Tag: gratitude

Here we are at another year end recap! This is post #1330.

The start of the year seemed to be about used bookstores. We visited Wonder Book and Second Story several times, and found some good treasure. 2024 deepened my interest in reading and writing, and, well, I love a good used bookstore.

It’s been a challenging year – I mean, how could it not have been, given all the nonsense in Washington, and around the world? But there have been some challenges at home, too.

I returned to graduate school, only to have to stop three weeks into the semester. My brand new supervisor/dean/vice-provost abruptly stopped telework for her direct reports in August. She slammed her palms on the conference room table and barked “The pandemic is over!” After having an eleven year run of hybrid telework suddenly revoked, I found myself spending the equivalent of an entire workday commuting to and from my job every week. I need to maintain my exercise regime to manage stress (more than ever, in fact), so something had to go. I absolutely loved the writing program while it lasted, and will return when I am more able to give the time required.

The Loss Column

We lost our beloved Pi, and his presence is still missed.

My mom lost her husband to old age and his family genetics, and it was terrible on multiple levels. Seen through the lens of the Leo Retrograde, hard truths were revealed and faced.

Mom then passed away in hospice on December 4th, with me at her side.

I spent the equivalent of an entire month in Florida starting at the end of July. Mom’s decline happened so quickly – it was shocking. So much loss in so short a time.

Here is something else that’s shocking – I paid $131.00 to The Baldwin Brothers in the Villages, FL to have mom’s remains delivered to me. I came home from work to find this on the sidewalk in front of my home.

By contrast, our dog required a signature to collect his remains at the post office. I’m stunned. Mom would be very disappointed.

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Whew – what a bummer! In the asset columns, a lot of cool stuff happened, too!

I made a lot of art in 2025, and that’s all documented here. I’m proud of the that work I made, the volume of work that I made, and I’m excited about all the ideas I still have to complete in 2026.

I set out to draw more this year, and I believe I did draw more when I wasn’t producing work for shows, etc. But I also worked at a feverish pace for the entire year.

I completed several rounds of a new series I’m calling Abecedarian. I was honored and surprised to find myself a finalist for the Baker Artist Award.

I got to meet Mark Hogancamp at a group show in NY. I made him a diorama, which he is placing over a mantle in the Marwencol clubhouse.

I can’t remember when I first learned about Hogancamp, but I definitely remember being run over by Welcome to Marwen. I have a great deal in common with Mark, and it was my great pleasure to have a long, frank discussion with him about it. He’s delightful, kind and generous. I’m glad to be friends.

I spent two and half months animating Terms of Service. I’m really pleased with this one – it pulls from a more formal approach to writing. I made a complete animatic before I started drawing, and that helped A LOT.

And Terms of Service won the Baltimore Showcase at Sweaty Eyeballs! What an honor this is for me. My first Sweaty Eyeballs festival was 10 years ago, and as I sat in the audience in Falvey Hall at MICA, I remember thinking “THIS is what I want to do.” And so, I set out to be an animator.

I reunited with Blister Freak Circus this year, and I jammed with Oxglove.

My Pedal of the Year award goes to Stacks FX Thsee Anomaly. I bought it used on Reverb from Juan Alderete (Racer X, Mars Volta, Marilyn Manson, etc.). I LOVED Juan’s YouTube channel with Nick Reinhart, and found much inspiration with these guys during downtime at work. I also bought Juan’s Pearl bass drum pedal that’s currently attached to my electronic drum setup.

The pedal didn’t come with a manual, and I wasn’t able to track one down online. I was nervous about the mA requirements, and wrote to a couple of the Stacks FX guys who worked on this pedal.

Both were super friendly, and Brian Frederick (no longer with Stacks) sent me this on LinkedIN:

I really like this quirky pedal, and plan to use it on the next RPM challenge. I was also blown away by Chase Bliss’ Lost and Found and Reverse Mode C this year. I added Electro Harmonix Glove to my board, and I think it will replace my Plumes in 2026. Lots of good weird stuff coming off my pedal board – can’t wait to get into recording.

