, I'm the person in the art department who shows up when they're filming
to move the furniture and stuff around so that it looks nice on camera,
which meant when they're filming, I had a lot of downtime. And because
I'm a crazy person, I have a full time job along and I was
working on that, and when I was done with my tasks for my day
job while on set doing that, on my phone. I was like,
cool, I will work on my book. And I just brought my little
Bluetooth keyboard and my phone and I worked on my book in the side because
that's when I had time. But I do blame that work ethic on a
longstanding pattern, which is where my burnout comes from, because it's not a
healthy pattern. But I always try to find time in my day to do
things that matter to me along with whatever I'm working on. So I was
an artist at Mused Paint Bar and I taught classes and I would be so
just pumped from teaching those classes to people like just regular people kids and like
grandma painting things together. Is like I loved that job and I was so
just like jazzed up by the time I get home that I would continue painting
just things for myself and I'm like, yeah, I want to make more
art. Like oh, good, funny how that works, isn't it?
Like the more you give, the more you get back. It's so true,
and like, I don't know, I just did, Like even working
on the film set, I was trying to find time to work on my
own writing or when I'm doing stuff for my day job. I will in
you know, try to take like my lunch break to work on some illustration
stuff or things like that. And I find that making things for other people
usually makes me more motivated to make stuff for myself. If I'm not making
anything at all, it gets really easy to get into a rut. It's
kind of like indercia. Once an object was in motion, it continues to
be in motion. So I try to always be that rolling stone, you
know. Yeah, so you can't just sit around and watch reruns of the
Office, I mean that doesn't help you. Ah No, I've gotten really
bad at just sitting still and watching things. Lately it's gotten better, but
I frequently need to be like doing something with my hands. So if I'm
watching reruns of the Office, I am drawing something while I am watching the
reruns. Or there's literally a painting next to the TV in my living room
because whenever I just get like anxious about things, I'll just like start painting
on it and continue working on it. This painting has been going for like
over a year now because I keep being like, let me repaint this and
do that, and it's just like little things in between, you know.
You know what's funny that now you mentioned that, like there are how many
movies and TV shows have there been where movies especially where like you watch the
author write a book as a montage, and like their books done in like
thirty minutes or half an hour or you know, or the montage is like
over the space of a week, they've written an entire novel and dropped it
to the publisher. But every time you see, like an artist working on
a painting, it's like months and years that they're working on this piece of
I get news for your friends. Writing is the same way it takes.
It takes just as long to write a good book. It takes just as
long to write a good story as it does to create anything else. Yeah,
and some things are fast and some take forever, and it just you
know, you just have to work on it however works. Yeah, I
can't remember who it was that, my friend Cindy, who people who listen
to Victorious Lift will know because Cindy has been involved in production for a long
time and has done voice over work and all kinds of stuff for the show,
story editing and whatnot. But anyway, we used to go to these
series of lectures here in Pittsburgh where you'd have authors that would come in and
talk about their their work, and one of the things that always stuck with
me there was I can't remember who it was, honestly, but he was
talking about short story and he's like, you know, sometimes he can write
a short story over a weekend, and sometimes it takes him months. And
he said, you know, the ones that take months tend to be the
ones that are more interesting because I come to that story at different times,
you know, so like I'm in different moods and I'm almost kind of like
a different person each time I touched that story, so different parts of me
make it into that story. And that was kind of my experience with the
von Homlin story. I started that in Germany years ago, and you know,
started working on it and toying with it, and it took quite a
while for me to get to the point where it was the story that I
wanted to tell. But yeah, it's it's it's interesting like when you work
on things over a period of time, sometimes you see things that you wouldn't
see if you just sat down and did it in a rush. Absolutely,
I can think of so many things where I mean I tend to as an
artist, like a visual artist. I crank things out. I do.
I make a lot of stuff, um, but there is definitely a difference
between the things that I just make and then leave and the things that continue
to be work done over like a chunk of time. Um. I definitely
try to give myself a project here there that is like a labor of love
kind of thing that requires a little bit more time. I like having something
that's like a pet project on the side. Yea, as I crank through
things like the maniac Um. Well, you know, there's a great example
of that. You you did. You did three paintings in the space of
whatever the length of the time was for our live show in Atlanta back in
twenty nineteen. I believe it was. Yeah. Um, Now, of
course you you practice those paintings quite a few times, so you know,
I think that kind of count is like it takes a while to get to
the point where you've done it so many times that it becomes almost like muscle
memory. Exactly what that was. I M it was so good. Someone
stole one of the paintings, stole my favorite story. Oh, it's such
a good story. I love that somewhere there is a stolen painting of mine
on some like now probably graduated college kids through all like dudes, I stole
that from a live show, Like I'm sure he tells the story so much
more ethically than the reality was, which was he was probably drunk and was
like, oh my god, I need that painting, and then he went
up on stage, looked me in the eyes, said sorry, and then
ran off like a Scooby Doo villain. That's funny. Oh it was good.
