Uh hey so my dash blew up today and I have like.. seventy new followers, and I think maybe it’s good to take a little time to wave and say hi! I’m just gonna do a little ‘who are you’ post here.
My name is Jessica. I’ve been a professional artist since 1989. Literally, that was the first time I was published. I’m a little old lady in her late thirties, and kind of eagerly waiting to hit 42 so that I can tell people that I am the answer to life, the universe and everything.
I’m a nerd, I play video games… probably more than is good for me. I read obsessively. There was a time when I was young that I sat down and read the entire history book from school because I *ran out of things to read* and it was a book so hey, why not?
I have a service dog named Zeus. He’s a toy poodle, and he’s my constant companion, but I also have a small army of other animals that chill with me. It’s a zoo over here. I also have three kids, and unless I specifically post about them I try to maintain my privacy about my children as much as possible. I grew up in the paranoid age of ‘everyone online is a stalker’, and the best protection I can give them is anonymity online until they are old enough to create their own presence and step out to face the world on their own (with mama bear getting their back, though. *eyes anyone who hurts my babies*). You may get glimpses of them here and there, but generally direct questions about my kids freak me out and make me paranoid so the response will usually be WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW and owlish attempts to stare into your soul.
On a serious note, I’m an abuse survivor, and it’s only recently that I’ve really been able to speak on it very much. It’s a complicated subject and it’s hard, and it damaged me in soul deep, intense ways (one of the reasons for the service dog). So you may see serious posts about PTSD and the issues of having psychotic tendancies (NOT murder rawr psycho. Think of having a constant bad acid trip where everything scares you and you’re not real sure what’s real and what’s not, but you’re pretty sure that the walls aren’t supposed to melt.). You will constantly see posts about inspiration and keeping going, because I think it’s important that we all have those little reminders to keep trucking.
I’m an atheist, but with an educational background in religion so I tend to find it fascinating and do a lot of art along those themes. I tend to be pretty up front about my stance on things and fairly blunt and open about my opinions, because the way I look at it is… I never want to be that artist that you went “Man I loved their art and was so disappointed to find out years later what a douchenozzle they were”. I’d rather you know right from the get go! And then either like my art despite of me, or like it more because of me. It’s a part of who I am, and so it’s unreasonable to expect people to divorce me from the paintings, so to speak.
I’m wordy, in case this post doesn’t say it all. I will say ten things where one will do, and it’s because usually I have no idea where my thought processes are going to end up, so I just drag you lot along for the ride with me and we’re both surprised at the end!
… and I like cheese.
reblobbed for the day crew, and to add that I’m off to LTUE again, I’ll only be there for two hours today, a panel called designing the dead (come see my giant dead mermaid), and fantasy vs sci fi, also known as ‘jess is probably gonna talk star wars vs pern’.
Shush i need to know more about this panel
Which panel? The dead one or the fantasy vs sci fi one. Normally I’d go “Oh wait I’m talking to Tev, the dead one of course’ but you’re also into discussing weird things like what makes a story sci fi vs fantasy sooo…. yes I have a giant dead mermaid painting. It’s 40” tall. She has a skull on her face. I did it for adries , who else?
Your first guess was correct! I was interested in what sort of world building that was. I assume I’ll hear all of the great stories of you talking over that one guy in the raid after you get back.