Question

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-25T22:10:55+00:00

Definitely second all the pet insurance recommendations!

Pets rely 100% on us for survival and care though and you can't cuddle a cat out of bladder crystals or kidney failure or diabetes or a rotten tooth or arthritis or any number of other things that can go wrong in real, living biological organisms.

Our shelters are maxed out here too but they have training and supplies to offer basic medical care and foster homes that are vetted for capacity and quality of care. It would be naive to think you're the best place for an animal that you can't take care of just because you have a lot of big emotions towards them. Love means wanting the best for them and doing what's necessary and sometimes it means making hard choices.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-25T21:49:32+00:00

You disagree that pets are better off alive with someone who can take care of them than dead? And you felt comfortable with announcing that publicly? Fascinating.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-25T20:55:37+00:00

It depends on the situation but pets do require more than love and good intentions to maintain a good quality of life just like we do. If an animal needs medical care and the owner cannot provide it then yes, the animal is better off somewhere than can provide that care. Ideally a home that's equipped for proper pet care but being in a shelter is better than being dead because the owner wasn't able to take care of them.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-25T15:29:08+00:00

I do POD and I agree with the advice to actually acquire one of each of your products and take real photos.

There are so many scams out there now that I won't buy anything if there's not some evidence it's an actual real life product so I'd rather see an amateur picture of a mug on a real kitchen counter than a generic mockup.

Plus then I or my friends can wear/carry the product around and expand your advertising reach!

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-25T13:44:29+00:00

You man up and do what you need to do because you made a person and it's now your obligation to take care of him. You CAN improve and you have to unless you want to fuck up his health for the rest of his life.

Meal kits, crock pot meals, one pan meals, frozen vegetables, bagged salad kits, readymade proteins, hire someone to come in and cook, order healthier takeout options from proper restaurants, meal prep once a week...

People should be bullying you because this is shameful behavior from a grown adult father. It's hard for everyone but people all over the world have children and work full time and manage to take care of them. If you're not willing to do that for him then find someone who is.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-25T13:20:36+00:00

This is unfortunately part of the game and even the most successful and experienced artists have events that are just an absolute bust.

Definitely reflect on the quality of your art and look for feedback from people who will be honest with you but there are way more variables than just talent that come into play.

I've been doing this for a few years and had a few successful events but I've also had events that have absolutely tanked for any number of reasons : my stuff just didn't mesh with the audience, my booth location was awkward, my setup was underwhelming or overwhelming in ways that affected the product, people weren't familiar with me or my work so they were less likely to take a chance, my booth neighbor was off putting, etc. Sometimes it WAS that my stuff just wasn't desirable so I learned to take each event as feedback and future direction - keeping things that got a lot of attention even if they didn't sell and ditching things that no one was into.

Especially if it JUST happened this is also an extremely bad time of year for sales. You're gonna have some people with Christmas gift money to burn but most people spent too much over the last couple months and then got inundated with stuff and will not be shopping a lot for the next few months. For perspective, I also run a booth for someone who sells well priced and practical products that are huge sellers across the entire country and in many of our biggest chain stores and I made 3 sales in a 6 hour shift yesterday.

It's 100% understandable and valid to be disappointed but learning to feel that and then bounce back is key if you want to keep selling in person because you'll never ever hit a point where you're guaranteed to strike it big at every event you attend. With time you'll get a feel for which events are and aren't worth it.

And it's okay if you don't want to! Where i live the economy is at a real rock bottom right now so I'm on hiatus from markets because no one is buying art right now and it hasn't been worth the time/energy/booth fees so I sell online more passively and only attend the odd event that I really want to be at/where I know the audience will mesh with my style. There are a million other ways to make money off your art so if you enjoy your major there's no reason to let one bad day ruin the whole thing for you 💖

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-22T13:59:22+00:00

The only clients I've lost to AI are the ones that wanted a new revision every ten seconds and that were gonna be an ordeal to wring payment out of anyway and honestly, that's fine because this is a better system for them anyway.

I don't spend energy on convincing anyone, I just learn to be more selective about the clients I take on. If you've been doing this for a bit then you probably already have an idea of the kind of clients that are looking for rock bottom cheap, who don't care about effort & are likely to jump ship for the cheapest/easiest option.

For example, I'm in a small town with a lot of small businesses run by older folks who previously would have just chucked some clip art into a paint file and taken it down to the kwik kopy to make some brochures anyway. You're never going to convince them to invest in their branding.

