Monsters Show in Photos + Sudden Busytimes

OH GOOD EVENING MORNING, INTERNET-FRIENDS!  The current time is 6:06AM, and while normal folks have been sound asleep with nary a worry in their clever little heads, I have been awake and assaulting my eyes with florescent colors and patterns and trying to convince myself that although I am not good at math I CAN still count, even though I have CAUSED A SEVERE PROBLEM made a slight miscalculation resulting in about 6 hours of fixing mistakes that may or may not be my fault.  SO.  PLEASE FORGIVE ME IF THIS ENTRY IS SLIGHTLY NEUROTIC AND FEEL AND/OR ABUSES THE CAPSLOCK.

Because I know you just love photos with captions, I'm here to deliver you with some ace descriptions of fancy!times here at the Kai Lin Art gallery.  HERE IS THE GALLERY WINDOW.  IT IS LIKE YOU WERE THERE, INTERNET-FRIENDS!

Here are some general pictures of the beautiful / spacious / fantastic-and-perfectly-suitable-also-for-parties-and-receptions gallery itself (I will say right now that all fish-eye lensed pictures are courtesy of 944.com who were gracious enough to photograph the event for those of us without cameras, and by "us," I mean "me.") before it got super-crowded.  And you may be asking, "Oh, Katie, what are you talking about you narcissistic fool, that looks pretty crowded to me, what are you talking about."
But internet-friends, YOU WOULD BE WRONG.
 BECAUSE THIS IS WHEN IT GOT CROWDED.  We had a really amazing turnout of over 500 people I am told, and THAT IS A LOT OF PEOPLE IN ONE SPACE.  If you cannot tell, we are also all of equal shinyness and glossiness, because in spite of Shelley (gallery assistant / tumblr lover of my life) informing me that the thermostat was set at fifty, I was under the impression that we were suddenly on a tropical island and/or my grandparents house on Long Island 15 years ago where relief from the heat could only be sought from a 65 year old ceiling fan permanently set on "low."

ANYWAY.  Many, MANY people I knew were in attendance, of which was all a pleasant surprise that warmed my tiny, frigid heart.  OH FRIENDS, YOU MAKE MY STONE-COLD GANGSTA KILLAH IDENTITY A MERE FACADE.

Shelley, gallery assistant of your dreams.  With my hand in a slightly awkward position, OH HO HO, SHELLEY, WATCH OUT FOR THIS LADY KILLER.

Dante DeStefano, who is posed in front of one of her fantastic pieces in the show, I believe showed up in 80% of the photos taken of the night. I mean, who wouldn't want to get their picture taken with her?  In a yeti-hat?  THE CHOICE IS OBVIOUS, DUH.  I believe over the duration of the three hours we were in attendance, Dante completed approximately 900 laps around the gallery, hustle-hustlin'!  GO GO DANTE.

The couple on the right (Sorry, couple on the left, I have NO IDEA WHO YOU ARE) is Mr. Jason Hawkins and his WONDERFUL X INFINITY WIFE, BRITTANY.  I have admired Jason's work since we were in school together and his wife started making me baked goods to eat on numerous occasions.  Jason's oil paintings are outstanding.

Anne Elser was my bookmaking instructor, and my burrito-friend.  SHE IS SO WONDERFUL AND HAS ALSO HELPED ME LEARN THE SKILLS TO MAKE MY CHRISTMASES BEAUTIFUL AND THRIFTY.  Anne provided our lovely nametags for the show, and I was glad to be able to talk to her for a little bit.

THESE ARE SOME NEW FRIENDS, WHO I AM HOPING VERY MUCH SO THAT THEY BECOME MY INTERNET-FRIENDS.  <3 <3 <3  These two kind fellows (OH, WHAT A TIME TO BE HORRIBLE WITH NAMES.  I BELIEVE ONE OF YOU IS DAVID.  I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON, SORRY, NEW FRIENDS) talked to me for a little bit about my paintings and were generally a pleasure to speak with.  This was right before there was a flood of five billion people coming into the gallery and before my anxiety truly spiked.  GOOD TIMING.

The photographers at this event took 23094820389423 pictures of my two old neighbors and friends Kari and Derry (RHYMING NAMED COUPLE, ADORBZ) who were kind enough to make it out to the gallery to see me and try to steal the MacBookPro (just kidding).  AREN'T THEY CUTE, INTERNET-LAND?!?

My dad was also in attendance at the gallery!  CAN'T YOU SEE THE RESEMBLENCE.  The dad of the great Katie Lee Grosskopf drove all the way from North Carolina just to see me. FOR ME.  <3  THANKS, DAD.

Here, we stumble upon the greatest picture in the history of pictures.  For this picture, Gary Weiss is actually smiling and wearing a not-red-or-navy-blue-or-grey shirt, and my best pal Mike is wearing not-holey-jeans, and the three of us are together!  In the gallery!  Together!  Ah, words can't describe how happy I am that we somehow found our way into a picture together.  WE ARE SUCH TWEW FWENDZ.