What else? I began taking photos of trash trucks from behind them. I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me before now. It’s great.

And maybe it’s a visual metaphor of how 2025 went.

The Books

Here’s my list of books for 2025. I’ve expanded the list this year to also include meaningful short stories.

Fiction

The Magicians, Lev Grossman
The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The God of the Woods, Liz Moore
All Fours, Miranda July
A Murder of Quality, John le Carré
We Solve Murders, Richard Osman
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Black Box, Michael Connelly
The Stand, Stephen King
The Circle, Dave Eggers
The Librarianist, Patrick deWitt
Poor Things, Alasdair Gray
Dead Zone, Stephen King
Never Flinch, Stephen King

Graphic Fiction

The Sopping Thursday, Edward Gorey
The Glorius Nosebleed, Edward Gorey
The Betrayed Confidence, Edward Gorey
The Willowdale Handcard, Edward Gorey
The Hapless Child, Edward Gorey
Raw Sewage Science Fiction, Marc Bell
My Most Secret Desire, Julie Doucet
Milk White Steed, Michael D. Kennedy
Frankenstein Magazine Presents: OSSO, various artists
Warnebi, Wiebke Bolduan
Heaven and Hell, Michael Deforge
Ants, Michael Deforge
Best American Comics 2019, Bill Kartalopoulos
Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli
Best American Comics 2008, Lynda Barry

Non-Fiction

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder
My Effin’ Life, Geddy Lee
Multipliers, Liz Wiseman
All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Bringley
The Art Thief, Michael Finkel
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders
The Pigeon Tunnel, John le Carré
Trouble, Jack Livingston
The Situation and the Story, Vivian Gornick
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert
Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, Dan Nadel

Poetry

Sleeping with the Dictionary, Harryette Mullen
Blue Hour, Carolyn Forché
The Golden Book of Words, Bernadette Mayer

Short Stories

Never Bet the Devil Your Head, Edgar Allan Poe
Street Haunting,Virginia Woolf
Burl’s, Bernard Cooper
Somehow Form a Family, Tony Earley
Return to Sender, Mark Doty

I think my favorite book this year was Crumb. There’s a kind a magic in drawing for me, and I enjoyed learning about Crumb’s path as an artist. Next is The Bright Sword, The Pigeon Tunnel and Asterios Polyp.

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As for 2026, we are set to do more races. I will continue to hone my Tai Chi and overall fitness. I have 3.5 films ready to go, or already underway. I have a pretty good backlog of books to read, and am looking forward to getting into them. And I have some thrilling prospects just ahead.

Pause and harvest the most radiant moments of 2025, let gratitude fill every corner of your being, then step into 2026 aligned with trust, expansion, and the quiet certainty that abundance is already on its way.

Happy New Year, friends. I hope you are happy, healthy and safe.

Well, my dear reader, it’s time for another year end post. I like to enumerate blessings at the end of the year. A lot of what follows has been written about over 2024 in the linked blog posts, should you be interested.

I suppose I should begin with how we began this year…

We got Married!

It was a lovely ceremony, conducted by my dear friend Jenny O’Grady in one of my favorite places – the neighborhood art gallery. It was a dream-come-true wedding for us. Wonderful.

Art

I participated in a group show called The Art of Accumulation, at Anne Arundel Community College. I lived within a mile of that campus for 4 years, and yet had never set foot there.

My work in that show pertains to the efficiency of memory. After dropping off my work, I tried to find the old house, and it was tricky. I haven’t been there in ~28 years or so, and some of my milestones have changed. But, I found it without resorting to maps.

Maryland Art Place sponsored an exhibit at our favorite coffee joint (Zeke’s), and I made some cartoon related dioramas. I was honored to participate in the Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Adjacent show at Area 405 here in Baltimore, curated by my colleague Corrie Francis Parks. This was an impressive show of physical work by animators. I was in a small group show at the Howard County Arts Council, called A Closer Look. I was also invited to show at the XOXO gallery by the Goxxip Girls, a Baltimore art collective. It was an honor to show my murder shoe series.