It was tremendous. But yeah, those paintings, Um, that was
muscle memory because I used to, like in high school, I would perform
a lot in theater and just in the school theater and inquire actually as a
performer in a lot of ways. But I practice those paintings the same way
I would rehearse a play. I figured out how I wanted to paint it,
so I did an original, like master version of it, and then
I just practiced over and over and over again until I got the timing down
to match with the story itself. So there were certain points of each painting
that needed to show up at certain points of the story. So that like
with the I'm not going to remember the title of the story, but I
remember the title of the painting, which was The Lovers the face of the
Spirit. Evil spirit shows up when things start to get really dark, and
you know there's certain like movements that get more frantic as the story, like
peaks. You know, all of that was rehearsed, so I painted each
of those paintings probably at least ten times each, just to make sure i'd
have the timing and the story down so that it would be a performance.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, so you're you're talking about Christopher Long's story,
which I believe. And the final title ended up being Freebees, which is
kind of funny because the painting was a freebee for some it wash destinies,
very funny. Yeah, that was the That was the story about them,
the folks that got the tickets, the free tickets to go see a show,
and as they were watching the show, they were getting possessed and evil
things were happening. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Yes, that that painting,
It was The Magician. The Magician was the title of the painting.
Yeah, not the Lovers. The Lovers was the other one. Yeah,
because we did the dispart that got stolen. Yeah, The Lovers, I
think was the one we did that was KB Goddard's story that was on Holy
Wedlock. That was it? And that was Was that the one that got
stolen or was it? I thought it was It was the first one,
right, Yeah, the magician they magically stole the Freebees painting. That's that's
awesome. I don't know if I don't know if I ever told Chris Long
that the uh well actually he knows because he wrote the story that the title
of the story was Freebees. But I don't think we ever talked about that.
Like, I know we talked recently about he thought it was crazy that
a paint, you know, a story that he made or a story that
he wrote, was the painting that got stolen. But yeah, um,
of course he would know the name is Freebes. He's the author. Stupid.
But did he make that connection. Probably he's a smart guy. He's
a smart dude. Yeah, I'm sure he did. True, he saw
the irony. It's probably the first thing he thought. He's like, well,
the title of the stories freebees. So I mean obviously maybe there maybe
maybe that's what inspired the person. Maybe they were reading the program and they're
like, well Freebees, all right, I'll go and take that painting.
That's crazy. I love it. That was wild. So let's let's um,
since we're since this is part of the Victoria's Left behind the Scenes inside
the Music Box series, UM, let's talk maybe a little bit about some
of the art that you've done for Victoria and for Victoria's Lift. Do you
have any that stick out to you as particular favorites that you remember doing?
Oh well, the first one, which one of your kids is your favorite?
Oh now, now keep in mind, I didn't say any particular ones
that stand out to you as favorite rits, not which one is your favorite,
but just like maybe like the not even necessarily the final painting or the
story involved, but just like the experience of creating one or one that when
you finished with its um or more than one when you finished kind of spoke
to you and you're like, oh, you know that, that's that was
fun, that was good. Or so the one that jumps to mind is
not the one I'm the most proud of because it's the oldest. Okay,
so it's actually the like the fan art when I made of Victoria when you
and I first started talking on Twitter, and I was like, oh my
god, the creative this podcast, I listened to likes my art, and
I had like a hell of fan girl momentum. And then and then I
just made fan art of Victoria and sent it to you and you loved it,
and like I look back at that piece and I'm just like, oh,
I have grown so much as an artist, is how I should phrase
that, because every piece of art is valid and regardless of your journey.
Um, but I'm still I don't know. There was just like I put
so much effort into that one piece of art, and like making the cool
lighting and like trying to draw Storia, and she, by the way,
I have drawn her so many times and every day time she gives me a
hard time with it. Yeah, I don't know what it is about Victoria.
