My Drawing and Design Work

After a series of small strokes in 2017, I was left suddenly unable to do the fine linework drawing, delicate watercolor painting, and miniature detailing work I’d spent years developing my skills at. I find holding pens and pencils painful now, and my hands tremble. The drawing work I do is still fairly limited, but I have just begun to play with digital art, which has some line-stabilizing options that may just save my drawing ability…once I can figure out how to use them!

Indigo and Broom Tattoos

One of the first things I considered worth the pain of holding a pencil after my strokes was the opportunity to design tattoos for me and my then-fiancé to celebrate our engagement! Our friend Rina did the actual tattooing, but the linework–depicting sprigs of indigo and broom, respectively–is mine!

Etched Flasks

Created as graduation presents for my friends at grad school, these flasks are done by hand with an etching pen. Mine depicts Frida Kahlo’s silhouette with a line from a Rebekka Karijord song on the back. My friend J’s has a window into outer space on one side and a quote from Philip K. Dick on the other; T’s has a window to a rolling Celtic landscape on one side with a W.B. Yeats quote on the other.

Drawings

None of these are really finished, presentable pieces, just an indication of my progress as I adapt to my less-fine motor control.

Protest Signs

While I did have to take my immunocompromised self off the streets when the pandemic hit, I was out all the way up til then, waving Steve Rogers’ face at neo-Nazi scum from a wheelchair. (Really should’ve made one that said, “We won’t STAND for this anymore,” given the whole wheelchair thing, but in my defense, I’d just gotten minor brain damage and wasn’t thinking super well.)