Turning invisible.

When there's a death, there follows an immediate cluster of support and love.

This cluster begins to fall away a few weeks after the death; people are busy, they have their own lives, money worries and health issues to think about. The epicenter of grief puts on a brave face, a mask for the most part.

Months pass and life goes on.

Except for the crumbling inside. The missing. The opening your Skype and seeing their familiar face in your contacts, as if you might be able to reach them wherever they are in the beyond.

It's not the easy choice to remain close to the epicenter. We must allow our lives to fall away - work, play, Internet - so that we may hover nearby, and silently bolster. And that's why you haven't seen much of me lately. I'm turning invisible.

But I'll be back.


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Love VS Crohn's.

I met Lauri, a poetess, and her husband Mark, on the Innerwebs four years ago. Those two are crazy about each other. Always holding hands, always kissing, always smiling and laughing. They're freaking adorable with the love!

You'd never know it by looking at photos, but Mark has Crohn's disease. Every day is a battle for him right now. Lauri loves him so much, and money is tight, so I'm drawing this as a gift for her to give to him this Christmas. She also wants it to be a way to reach others who are living with Crohn's, to empower them and to raise awareness.

Mark has had Crohn's about 10 years. He underwent surgery to have part of his intestines removed about 5 years ago. He's currently on cimzia immune suppression treatment and chemo methotrexate treatment. That's the long story.

And here's the short story:

"We want people to know what it's like," says Lauri. "He is in some level of pain 24-7. But things like working in cars and playing with grandkids give him great joy. And we are huge in believing in God to help us get through. It's one of those invisible illnesses ya know."

Did you know that over half a million people suffer with this in North America? Chances are you know someone with it.

Mark and Lauri are fighting Crohn's with all the love they have for each other. Their smiles, hugs and kisses make everything a little more bearable. It's a positive message.

Ladybugs know all about hugs in a teacup.

Love VS Crohn's? Love wins.

Merry Christmas to you!

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Caregiver support.

I was hired to do this drawing for a local Caregivers Support Group - this particular group is involved with caring for the elderly. It's important to have support when you care for others, for it can be a heavy load. It's good to be able to ask for help too.

I donated the illustration.

If you are a caregiver, what do you do for support?

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The End of the World! Almost.

The End of the World came early for me...at least that's what it felt like. This afternoon I was happily animating away on my PickleWeasel app promo-demo when Adobe Flash started being buggy. This happens with software right? I saved, closed the file and re-opened it a few minutes later.

I saw this:

Flash can not parse this document? Ack. My file was corrupt. A creeping terror swept through me and the blood drained out of my face. I felt like every minor chord in the Universe was ringing dissonance in the depths of my soul. I couldn't even make a fist. Those Mayans!

I'd been working for a week on this animation, so to have the file corrupted was like losing a piece of my heart. Something I'd created was gone.

I turned to Twitter and asked for help. And Twitter delivered! So many fabulous people made suggestions and offered to help. I also reached out to @Adobe hoping they would respond.

This is kinda technical, but The Huz managed to decompile the .swf of rendered "work-in-progress" animation, which was all I had left. It was a partial success; the decompiled file looked nothing like my original timeline. Working in Flash is so...personal. I would have had to do quite a bit of slogging to work with it in that state.

A few minutes later, @Adobe did come through on Twitter. They put me on to @Adobe_Care who pointed me in the right direction. I fixed my Flash file and now I'm happily animating away.

Relief! It's not the End of the World until tomorrow! Thanks Twitter.

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