As a late-in-the-year December surprise, I was invited to show 3 animations at Le Mondo, and it was delightful. I’m glad I found this community of performers this year.

I also relaunched my shop on this site, and I’m looking forward to developing this further. I’ve always considered this site my true gallery. I like making my work available here. And, to that end, I am still honing my ideas about Modest Art, and how I relate/belong to that. I enjoy and find immense value in the various processes of making work, and that has become my primary concern. My website (this site) is part of that process. What happens after I make the work and document it can happen in the shop on this site – I love that. Still working on this, though.

Back in November, I wrote a post about my intention to draw every day when several trains of thought intersected and a new purpose became clear to me. I’m grateful for that inspiration, and excited to see what happens next.

Work

About the only time I talk about the day job is in the annual recaps (if even then). Into my 10th year of service to a local state university, I was made the associate director of my division (in an acting-to-permanent capacity). My team and I more than tripled the amount of digital signage in the building. We opened a maker space with 3D printers, laser cutters, 3D scanners, software and hand tools. We reworked the sound in our meeting spaces. We made things better. We even won the campus “A Job Well Done” award for our combined efforts in the lab.

For the very first time (aside from my teaching), my work life and artistic life have crossed streams. Opening the maker space has allowed me to stretch out a bit with bringing some of my artistic/MFA leanings into my day job.

I made a bunch of 3D scans in my off time at work, and picked up a 3D printer for my home studio to help me make puppets for animation.

I learned a lot about leading a team this year. And myself. And I’ve enjoyed doing research in support of both leadership and Art.

I also continued to adjunct at Towson University. I really love that place, and I’ve enjoyed teaching there so much.

Film

Lily and I LOVED Godzilla Minus One. Well, Lily liked it. I love it. We got the see it on its second run in November, and WOW. It’s the best Godzilla in a long time. In the version we saw, they added some Q&A and how-we-did-it clips to the film, which made it that much more delightful.

As mentioned elsewhere, I subscribed to the Criterion Channel, which has quickly become my favorite subscription, and formalized some of our entertainment viewing. I also loved Poor Things which I saw for the first time in 2024. I’ve been particularly haunted by the overall experience of watching Heretic in the theater. I can’t stop thinking about that house. And other films.

Music

I recorded an album this year called The Shadow of his Doubt. It has Electric Cow Head, and ten other tracks.

I’ve moved away from recording in Ableton Live in favor of Logic Pro. I still like Ableton for midi stuff, and arranging. But Logic Pro has won me over for live recording.

There was a guitar pedal show here in Baltimore. I was gratified to see such an enthusiastic community appear. My favorite pedals of 2024 are Red Panda’s Radius and Chase Bliss’ Onward.

I also finally took the leap in June and acquired an Ibanez Pia.

Lily and I preformed at the Animation Adjacent Variety Show, and it checked several boxes on my life’s wish list. For one, I did a live music gig with Lily. And two, we improvised a set with very little rehearsal.

Writing

I took a graduate creative writing class (workshop) and the University of Baltimore. I loved it.

I had written to a faculty member asking for writing resources, and it seemed like enrollment might have been on the low side, so they invited me to take it. My reason for pursuing this stemmed from a grant – I wanted to apply for a grant to make a film, but my script was incomplete. I wondered if there was a way to speed up the story making process, and so, I thought I would investigate.

I learned that the secret to getting the stories made more quickly is to simply sit still and write them. I wrote three different stories for the course, and significantly revised one of them into a different telling. I also came up with two other stories.

It was A LOT of work. A lot of thinking work. It was a great experience, and while I’m not adverse to the idea of continuing to study writing, I came away with a lot of materials to work with on my own. I have my own Doranimation production schedule, and with teaching, I think pursuing a degree at this time is not the best path (for now).

As an aside, I saw this bowl in an office near my classroom. It’s identical to the plate setting we had when I was kid.

I read a lot for this course, and became more interested in (hungry for, really) the act of reading. I’ve begun reading authors and stories I previously ignored. I’m reading in a new way, too. Not just for entertainment, but also as a witness to the craft of writing. And, speaking of reading, here is my book list for 2024.

