Since literally nothing is happening this year, writing, blogging, and documenting in general has been difficult.

In this unprecedentedly dull time, creators are challenged to reach deep, deep into that top hat just to pull out a fluff of rabbit hair, let alone a whole mammal. So I’ve turned to the New York Times for ideas, particularly an article called 7 Questions, 75 Artists, 1 Very Bad Year, and I am now stealing the entire outline of that article in order to serve my own narcissistic journalism needs.

That’s right, I’m copping their style. Fight me, NYT. (But no legal action, please, I’m poor.)

1. What’s one thing you made this year?

This year produced so many little things that don’t really quantify as one big thing, but together they added up to a HUGE art life shift. A website, a blog, a merch store, a YouTube Channel, and comics, SO many comics. When you step back and look at it, it’s more like a big collage of good things, rather than one single thing.

2. What art have you turned to in this time?

Illustration, for sure. Almost all of my artistic energy has gone into lines and colors, a style like ligne claire, though not true ligne claire. Painting and writing, which once seemed vital to me, took a back seat this year while I worked on digital art.

3. Did you have any particularly bad ideas?

Not as many as you’d think. This year taught me to trust my art gut more. Of course there were lots of mistakes, false starts, trials, and errors, but the general consensus was that people were not sitting around waiting to judge my art. And if they were, it wasn’t their business. Perfectionism still plagues me, but “good enough is good enough” is becoming my mantra, and it’s serving me well.

But if you really need to hear a bad idea, I did try to move a marble-top coffee table and ended up breaking my toe.

4. What’s a moment from this year you’ll always remember?

A bad surf accident in September, and 12 hours of movie-style “where am I??” amnesia. (Wait, I just realized how ironic it is that amnesia is my most memorable moment from last year.)

5. Did you find a friendship that sustained you artistically?

I found a ton of them! Since I grew up in the 2000’s, I had the “MySpace Killer” phobia found among people of my generation. But once I started trusting the InstaSpace a little more, and opening myself up, I gained so many satisfying creative relationships. So…yes!

6. If you’d known that you’d be so isolated for so long, what would you have done differently?

Exercise, eating healthy, learning another language, making art…I’ve been able to do so many different things this past year, I can’t really say I would have done anything differently. That’s not to say that I’m perfect and I did everything right. Because most of the things I tried, I failed at. I’m still bilingual (not trilingual), I gained twenty pounds instead of losing twenty, and I didn’t write the great American novel. Altogether, it was a good reality check that my shortcomings were not the result of not enough time—it’s laziness I need to confront, rather than lifestyle limitations.

7. What do you want to achieve before things return to normal?

I want to come out of quarantine with glowing skin and a svelte bod. I know that has nothing to do with art, but I’ve become much more physically-oriented in the past few years—a rant for another day—and I want to turn thirty looking great. When I finally do bust out of the front door and go tear up this town, I want to look great doing it.

If you write a post based on these questions, make sure to comment with the link so I can read it!