She's a sassy girl whenever I try to draw her. You know,
It's it's funny because everybody, everybody that writes her, not I wouldn't say
everybody, but most of the authors that have written her have had shared stories
with me about like weird things that have happened or strange things that have happened
during the writing of the story. Or you know, Motiko, who's done
a lot of art for Victoria as well, Steve Motico Um always had stories
about like hearing voices in the other room and you know, hearing a giggle
or something like that while he was working on stuff, and I'm like,
dude, you're probably exhausted, and he's like, no, no, seriously,
she was in the other room. I swear to God, if he's
busy, she definitely makes herself known. She does. So what we'll do
is we'll make it. We'll make that picture the cover art for this episode
so people can can see it's um. It's also the cover art for the
homage, which is a story that Mark Nixon wrote way back whenever I was
before Victoria's Lift was Victoria's Left Before Victoria's Lift was the Lift. It was
basically like a proof of concept type of episode. We did two pilots,
one that I wrote that was more like stuff that's going on in the building
and you know who Victoria is, and then we also did am So we
call those the core stories, and then we also do the visitors stories,
which is like what Mark wrote the homage where an author meets Victoria and kind
of steals some of his work from somebody else and and calls it an homage,
which Victoria tells him isn't quite the case. But anyway, if you
go to Victoria's lift dot com and you go to the pilots um which it's
under seasons, you go to pilot episodes, you can see the full artwork.
But well, we'll go ahead and reuse that as the cover for this
episode as well, so people can can see that. Um. I've definitely
grown as an artist. I'm more proud of like the later art as far
as like skill and everything, but that one still has a soft part and
a soft spot in my heart because it was just the start. You know,
well me too. I mean, it was the first time anybody had
ever done fan art of something that I created, and especially something that was
important as important to me as Victoria. Um, I I got I cried
when I when I when I got the picture. I'm like that just it
touched me deeply that someone cared enough about something that I made or created to
spend the time to actually make her in visual form because I'm not an artist
and I kind of know what she looked like, and um, but I
could never I could never do anything like that. So and it goes out
into the ether and it speaks to somebody and then art continues to be made.
This is correct. Um, yeah, I mean art's beens always been
such a big part of the show. I mean for me especially, it's
just because everything kind of exists as either audio or written form. To actually
see her and see the visitors or see the cover art for each of the
seasons has always been so important to me. Um. Like the first season
we did, we had a ton of cover arts, right, we did
covers for pretty much everything, and and I think we continued that up through
season three maybe, um, and then we started going to the single single
image per season, which I kind of like, you know, the we
still get a fresh image every season, and it kind of gives everything a
consistent feel, with the exception of what season or you did, like two,
you did two versions of stuff, and you're like, well, we
can go one of these two ways. And I like them both so much.
I was like, just do them both. I'll pay you for both,
and we'll alternate them between the two. I like that. Actually,
it was kind of cool to see, like, yeah, throughout the season.
I will tell you one of my favorites remains the one you did for
the Lost Library, which is the one where it's a KB Goddard story about
a woman who is struggling with whether or not she pursues her career, whether
she wants to be a writer or if she wants to follow I think we're
I think the story is set in the Edwardian era, so it's right after
Victorian era and women were still supposed to get married and that was their job,
right, And Victoria kind of shows her through this the lost library,
her library and shows her you know, he there's all the books that that
you could have written that didn't get written, and it has for a long
time. I think about it a lot, actually, all the books that
could have been written, right, you know, the stuff from from other
realms or you know, because people made a different choice, they didn't get
written. Um. But the just the image of the library and the lights
above the table, and you know, just little tiny Victoria holding this woman's
hand as she's leading her through this massive library. Um, there's just something
about that image that always spoke to me. It's like, I think it's
because she's so small and petite and she's just a little girl or so she
looks like, but she's actually just this very powerful being entity whatever you want
to call her. Yeah, I that one definitely a favorite, that one.
It was fun to play with the color a lot and play with the
grandeur of the library versus that that tiny thus the almost almost insignificant humans walking
through it. And yet that's the heart feed of it, you know.
Yeah, Yeah, it's it's always it's always fun to see different interpretations of
m Victoria. And you know right now, I mean you're you're you consistently
have done more art for Victoria's Lift than anybody else, And obviously you know,
you're the creative director, So I mean the look and feel of the
website ultimately and everything else um is tied to your vision. Yeah, which
I actually made an entire Pinterest board just for his Yeah, because I was
like, what is Victoria's Lift? And I spent days just adding stuff to
it, going deep into dark academia Pinterest boards and uh comics and and just
like different images with lighting that speaks to me about what I think would would
it would feel like inside the lift. UM. That just yeah, it's
it's quite the rabbit hole I went down. That's awesome. Well, I'm
curious about one other thing. When we're talking while we're talking about your art.
There is one that um um, Abigail Larson did um. She she
did all the line art, and just because she's tremendously busy, and anybody
who doesn't know who abigil Larson is or what her art is, you need
to go out and find her stuff, yes, and treat yourself to some
amazing artwork. Instagram is so good, right, so inspiring, so good.
