It's FOPEACHY time.

It’s now been a whole decade since I started doing this monthly art summary meme. And it’s funny because this little snapshot does not capture the best pieces I’ve done for each entire year. For example if I had two pieces of art I loved doing in March, I could still only show one. And if I had really nothing done in May, I couldn’t just pull something from earlier or later in the year for that spot. 

Unsurprisingly enough whenever I post my yearly summary, it completely bombs by social media standards.  It would be more visually appealing, to a viewer's perspective, if I simply picked my favorite 6-12 pieces for the year and disregard the month it came from. I also think most other artists look at this meme format with disdain because it embraces the toxic narrative that artists need to create something impressive every month. But that wasn’t how I wanted to view and share this project in the long term.

Through cataloging these summaries consistently, I see the content which was important to me during that time of my life. Like, huge shout out to the Monster Hunter series for being the predominant subject featured since 2016. There are a few commissions featured over the years, and those were projects I really poured time and effort into for someone else. I think back fondly on those people who believed and supported my work during those times. I still love looking back at the times I decided to try to tackle something out of my comfort zone to mixed successes.

The unintended benefit for my retrospective isn’t actually about the quality of my art over the years. I look back at each of these years I have done and I see the times I was sad, the times I struggled, the times I felt safe, and times I had peace in my heart. I look at 2013 and I relive being a fresh college graduate who was so burned out I couldn’t do more than sketches most of the time. I remember my fear that I would never get a job creating art for a game project. I reflect that even this year, 2021, I have still not obtained a real game industry job but I’m okay with that. Seeing what I have and have not accomplished yet all laid out like this is just so bittersweet. 

This summary was never about showing that I could be productive all year round. I truly believe that artists don’t need to create top notch content to be churned out like a machine. It’s okay to take a month, or several months, to get to a better place in order to create once again. I define each month recorded in this summary as another chapter in my life, the good and the bad. 

You really gain perspective on where you are at currently, when you can directly compare it to where you were before. It’s not just about the quality of work, it’s about the summation of all your experiences over time. I don’t think I would be able to develop my thoughts like this, without having this long term project to look back upon.

This journey marches onward. Sometimes I feel like I am yelling into the void by sharing my thoughts onto the internet. But if my words, or art, can resonate with even one person in a positive way. Then to me, that is worth doing. 

[Image Description: 3 small emotes of Ares repeating 3 times. One is smiling, one is thinking, and one is angry. 

[Image Description: A series of images depicting Ares in front of his red boon with a sword icon. First image is large version of the design. The second image is a mock-up of the front of the acrylic charm. The third image is a mock-up of the back of the acrylic charm.