What I Read

I completed my self guided reading challenge on Goodreads, again. Anne Lamott says that when we become better at writing, we become better at reading.

What treasure!

Marvel finally published omnibus editions (3 volumes of each!) of my beloved Micronauts and ROM Spaceknight. I have been hoping for these editions for years now. And they did not disappoint!

Beverly and I used some of our weekend dates to visit bookstores around town, and I had some exceptional experiences, from Atomic Books, Normals Books and Music, Viva Books Baltimore, to Second Story Books in Rockville. From the latter, I found this superb collection from Belgian artist Pol Mara (1920-1998):

It is not in English, but the documentation of his art is fantastic and inspiring. Funny story – I picked out a handful of Northern European Renaissance painting books for reference, and put this one down. I told myself that I’d just Google this guy and look at his art online. I assured myself this would be fine, as the internet connectivity in the Second Story is terrible at best. I got home and was dismayed at the lack of material I could find, even in the online databases through my academic library. I looked this book up online, and you can get it used from Europe starting at around $100 plus ~$48 shipping. So, I went back to Second Story, and I managed to find it shelved in under 10 minutes. I had originally found it mis-shelved. This warehouse is massive and not computerized, so the proposition of finding this one book again seemed questionable to me. It cost me $15. I was very happy!

A side note about Second Story – they have a collection of Edward Gorey materials for sale at $50k.

And speaking of Gorey, his longtime neighbor, friend and collaborator Carol Verburg just published her second book about him. I love Gorey, of course. I’ve been to his house in Yarmouth, and I even gave an artist talk about his life and influence. One of my favorite things about Gorey are the performances he staged during the last part of his life in his community. They featured theatrical productions that he called “entertainments.” He designed the sets and programs, made the costumes, chose the music, and wrote all the material. This book documents that stuff, and I LOVE it. It’s a true look behind the curtain into this period (my favorite) of Gorey’s life.

I recommend this book 110%!

While at Burke’s books in Memphis, I discovered a book by Jon Padgett. I love this book. I have a friend who is a ventriloquist, and this subject keeps appearing in my life.

I gave it 5 stars Goodreads, and Mr. Padgett seems to approve!

Okay, back to the self guided reading challenge (inspired via Goodreads). My fiction list is all over the place. I didn’t like one of these books very much, and absolutely hated one (I won’t say which). I loved most of them, however, such as The Secret of Ventriloquism, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, and James. I read a lot of Antonio Prohías for inspiration for a film I am working on. I went a little nuts on MAD and Spy vs. Spy. I also added poetry to the list this year, which is a very happy surprise.

Okay, here are my lists in no particular order:

Fiction

• The Secret of Ventriloquism, Jon Padgett
• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride
• James, Percival Everett
• The Book of Merlin, T.H. White
• The Once and Future King, T.H. White
• Le Morte d’Arthur, Thomas Malory
• The Magicians, Lev Grossman
• The Living Statue: A Legend, Günter Grass
• Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson
• Maeve Fly, C.J. Leede
• Call for the Dead (George Smiley, #1), John le Carré
• You Like It Darker, Stephen King
• The Woman Who Killed the Fish, Clarice Lispector
• From Russia with Love (James Bond, #5), Ian Fleming
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ian Fleming
• The Unforgettable Loretta Darling, Katherine Blake
• Festival & Game of the Worlds, César Aira
• The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1), Richard Osman
• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, (The Carls, #1), Hank Green
• A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (The Carls, #2), Hank Green
• Liberation Day, George Saunders
• Shogun, Volume 1, James Clavell
• Shogun, Volume 2, James Clavell
• The Real Cool Killers, (Harlem Cycle, #2) Chester Himes
• Fatal Voyage (Temperance Brennan, #4), Kathy Reichs
• Grave Secrets (Temperance Brennan, #5), Kathy Reichs
• Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
• Holly, Stephen King
• Good Material, Dolly Alderton
• A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1), Sarah J. Maas
• Hestia Strikes a Match, Christine Grillo

