Blog 3-21-16 – Announcement and Update

Announcement Part:

Hello everyone. Austin Smith, writer of this Blog and other Internet things here, going to talk about something that I’ve been waiting to talk about since last September (sort of). I’m going to be part of a (art/gallery) show with several artists from my local area.

REDSflyer2-1

It’ll be my first show in an actual gallery with me on the flyer and stuff. I’m including links to the other artists (Tommy, Chris), and I know they will be doing some great stuff for the show that I won’t spoil here. But I can say that I’m very happy with what I’m going to have there: including a few new books that will soon also be available on my Amazon page, stickers, bookmarks, postcards, actual work that goes on the wall, and maybe some other really cool stuff.

photo-160

If you can make it, I hope to see you there, but I know that it’s pretty far out of the way for most people, so I will be posting as much about it as I can, and trying to figure out how to get some of the cool things I made out to a wider audience.

Reds sticker draft 5

Blog Part:

Wow, when I made that post about being late last week I had no intention of it taking a week or more to get back up to speed, but that looks like what has happened. For this I apologize. But migraines carry with them lasting negative effects, and I’ve really only had one good, functioning day this week, and quite a bit of my work time was consumed by preparations for the show that had to be created and ordered in time to make it. Still, I wish I had been able to get more done faster, and I thank you for being patient if you were waiting for new stuff. I will catch up on everything I missed, but it might take a few days to get back to normal.

-A

Blog 11-19-15 – It’s Artwalk Time

Hello! This Blog is a bit late, all things considered, since it’s about something that will happen tomorrow. I will be participating in the Alpine, Texas, Artwalk festival this weekend. I’ll have, like the previous years, a stand displaying my work, mostly webcomic collections. But this year I’m going to be adding a novel to the lineup. I’ll be debuting two new books the event, which takes place over the 20th and 21st of Novemeber. But if you can’t make it, the books will also be available to purchase through Amazon, via either the tab in the (dragoncompany.org) site menu (labelled “store”) or this link.

Whether or not you’re planning or able to go to the event, I hope everyone has a great weekend and a restful Thanksgiving.

– Austin

Flags

When collecting things one ends up with quite a few categories. For instance, I have a box labeled “flags” and I’m not exactly sure why. I like flags, but I haven’t set out to collect them, though I do wish I had more now.

photo-98

I have a few of the small flags that one would have at an Independence Day celebration or the like. I have the American, 13-star American, Texas, Texas sesqui-centennial, Wyoming, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand flags in that size. I like the size, and the 13-star American version has its own little stand to display it on. It’s hard to display more than one at a time, but they are nice to have in a pencil holder once in a while.

photo-100

I also have the German, Mexican, POW/MIA, Come and Take It, and a Fake Texas Confederate Battle flag (got it before they apparently became illegal) in the larger size with grommets. These are much easier to display, but they take up quite a bit of wall space, so more than one is hard to put out, and they aren’t hefty enough to be flown outside (and putting the Confederate flag out might get you in trouble).

photo-99

Again, I didn’t plan to get these, or specifically order them. I just picked them up slowly as I went about collecting the other things I collect. They have no real use, but they look nice. I’ve always liked flag design and thinking about how flag design affects one’s opinion of a country or group. Most of the famous flags aren’t masterpieces. They’re either much too complicated or much too simple, but they still represent something, and the design process that was going through their creator’s heads would be fascinating to know. It’s good to keep some in decoration rotation anyway.

Moving Etc…

Moving but I can’t believe it.

That was the title of this article two weeks ago, when I tried to write it when I was moving. For the record, this a bad idea. A good idea is to have things planned ahead of time and don’t try to do work when you’re moving. Anyway, obviously I didn’t get it done. I barely got anything done that week, or the week after. And now I’m here and still barely getting anything done.

Part of that is shock. Three weeks ago, when I was visiting Austin, I was very confident in my ability to fail at getting an apartment. But I didn’t fail. And the shock of actually getting a place at a “decent” price so near school time was just too much for my brain to handle. I spent the next week not planning for the move at all because I still couldn’t believe it was happening. (My mother would like me to mention how much she helped, and it was quite a lot)

I have only moved this once in my life, and it was difficult, as I couldn’t do what my brother and most people my age have done and simply take a few things and go. I have enough responsibilities in my website and comics that I had to take all of the things necessary to continue those, but they wouldn’t help enough to affect my life in any other way. In essence, I was taking my future, something that I’ve spent a lot of time working on and don’t want to waste, but something that is currently just a drag on my social and business life.

Not that I don’t drag that down anyway. I barely went outside the first few days, probably because I don’t have any money and going out usually requires money, because that’s what it takes to do things.

At this point I should have already posted a Blog post about my move being the reason all of the things are late this week (at least I got all but one released on the right day). So, as with many of my articles, I’m not sure what I’m trying to say here. I’m just overwhelmed, I feel like I’ve learned and re-learned so many things and I just don’t know how to organize my thoughts.

My routine has already been shattered, and will need quite a bit of time to fix, I reckon. Things will be late, things will be not done, new ideas will pop into my head. I just have to keep moving, which, as tired as I am right now, seems very difficult.
So yeah, I’ve moved and I can’t believe it. It doesn’t make sense to me, but a lot of things don’t make sense right now. I think I’ll have to make do, and it should all work out.