I hope allergies aren’t hurting you too bad. Although the blossoms aren’t in full bloom right now, I’m already getting the fuzzy eyeballs. But even so, I’m excited for sunshine again.
Upcoming Art Shows
First off, I want to announce that I have a couple art shows coming up. The next show I have lined up will be the Tacoma Night Market March 25th and 26th (Saturday and Sunday). There I will have some new products available. This is an amazing family friendly event that happens once a month and I highly recommend it to everyone whether it’s to see me or to look for something to do on a weekend. To learn more about the event, you can visit their website at the link down below. Hope to see you there!
Link to Tacoma Night Market:
After the Tacoma Night Market, my next event is going to be the Sakura Con art show April 7th thru April 9th (Friday thru Sunday). This will be my second time attending and I will also be standing in as a volunteer for the art show as well and I’m very excited to see how I do especially after having gained knowledge from the previous year. It will be interesting to also see how the convention functions too because there the convention center just built a brand new building and the exhibit will be in a new location this year. But to stay up to date on all information about the con, I left a link to their website down below as well.
Link to Sakura Con: http://sakuracon.org/
Can’t attend any of the above events but would like to support? Feel free to check out my web store for some of my newest products available or check out more links down below!
NEW STICKERS AVAILABLE ON MY WEBSITE!
Link to website store: https://www.runawaygoldfish.com/stickers
For a free gift with your purchase, use code: SKRACN2023 Expires 4/30/2023
Memoirs of a Tattoo Apprentice Spring is finally here, I’m ready to move and grow with it. As you may know, my tattooing apprenticeship has been my main focus these days and all the hard work is paying off. Right now, my focus has been working on tattoo script (lettering) and getting the set up and take down of the tattoo station to the point where it’s become second nature. To be honest, aside from portraits, script is something I find intimidating and I really struggle with it. Even though I have always had an appreciation for the design side of it, it was always something I appreciated from a distance. On the same token, I’ve noticed script tattoos are a common request which make it a good entry point when first tattooing on skin. So whether or not I enjoy it at the end of the training, I always end up a better artist than when I started and I always feel more confident having another skill in my back pocket so I might as well embrace it. If I don’t take on things that challenge me to be better, how can I grow as an artist? As for my cleaning routine I’m definitely getting better and faster but I have to constantly remember that it’s about the quality of the work not the speed. The same principles apply to my tracings too. When I first started doing tracings I didn’t quite understand the importance of them but all the teachings are all starting to come full circle. And now that the apprentice that came in before me just started tattooing on skin, the internal pressure of being on top of my game is setting in even more so.
Art and Community Work When it comes to community work, I’ve always been hesitant in sharing the things I do for a couple reasons. One reason is keeping some things sacred. Sometimes when it comes to community work, it has always been for my own personal fulfillment and never felt the need to share it with people. Another reason is safety. Because I have a passion for social justice work and oftentimes work with marginalized groups, I feel a strong need to protect their spaces. Lastly, I always felt like sharing your community work can sometimes be perceived as a tool to show off or used for “virtue signaling” While I still think all these reasons are still valid, on the other hand, there are plenty of opportunities to inspire other people through the work that I do and I recognize that there is power in sharing something hopeful with others. At the same time, I want to be open about my values as an artist so people have a better understanding of who I am and what my art is about. All of this, just to say that lately, I’ve been using my art to help my community through art education and donating some of my graphic design skills to local LGBTQ+ nonprofits. If you are a young and/or aspiring graphic designer looking to build your portfolio, I highly recommend finding a local cause, hobby or organization that you’re passionate about and use that as inspiration or practice. Not only are you given prompts to work with, it’s a great way to gain experience on how to navigate a clients’ needs. And having worked in art education for a few years now, I want to be able to provide resources for other younger folks out there who feel inspired by my work whether it be my art, my journey or community involvement.
The Short Film I never explored why I am like this but I’ve always been the type of person who always had to take on multiple projects at once. So far there have been no exceptions. And as I’ve previously shared on my other blog posts, I’ve been working on a short film with the intention of entering my first local film festival. I’m happy to announce that I’ve been able to finish my first draft of storyboards and in the midst of doing a clean up for it. I haven’t quite decided how I want to share the making of it aside from Patreon so in the meantime I’ll be sharing my progress via blog posts with maybe the occasional behind the scenes picture. That’s all I have to share for this month. Hope you all have a great start to this Spring season and remember, never be afraid to jump your fishbowl ;)
- Goldfish ~glub~
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I'm back at it again for another vlog post! This video was posted a little late since I had to go out of town but in this month's video (which was supposed to be October's video) I talk about my time at the Water Lantern Festival in Seattle, a bit about my tattooing journey so far and my experience with this year's Spooky season. Hope you enjoy!
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