Comics/Graphic Fiction

• Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1, Bill Mantlo
• Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 11, Bill Mantlo
• Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 111, Bill Mantlo
• Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years, Omnibus Vol. 1, Bill Mantlo
• Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years, Omnibus Vol. 11, Bill Mantlo
• Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years, Omnibus Vol. 111, Bill Mantlo
• Big Kids, Michael DeForge
• Viscera Objectica, Yugo Limbo
• Iris: een roman voor kijkers, Lo Hartog van Banda
• Time Under Tension, M.S. Harkness
• Delights: A Story of Hieronymus Bosch, Guy Colwell
• The Sixth MAD Casebook on Spy Vs. Spy, Antonio Prohías
• Mad Spy Vs. Spy (The Updated Files, No 8), Antonio Prohías
• Spy Vs. Spy: The Updated Files, #7, Antonio Prohías
• Fifth Mad Report on Spy vs. Spy, Antonio Prohías
• The Fourth MAD Declassified Papers on… Spy Vs Spy, Antonio Prohías
• Mad’s Spy Vs Spy/Follow-Up File, Antonio Prohías
• The Third MAD Dossier of Spy vs. Spy, Antonio Prohías
• The All New MAD Secret File on Spy vs. Spy, Antonio Prohías
• Spy vs Spy Masters of Mayhem (Mad) Antonio Prohías
• Spy vs Spy Missions of Madness (Mad Magazine), Antonio Prohías
• Spy Vs. Spy 2: The Joke and Dagger Files, Peter Kuper
• MAD Spy vs Spy: An Explosive Celebration, Antonio Prohías
• Chas Addams’ Homebodies, Charles Addams
• Sunday, Olivier Schrauwen

Non-fiction

• Cassette Cultures: The Past and Present of a Musical Icon, John Z. Komurki
• Psychic and other ESP party games, David Hoy
• Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Makerspaces in Practice: Successful Models for Implementation, Ellyssa Kroski
• The Creative Act, Rick Ruben (2nd time through)
• No Bad Parts, Richard Schwartz
• Pol Mara monografie, Marcel Van Jole
• Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
• Brothers, Alex Van Halen
• How Music Works, David Byrne
• The Age of Magical Overthinking, Amanda Montell
• Asemic The Art of Writing, Peter Schwenger
• The Theatrical Adventures of Edward Gorey: Rare Drawings, Scripts, and Stories, Carol Verburg
• Notations 21, Theresa Sauer

Poetry

• Concordance, Susan Howe
• The Endless Undoing, Eleanor Lewis
• Tablets: Secrets of the Clay, Dunya Mikhail
• Mojave Ghost, Forrest Gander

Animation:

It was a good year for film. Brains wrapped up its run at over 15 festivals, including the Maryland Film Festival and ArtScape. I was asked to participate in the signal film for Sweaty Eyeballs, where Magus Incognito screened. I attended the Baltimore Showcase and all four international blocks this year. I love it, and as usually, left feeling dreamy, connected to a community, and inspired.

I made Magus specifically for a Hermetic Film Festival. I did it rather quickly, once I worked out the approach to the material in The Kybalion. I am surprised at how much this little 77 second film has given me: a best animation award, the Animation Adjacent exhibit, SEAF24, and the variety show added up to a lot – it has legs!

I’ve begun working on two new films, for one of which I hired voice over actors. I consciously slowed down for these – I usually work so quickly and intensely to meet some deadline or other, that I miss out on letting stories simmer and grow over time. I’m looking forward to finishing these. I learned a lot from Brains, which had more legs that I anticipated.

Travel:

We had a honeymoon in Puerto Rico, and we took Beverly’s mom to Memphis, home of her beloved Elvis. I enjoyed both trips immensely. Super fun!

Whew! What a recap – I think my longest yet! This was definitely a literary year, and that is a surprise.

As I say goodnight to 2024, and welcome 2025, there’s a lot to be grateful for. And, to look forward to. I’m excited to share my new animations and drawings with you. I already have a couple of exhibits lined up for this year.

I’m sure that as 2025 unfolds, we will face new challenges and, mostly likely, some uncomfortable surprises. For my part, I will take things one day at a time. Happy New Year!