But I was y enough to have her say yes to do artwork for
me in season one, and I mean there was no budget for the show.
She was just kind enough to say, yeah, I'll do this one
for you. And it was for Broken, which is where Nicola Tesla is
repairing Victoria's music box. And because she was so busy, she's just like,
I'm not going to have time to color this in time for the airing
of your episode. Is there somebody else that can color it? So I
sent it to you and you were like, absolutely, I'd love to color
it. And I've always been curious, like, what is it like coloring
somebody else's line work. It's a little intimidating, but it's also very fun
because I always enjoy the collaborative aspect of it. It's like, oh,
what do you think they would put here? And but what do you think
the right colors would be for your own style? And how do you blend
the two together? Like I was not I was not trying to copy Abigail's
uh, her way of working with colors, because there's I just I'm not
that that quite that it's different. One is not better than the other.
It's just different approaches. Yeah, it's true. Um, I very much
admire the way she colors things. It's just so beautiful. But I definitely
have a different way of painting in photoshop. Um, So it was a
little intimating because she's definitely an artist. I look up too, and I'm
like, oh my god, I gets a color your work, you know,
mild fangirl faint and you know, start working on it. But it
is very fun to kind of it's a little bit like a coloring book,
but it's like different. I'm not describing this well, No, I think
you're going fine. I mean, like I'll tell you. I hesitated at
first because I'm like, is it going to be insulting if I asked somebody
else to color somebody else's work? And then I found out later that that's
like most of the time, that's how comics are done, and you know
that it's it's like a thing that someone is a colorist and someone is a
line artist. Then I felt better after figuring that out. But I was
like, I don't I don't know. I mean, like, is it
insulting if I'm like, well, somebody else has done the line work,
can you just put color in it? But I mean, I guess it's
a totally different thing. I mean because I know when I looked at the
line art and I was so impressed with it, I was like, well,
maybe I can just like throw a green filter or something over top of
this, and and then whenever I was like, no, I'm gonna ask
Junette if she can do it, and you did the art and it's it
was a totally different image after all the color was added. I mean,
I guess I shouldn't be shocked, but I was. I was like,
oh my god, this feels totally different now. It was so much better.
Well, color is part of the story. It's so true. And
I think one of the nice things as an artist kind of coloring someone else's
line work is you get that opportunity to very deeply study what the other artists
made. I've done it a couple of times already, where I'll just color
in something that someone else has done. I've done a couple of videos on
my YouTube channel, which eventually I do plan to post on again where but
there is one I did with in a collaboration with Josh b. And then
there's a Crampus collaboration I did where someone sent me their line art and I
colored it or vice versa. And it is It's fun because you get to
really just live inside of someone else's art for however long you're coloring. It's
the same thing as a coloring book. It's just like, you know,
next level. I guess, right, No, Yeah, I totally get
it's I mean, you know, after after you did it and after we
talked, I mean, I was glad that you had so much fun with
it. Um, But it's it's I guess, it's a totally different experience
than doing everything yourself. Right, And we'll talk about one more one more
piece that this is one that kind of spoke to me. Have you,
um, have you heard the new production that we did for Pride month of
Why I Take the Lift by Mark Nixon yeah, yeah. Um, so
the first the first go around. Um, I mean it was season one
of the show, and you know, there was no budget and I didn't
know any voice actors, and you know, I was just getting started with
everything. So you know, Mark wrote a beautiful story and I performed it.
Um, and did you know the narration and everything, so performed it,
I guess is correct. Um. But you know, like years later,
that was one that always stuck with me as being kind of a very
special story and the artwork that you did for it was very special as well.
And um, in fact, we recreated it in New York. You
and I. Um, there's just like so much that's said in that image,
and it's there's not a high level of detail to it. And I'll
let you speak to that part, but it's almost enhanced by the lack of
detail rather than suffering from lack of detail, Like there's I don't I don't
know how to explain it, but there's like more to it, yes,
and just like the simple there's a simple action of her putting her hand on
his shoulder and um, you know him being very upset. You can tell
he's very upset, and she's just kind of resting her hand on it.
There's just there's so much in that simple gesture, in the way that it's
captured in the image. But that story always kind of spoke to me,
and I felt it was an important story. Um. And you know,
for Pride Month this year year, I took that story with Mark's permission,
and I cast David Alts as the as the performer. You know, we've
changed a couple of lines within the story, but mostly left at the same.
