Where's Jane!?

Hello, dear friends! How are all of you? I know, I’ve been away for quite a while. Honestly, the stress of the world has taken a toll on me lately. Like a lot of you, I’m sure, I’ve been dealing with some anxiety and depression. Don’t worry, though. I’m not just sitting in a pit of despair. I’ve been busy, busy, busy (most days, anyway). Here’s a little breakdown of what’s been going on.

When this whole pandemic thing started, I vowed to myself that I was going to put my head down and just power-work to keep my mind off of things. That didn’t really work out for me. First, the stress of the world made it hard for me to be creative. Then the stress of not being creative made it hard to work. And THEN the stress of not being able to work just caused more stress, and the whole cycle started again. I actually went for about 2 months without painting. I did a few events with my Patreon group, so I can’t say I didn’t paint at all, but painting for myself and painting for work serve two totally different purposes and they do different things for me emotionally.

Since we had some extra time on our hands, Vince and I decided to foster a little kitty who wasn’t doing well in the shelter. We named him Canelo after our favorite boxer, because this little guy is a fighter! He’s a darling little ginger cat who had to have one of his legs amputated. He was fresh out of surgery when he came to live with us, and the poor guy hadn’t even figured out how to walk on three legs yet. Lots of kitteh treats, snuggles, loves, and two more surgeries later, and he’s doing SO much better! He's slowly meeting Mr Moon and Olaf, but through a baby gate.

Vince and I have also been working on our book trilogy that’s coming out! Our old blog, Shadows on the Page, will now be a book! The first one will be published on August 1st. However, we’re offering signed copies until July 31st! If you want more info on that, check out www.glassspiderpublishing.com/shadows. We’re super excited about this, and can’t wait to share it with you!

I finally started painting again! I decided that the only way out of the block was through. It’s been so good to get back to it, and it really has helped me with some of my anxiety. If you’d like to see what I’m working on, you can check out my Facebook or Instagram art pages. The paintings I’m posting there are not available for reproduction and there won’t be tutorials on them. These are just my personal paintings. That's something I'm currently trying to find a way to handle. I realize I've made a career of creating paintings that are meant for recreation and that a lot of people automatically assume that means anything I paint is available for recreation. That's part of the reason I've created separate social media accounts. The art on my Painting with Jane accounts is available for recreation. The art on Pandemonium Jane isn't. Hopefully that's not confusing... They are available for sale, though, ha! #shamelessplug

Finally, I’ve been working on another project that I’m not ready to talk about just yet. I’m really hoping to get it wrapped up soon so I can share, but it will probably still be a little bit longer. Oh, yeah, brushes will probably be available again on a limited basis soon, but I am out of stock on quite a few. Please be patient with me. It takes quite a bit of time before I can get out-of-stock brushes back in, and I will not be shipping daily. I will try to keep the “announcements” section of the front page of my website updated with as much info as I have.

I’m not gone forever, guys. Things will probably be quite a bit different going forward, but I will be back. I miss you guys and I hope you’re all doing well! Please tell me something you’ve done this year that makes you happy or that you’re proud of. There’s a lot of yuckiness in the world right now, so let’s focus on the good things.