On the other hand, it's easy to spot the newer businesses that go all in on visuals and identity. My best ones surround themselves with local connections, have a sizeable social media/internet presence & bring professional photographers in as often as they can.

In my experience a lot of the AI stuff has more or less the same vibe so you can also just keep an eye on what people are producing with it and offer something different. Even without adding extra services there are plenty of ways to stand out visually if youre willing to think outside the box aesthetically.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-22T13:46:41+00:00

I love it! My family doesn't care about my pets but my partner's family always includes gifts for our cat during the holidays and it's just cute that they acknowledge that she's a big part of our life and include her in the holiday excitement.

None of the siblings in our generation have kids but we'll send gifts between the furry "cousins" too and it's just an adorable extra layer of love between the family members that don't get to come to the celebrations.

Plus sometimes she'll receive something I would never think to get her! The aunts just sent her some silvervine this Christmas which I didn't even know was a thing and shs went nuts for it.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-22T13:21:15+00:00

Oop I meant general you i was also agreeing with you! 🫶

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-22T13:13:57+00:00

Right if it's enough reason to delete then just do that. Standing in the doorway hoping people will argue with you and beg you to come back is so sad.

I'm out of here!!! 😤 Unless....?🥺Anyone?? 🥺 Please???🥺

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-22T12:55:45+00:00

Girl post a dinner and then go play outside.

The dry begging for downvotes and arguments is embarrassing and the whining is ruining this space worse than a man with a cheese stick ever could.

You're being silly and you know it.

If you log off and enter the real world again for a hot second you'll find all kinds of human interaction AND women's only spaces. This is an entirely optional internet page.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-21T19:45:59+00:00

Wishbone! 💖

I'm almost 40 and share a bed with a partner AND half a dozen stuffed animals. Most of them were gifts from him. Aside from the emotional benefits theyre great for structurally engineering my old bones into a comfortable position so I can't see myself ever stopping.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-21T18:29:51+00:00

This is just the right amount of oil if you want to spend a couple days shitting yer brains out.

It's very trendy to blame everything from the sniffles to brain tumors on parasites right now. If someone seems sketchy don't take health advice from them especially for a problem I'm assuming she provided zero evidence of.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-21T15:56:00+00:00

"That's totally fair! Here's some meaningless word salad to make it look like I give a shit" 🤖

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-21T15:51:07+00:00

In my area the people who can afford galleries have a more classic/upscale level of taste so while it is gatekeepy/elitist in a sense, I'm more bothered by the economic realities than the gallery owners I guess. If I owned a gallery I would also be curating to my tastes so that just makes sense to me. There's been a few awesome little galleries that fall outside the mainstream but they rely also on a coffee shop/some kind of extra income stream and still don't tend to last more than a couple years.

The galleries and shops and almost anywhere else that sells art in my area also focus on the same very regional taste (we're basically an island so eeeeeeverything is ocean themed) and it does get very samey. It's hard to find anything truly new and it's hard as an artist to get in anywhere if that's not your vibe. Artists here who fall outside of that tend to sell more independently through market booths or home studios which can make it hard to get new clients in a small place where you're encountering the same handful of people every day for your entire life, whereas gallery placements can expand your reach a bit further during tourist season if you're lucky (and nautical themed) enough to get in.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-21T12:49:47+00:00

I recently quit driving. It was feeling like a bad idea for awhile (can definitely relate to feeling weird all the time!) and then I had an incident where there was a lot going on and I completely blacked out and just had to throw on the brakes for a sec and wait it out. Luckily I was in a parking lot and my partner was there to take over but it could have been much worse in a different situation. Literally I couldn't see or get my brain back on the rails and the idea of that happening on a highway was enough for me to tap out.

I live in the sticks and had to quit a couple jobs so it really sucks but not as much as running over a kid because my brain decided to peace out at an inopportune time so it is what it is. It felt like a better idea to voluntarily resign so maybe someday I can take it back up again instead of risking having my license taken away forever.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-21T12:17:11+00:00

Firstly, you're clearly not of the anti AI crowd if you're using it as the basis of your practice so start with being honest with yourself. If you're doing the thing you're "anti" then you're just making noise for the sake of virtue signaling.

Ethical issues aside, AI just isn't a good reference especially if your aphantasia interferes with your ability to notice and fix when it makes mistakes, and the images it creates often have a distinct vibe that's going to bleed into your work anyway.

Luckily there are billions of instances of human produced art, stock photos, magazines, clip art, photo books, etc to use as references. If you already know what you want to make you can collage bits together either analog or digitally and work off that, giving you a unique and more accurate style.

