There is a new post on there about Art Bitch vol. 1 – the first collection of Art Bitch cartoons! Get it while it’s hot.

phoebesmundo

phoebe’s world, party on, excellent!

Things I love about my kitchen:

1. It’s really kind of big, especially for a studio. Actually, it might be the biggest apartment kitchen I’ve ever had.

2. The windows, and the evening light they let in. Even the sunset view over the parking lot is beautiful.

3. Yeah, basically everything. it’s an awesome kitchen.

The lease is only for six months, but I have a feeling that these six months are going to be a historic time in my life. An important time of living on my own for the first time after the year with my parents. It’s a very specific feeling. Knowing I am the only one who lives here; I don’t have to worry about anyone else. I may never want to have roommates again.

I love this place, I love everything about it. The size, shape, windows, floors. I love getting up in the morning and making coffee, sitting in the chair by the window in the kitchen and reading while I drink coffee and eat breakfast. Yes, I am in the honeymoon period of my relationship with the apartment, but whatever! “I’m in love, I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it!” ~ Buddy the Elf.

What inspired me to draw my kitchen was re-reading Julia Wertz’s Drinking at the Movies and seeing her apartment drawings of all the places she’s lived in New York. I don’t think I’ve ever drawn a place I’ve lived in. I take pictures, but I am not a photographer. Drawing is my art, and documenting my space in that way not only gives me good practice drawing perspective and things that I find difficult like tables and cupboards, but also deepens my relationship with the space and gives me a picture to remember it by which captures how I felt in that space and time.

More and more people are getting into Etsy shopping, and other online-buying directly from artists. Because the next best thing to a handmade gift you made yourself, is a handmade gift beautifully done by someone else. It’s unique, usually affordable and supports local/small-business artists. You really can’t go wrong. Here are some highlights I’ve come across:

My friend Lauren is part of a group of people at the Loomi company, which sells light kits– you put them together yourself, into any number of beautiful geometric shapes, and then decorate them however you want. Here’s a pic of the one I made:

Isn’t it pretty? And I put it together myself! What a good, proud feeling. There are so many possibilities for how to decorate it. I poked tiny holes in the pieces, and strung paper birds that I made around the outside.

My friend April May makes really adorable prints, greeting cards and more. This Mohawk Theater postcard is one of my favorites, but browse her etsy shop and check out her holiday stuff. You can even put together your own choice of cards for a set, and even create custom greetings.

My current favorite cartoonist, Julia Wertz, is selling some hand drawn panels, as well as all her books (which come with special extras if you buy directly from her).

Gabrielle Bell, another favorite of mine, is drawing portraits of your loved ones from photographs. What a great gift! They are really lovely.

Of course, mini comics by yours truly always make great gifts. Order Shelf Life for your favorite person who hasn’t yet read it. Fish Dreams, however, is currently under construction– new drawings and more– and will hopefully be ready to ship by Valentine’s Day.If you are interesting in ordering something, shoot me an email: annamolev@gmail.com. If you live in NYC (Jim Hanley’s, or Bergen Street Comics), Chicago (Chicago Comics), or Portland, OR (Cosmic Monkey) you can buy them in person.

Also keep your eyes and ears open for a brad new book: Art Bitch vol. 1. Very, very soon.

Right down to the details of medical world. I, too, had felt the relief of being in a doctor’s care, thinking they would magically make me better. That in a doctor’s office I would always be taken care of and that I could let go of worry. Now I know that doctors are just people doing a job. There is so much they don’t know. Some are kind and caring, some are irritated by your every question, some are in-between. Just like at a store, a gas station, or a restaurant. Doctors are not super-human, they are just human. Humans working at living just like the rest of us.

It warms my heart to know there is a doctor like Shana, who looks at each heart beat as the miracle it is. Who is an artist-doctor– looking at each patient and situation uniquely, adapting to be able to care for that person, specifically.

Shana and I both look for those little things, those small joys and amazing details of every day life. When we were kids we saw invisible friends everywhere, built castles for frogs, and wrote stories about leaves and clovers. We are still those two little girls, looking at our adult lives with that perspective of possibility. And I am so grateful she is my friend.

Speaking of small things:

The reason I am posting about her today, is because of the comic she posted today about her experience getting an MRI. 

I will be posting a new cancer comic this week, possibly even later today if I really get my butt on the ball. In the meantime, you can entertain yourselves by reading all of Julia’s archives. And while you are at it, check out Gabrielle Bell too, my other new female cartoonist crush.