Art Journal 8

Things I made last year and things I am working on now.

Project 1: Uncle Scam’s Part 2

The above piece is something literally years in the making. I finally have restarted a project that I have been neglecting for four years. Uncle Scam’s Part 2. You can find part 1 in the “comics” section of my Substack (yes I have a comics section). Last year I worked on a lot of projects I didn’t post and I have not done a decent job of posting art here since the news cycle has turned into one big reality television show.

So this year, I would like to change that. I started posting on Substack around the same time I gave up on Instagram—you can find a piece on why I left Instagram (here) if you are so interested!

Anyway Uncle Scam’s is a comic of sorts about living in Buffalo NY in 2013. I was working at an Army Navy Surplus store run by literal criminals, scam artists, and burn outs in one of the worst parts of the city—a neighborhood called “Larkinville.”

It was my first job out of college. I was an elite university drop out turned community college student turned mediocre state school graduate. I spent 6 years in undergrad and felt like a complete failure at the end of the entire process. I recall thinking at the time that working at this place was one of the worst things to ever happen to me. I was getting sexually harassed and dealing with a really awful living situation where the family upstairs from me was dealing drugs and getting child protective services called on them every other day. Our house had roaches and rats and I was trying to make it as an “artist” while living in the third poorest city in the United States.

I no longer recognize who I was at that age—but it’s fun to travel back in time and zoom out with a more critical lens. I don’t miss it—but it was a simpler time even if in retrospect I was completely miserable. I was also quite frankly miserable to be around—however, it makes a good backdrop for a story.

My goal this year is to finally make a giant dent in the story line and publish another comic book. Or just get some panels done. I started the project in May of 2022. That was the month of the Tops Buffalo mass supermarket shooting, when a neo-Nazi opened fire in a supermarket that contained the highest density of African Americans in the entire city. My oldest friend lost a relative in that store and my mother lost two people she had working relationships with. While I completed part 1—with some help from a grant from a comics festival in Seattle, life took some hard turns over the past couple of years, which limited my ability to make much more progress with the project.

It’s something that has really bothered me. So this year I am trying to change that.

I am admittedly being a bit dishonest about work from last year when it comes to Uncle Scam’s, as some of these panels have been sitting in my apartment for two years—however I am just grateful to be starting the process again.

Project 2: Birdbrain

Making Birdbrain has been a struggle-mostly because I haven’t had any real time to work on anything…and I have finally realized that my “style” for comic panels for the project probably needs to change. I cannot go into too many details about the comic, but for a quick synopsis I actually won a grant for this project last year through FAIR, and am creating a story about an advanced society of birds and sentient AI. The first two panels were drawn years ago however all the others were all done in 2025.

As you can tell I have a thing for “matte” backgrounds.

Commissions

I had quite a few projects for other people last year. Which was amazing considering I no longer use social media the way I used to in the past. Some took a lot longer than others, including work for private collectors and even a few magazine illustrations.

Personal Drawings

I also did manage to squeeze in a few drawings for art shows. Not that many—but I did have my first solo show in years and did a tiny group show at Paradigm Gallery in conjunction with a the release of a piece I wrote on Political Violence post Charlie Kirk.

I also drew a ton of faces and people as spot illustrations for various essays I have written on this platform. In addition I started boxing regularly and now study Spanish and Arabic on a daily basis. My career trajectory has also changed drastically—life is hard but surprisingly full of unexpected opportunities.

Last year wasn’t easy, but it certainly was busier creatively than I initially thought.

I usually get a large number of unsubscribes after sharing art. I understand—many people come here for my writing and don’t expect long listicles of drawings, and I do have (as I keep saying!) pieces of writing I am working on. But unfortunately I treat my writing like I draw my drawings—each one is a long arduous process…so all I can tell you is—I’m working on it I swear!

I stopped sharing art on substack because I didn’t think anyone cared about seeing anything I made. However I forgot that I care about seeing art I made—and I wouldn’t be on here if I wasn’t doing this project in part because I still enjoy drawing things and making comics.

I am trying to post more, I am trying to write more, I am trying to draw more—all these things are hard to maintain habitually at the moment. And while I know this isn’t my normal shtick—I didn’t start out as a writer I started out as an artist. I also think that the world could use a bit more art at the moment and a little bit less rage bait and sensationalism, but hey maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, until next time—see you soon.

Julia