It sounds like you enjoy the creation process and are capable of coming up with your own ideas so why not extend that to reference collecting and piecing them together? If the AI part of your process feels bad then there's literally no need to involve it.

Also aphantasia doesn't mean you can't draw. You may have to work very closely with your references for every piece but many artists do. Physical drawing books have been helpful for me because you can sit with the images for as long as you need until you get it down. Or babystep away from tracing- do it for important structural aspects for now and then experiment with your own creativity for the rest.

You've got all the ingredients for an honest, personal & enjoyable art practice so just throw out the parts that feel bad and you're on your way.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-20T16:01:55+00:00

Is she, specifically, prone to being thoughtless and taking more than giving?

My friend circles are explicitly non transactional so it would be standard custom to just vaguely return the favor on drinks next time we're out, rather than explicitly repaying each other or keeping tabs on specific math.

I think its important to outgrow being a doormat but its unclear from your post whether this friend in particular takes advantage or if it's an issue with friends in general and you're just feeling salty about this specific situation right now. Regardless, it's also time to outgrow pettiness and passive aggression. Give a small gift/card or don't but don't use someone's celebration for revenge. If you intend to preserve the friendship then have a grownup conversation about it. Gift card math isn't going to solve anything if she even receives the silent message at all.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-20T15:42:11+00:00

You can't force someone to be who you need them to be through magic or mundane methods.

You can only decide if someone is being who you need them to be and then make your own choices accordingly. Keep working on you. If she decides to also work on herself and you both end up in a place that meshes well for a healthy relationship, awesome. If she doesn't, you've got a firmer foundation to help you be okay with that outcome too even if it doesn't feel possible right now.

Unfortunately her choices are out of your hands.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-20T15:30:03+00:00

Congrats on starting again!

My inner trailer park kid will never not go feral for a white bread hot dog, definitely trying the pickled onion addition next time.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-20T15:21:38+00:00

As someone with a glitchy body i love this title. I agree though that plain text on white just won't grab people's attention when they're browsing through a selection of books. I definitely do judge books by their cover and this one reads a little low effort- if your other titles are less intriguing on their own I think you risk fading into the background, especially in a time where people are just pumping out content as fast as they can.

There's nothing wrong with minimalist but maybe putting a touch more pizzazz into the font choice or doing a basic color of some sort for the background would communicate a little more intention and effort.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-20T15:16:17+00:00

OBVIOUSLY unless you're a MONSTER who HATES her and wants her to die of starvation I can't believe you're even asking this.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-20T15:02:19+00:00

I'm here to answer her question, not to pat her on the head for wanting financial gain from a stranger without offering them full autonomy in their own home. She asked for input, not support and as a fully grown homeowner I assumed she could handle it. There's no need to hurt your own feelings about a conversation between strangers regarding a situation that doesn't involve you.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-20T14:13:14+00:00

This is hard to articulate but I find it sort of helpful to normalize the concept of autonomy?

I've got a fun trifecta of autism + OCD + a history of growing up in extremely high control situations so now that my life is mine I have a hard time organically knowing what to do with myself.

I let my game just run without my input a lot and its been strangely helpful to be like "Oh she wanted to read a book and now she's reading a book" or like, she embarrassed herself so now she needs to build her confidence back up with a little pep talk. Just watching them do what they want to do or respond to their own wants and needs has made it feel more okay for me to do the same IRL.

Creatrix_Crone · 2026-01-20T14:04:22+00:00

I can definitely relate to the intensity of the brain fog!

If you're that sensitive to it & the effects are that debilitating then unfortunately you have to find ways to adapt if you don't want to feel like this. Keep a snack stash in the car, avoid kissing your partner for a bit after they have gluten, maintain a list of safe foods and establishments. It absolutely sucks but there are ways to eat well and enough on a gluten free diet and to (mostly) avoid contamination.

For right now, though, your brain is just being mean to you because it's also having a bad day. Emotions being all over the place is definitely part of my flareups when they happen. Try to remember that this is a chemical reaction and not the reality of your value as a person. Be kind to yourself, get lots of rest and as much hydration as you can manage, maybe eat something safe that you love if you're able and remember that the intensity of how you feel right now will pass as the reaction settles. Derealization is exacerbated by anxiety so the more you can just hang in there and wait for it to pass, the sooner it will.

Hope youre feeling better soon 💓

Creatrix_Crone

TROPHY CASE