OH, MY GOD, THAT WAS A LOT OF PICTURES.  I've probably lost half of you by now (so...only one reader left, oh ho ho) but if you made it to here, I congratulate you, and assure you that this is the last you'll hear of this show.  I know I've been hyping it for weeks now, but now that it's off my mind, the plan is to sleep for the next 4 days.

But, these plans are foiled!  Because, now that I've gone from a working-at-an-office type person to a working-from-my-comfortable-home-in-underwears type person, I have suddenly hit a point where I am up to my neck in work and jobs are coming in and, like the great Mary Tyler Moore said, I AM GOING TO MAKE IT AFTER ALL.  One of the jobs is fairly full-time freelance work which is on my mind 75% of the time, the other 25% being smaller jobs here and there.  SO, THAT PLAN TO SLEEP FOR FOUR DAYS IS SADLY LOST TO THE WIND, but will hopefully fly back in my face in the guise of a paycheck.  THINGS ARE COMING UP KATIE.

Right after I completed the gallery pieces a couple of weeks ago, I hit kind of an art-burnout stage, and to warm my artist-muscles back up again, I've been completing the 30 Day Drawing Challenge as posted on my tumblr / facebook fan page / wherever the hell else I am on the internet.  Here are the first batch of drawings!  I'll be posting them in groups so I'm not bombarding you every day with random 1-2 hr little drawings.

01 - Self Portrait

02 - Imaginary Friend

 

03 - Most Recent Dream

 

04 - Re-design a Book Cover

IT'S 7:00AM AND TIME TO PASS OUT, INTERNET-LAND! 
Otakon preparation is also taking place this week.  I'M SURE YOU CAN'T WAIT TO FIND OUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT MAKING PRINTS BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT'S MY FAVORITE THING TO DO, RIGHT!?!?

Giveaway Winners + Photoshop Wrasslin'

AS Y'ALL KNOW, I HAD MY FIRST GIVEAWAY YESTERDAY.
The following winners were super quick to respond to my cry of pimpage, and for that I am super thankful!

They are a talented bunch, and I hope that my readers will check out their work as well--very inspiring and awesome work!

And here they are!

Ryan Coons is an outstanding, hard-working, and often hilarious copywriter also based in Atlanta, GA.  He works up at 22Squared, where I'm sure he's being his usual self-deprecatingly talented self.  He and his awesome gf, Lauren, were my dates (THIRD WHEEL, LOLZZZZ) to our friend Jonathan's recent wedding, and he still owes me $100 (just kidding.  no.  i mean.  yes.  but not mad.)

Follow him on twitter and tumblr--you will not regret it, unless you're allergic to funny or nerdy or funnily nerdy things.  And if you are, I don't know why you'd be reading this blog anyways.

Jess is a photographer and doodler from NJ who I met when I assisted with tour management and merchandise for bands from Japan that traveled to the States to do live shows for their American fanbases.  She's the definition of a sweetheart, and she's talented to boot--she's ultra-passionate and dedicated to her pursuits in photography and art; she is available for hire as well!

You can see more of her work at her deviantart page.

San Smith is an illustrator and amazo-blogger out of Atlanta.  Her blog and artwork are both fantastic--I've been a stalker fan of hers for some time, and was happy we finally got to meet each other this spring!  If you haven't seen San's work yet, you're crazy, and need to immediately head over to her website.

She is also doing an awesome giveaway right now, so please check it out!

Dana is a blogger from the DC Area who is an avid reader of books and her blog is dedicated to writing and talk to people about her love of books!  She updates very frequently, and her insight into romance and fantasy novels makes me want to start reading as much as I used to when I was younger.  I also did the artwork for her banner for the site!

Please read her blog, become her blog's fan on facebook, or if you're not a hardcore reader like Dana is, her other personal blog could be of your interest as well!

The Anger Ball is a blog I've pimped out before on my twitter and tumblr, and I sincerely hope that you all have had an opportunity to read these entries.  THEY ARE HILARIOUS.   I have a personal belief that negativity is harmful and I try to stay away from it as much as possible, but if unavoidable, it is best handled with humor...of which the Anger Ball's specializes!  I always look forward to their updates and tweets.

Follow the Anger Ball on twitter or read their blog; there's a little something for just about everybody there!

Good job, followers!  Joon and I approve!

Well, I'm happy to report that I have some full-time freelancing gigs right now that will keep me busy for hopefully a long time.  Being at home and working here has really turned me on to the idea of working for myself.  I do miss the interaction and fun work antics of my old job, but this is easily fixed with some good old fashion hang-out time with my friends--I just have to make sure to schedule not-work times!  When you work at home, it's easy to get wrapped up in what you do and forget about having a social life.

THIS, I DO NOT WANT TO EVER FORGET.

Speaking of working for myself, I have a webcomic planned for an October release, and blew the hard-drive dust off of my Photoshop and started to doodle a little.

SHIT, PHOTOSHOP IS HARD.  Although, I admit that when I say this, rabid Photoshop supporters insist that Illustrator is hard, and I will agree with that.  I just need more practice is all!  So, i hope to be sharing more Photoshop doodles as well as some artwork from the webcomic.  Stay tuned for more!  Thanks, guys!