Mark was concerned because he's like, you know, I've evolved. It's
like you were saying about you know art. You know, I've evolved as
an author, and you know, I think I'm better than than that story
now. And but to me, it was it's like that story spoke to
the potential of what Mark was able to do. It's just it's a I
think contrary to my my my statement earlier, that this is actually an important
story. And to me it always felt like it needed more than I was
able to give it at the time. So, you know, got David,
hired him to do the story, had Nico do a whole new score
for it. Um. We left the art pretty much the same. UM.
I think I just added a filter over top with the the rainbow colors,
because I didn't want to change the artwork itself, but you know,
I felt that that addition kind of elevated it a little bit. But yeah,
so all that set up for basically me to ask you, like,
what what did that piece mean to you? And you know, what was
the experience of creating it and what was the thinking of going to something more
stark than detailed, because a lot of the others, I mean, everything
else that you've ever done is very detailed, and that one kind of stands
out as being more stark. But for me, it really works that way.
I think that one was heavily influenced by the story itself. Yeah,
I just remember this, like reading that story and feeling that kind of sense
of emptiness and isolation, and that was really important to me when I was
drawing that piece, and that's why it ended up so stark. It was
like what are It was almost like this moment caught in like this misty haze,
like there was no reality except for the pain at the center for that
character, which is why the artwork I attempted to do that same thing with
the art itself. It was almost like you were seeing it through this thick
smoke or a thick fog, and it was just that moment of Hey,
you're not alone. That's what mattered. So it didn't need other details,
it didn't need the rest kind of filling it in because the focus was that
moment was the hand on the shoulder. It's okay, you're not in this
alone, you know. Yeah, her her appearing to him at just the
time whenever he needed somebody to kind of provide that comfort in that guidance.
That's awesome. I hope I explained that. Oh no, I do.
I think you did. Um, I do want to give you some time
to talk about your your movie project and anything that you want to promote,
So go for it. Promoting wise, I don't know if I can talk
about the one I just worked on, but the one I'm about to work
on is called the Callback, and we had a successful Steeden Spark campaign and
super excited because I started building the set with my girlfriend Alex the other weekend
and now we're this upcoming weekend gonna finish building it and it's gonna be It's
it's just been a delight working with this group of people and like getting I
mean getting the dirt under my fingernails again. It's it's refreshing, building in
three dimensions again and taking taking the skills that I've really been building as an
artist, an illustrator, back into set design and feeling like I am a
completely different artist coming out of I don't know the space of time that I've
been locked in a room thinking about my life. I life is. You're
coming out of your cocoon. You had to go into a cocoon for to
make the changes. Ye, now you're a new butterfly. Oh, it
is so mild, mild detour. It's funny you bring up cocoons because I
have been seen lunar moths, like in in things all over the place,
like on tattooed on people, and like symbolized and art and things like that.
I'm like, why am I so drawn to the symbol right now?
And I looked it up and it's actually a symbol of like new life and
rejuvenation and moving on to a new phase, of a metamorphosis kind of thing,
which is common in butterflies and stuff, but lunar moths in particular are
tied to the moon, and like I'm a cancer and I'm a moon like
a water, So I don't know there's a whole lot going on anyway right
now, but I'm just like, yeah, it is a moment of like
RELI just opening my wings and feeling like I am this new version of myself
and it's exciting. It's exciting to be to feel like I've I've got the
mental space to write and to paint the things that I want while actively starting
to pursue film again. And you know, it's gonna be a little bit
while I rebalance, like how how am I keeping up with my online content
and like writing? And maybe I'll actually share my writing beyond my blog soon,
We'll see. But it's it's just I feel like there's I'm just at
this point of opportunity. Life is light and bright and beautiful, and I'm
excited about what's next. And I guess the most recent next thing is going
to be the Callback film, doing the set design and special effects for them,
and then I can't say what is coming after that because it's not officially,
but it is very exciting. Yeah, and there I know, but
I'm not going to say, and more art to come, and you know,
my little chaotic journey just continues onwards. That's tremendous. Where's the best
place for people to find that internet interact with Janette? Ah, So the
places I am the most active right now are Instagram at Janette Andromeda or Twitter
at Janette and drama. Uh it's it's Andromeda without the death because I wasn't
allowed enough symbols Twitter. That's awesome. If you get most of the way
through the name, you'll find it anyway, that's right, it'll come up.
Yeah, well thanks, Jeanette's. It's always a pleasure to speak with
you. I mean, we talked just the other day friendly wise, and
it's always a pleasure to talk to you. I'm sure that it comes to
ruined the interview that your friend and a dear one at that, And it
always makes me feel better after I talk to you. I'm always happier after
I talk to you. You are a ray of sunshine always in every way.
So yeah, that's it, We're done. Yeah, it's everybody listening.
Thank you, and go make some art.