the exciting blur that was 2019....

adieu, 2019!!

a lot of people have been doing a year-by-year look back at the decade.  but i can barely remember what happened last month. (or, week, tbh.)

so the best you’ll get out of me is my year in review.

which i thought was chaotic, and i confirmed this as i was only able to revive a few memories because someone needed a date of something or other, so i was flipping through my iPhotos… oi vey with the poodles already! ;D

so here are some highlights (of what i remember) from 2019…

and more importantly:  here’s to 2020!! it’s gonna be amazing.  i can feel it.  :D

january:

thanks to the help of a metropolitan arts council grant, i was able to develop some fancy new packaging for my faerie tale feet bookmarks, and fly out to beaulitfulcon in phoenix, arizona to hobnob mingle and meet with some of my fave bookstagram peeps, bookbox owners, bookish entrepreneurs, and meet new fangals of my work!!

author nadine brandes & i at beautlitfulcon!

fangirls fangirling: a rare moment where i was actually brave enough to ask for a selfie with a famous author!

march:

i had a solo gallery show “step into story” with all of my faerie tale feet pieces at centre state theatre in greenville and celebrated with a storybook costume party for the opening.  it was all sorts of fun.  and i love this supportive, artsy community!

step into story opening nite costume party.

an excuse to dress up as a faerie tale peasant? best day ever. :D

opening nite @ my gallery show step into story!!

my art was in a litjoycrate!! i got to paint & design a double-sided bookmark of clark kent/superman to celebrate matt de la pena’s superman:  dawn breaker release.  (i’d see him later in october in the fLESh, but way too fangirl-nervous to acknowledge i knew who he was and that he’d won a newbery medal and yeah… i need to learn if famous people want to be recognized or left alone… )  ;D

march/april:

my husband attended an artist residency at dacia gallery in nyc, and i tagged along and art museum-ed while he was in workshop.  i went to the color factory (dreams DO come true!! see me there in my purple aura bliss?!) and as many bookstores as i could manage. i even started writing a novel in the rose room of the NYPL until a coughing fit required a dramatic and embarrassing exit amongst the silence… ;D (trusting that’s not a sign of my author career…) ;)

and while we were in the city, we sold our townhouse and our realtor helped us buy a new (vintage 1960’s!) home remotely. (tcha. really.) ;D

april:

got to visit chattanooga, tn and participated in the 4bridges arts festival.  (possibly world’s best/largest carrot cake and the stuff of family legends was devoured at big river brewing co.)

may-september:

we moved.  and moved nathan out of his studio at taylors mill.  and refurbished the garage at our new place for his studio.  (you can see his instagram for some dramatic before & afters!)

nathan working on a portrait of me in his new backyard garage/studio. of course i’m reading. how else would you expect me to sit still for 6 hours/day? :)

i got some good business advice, and stopped pretending to be a bookstagram, and have focused more clearly on sharing my art and what i am/aspire to do full-time on my halthegal_storyart instagram page.  so the year has brought #fanartfriday , #sidekicksaturday, a lot of fun #dtiyschallenges, building my illustration portfolio, and #socksunday as well as some halthegal brand reps!  (and if i can hold on to them, i finally reached 2500 followers!)

july:

i started working part-time for plus-plus usa, mostly just helping with their instagram.  (me + colourful toys?  not a bad gig!!)

we also traveled to michigan for my grandma hazel’s memorial service.  may i live to be as spunky and quirky as even half of her 91+ years on earth.

fall:

i won an instagram contest (yay me!) and we got to stay in a treehouse courtesy of asheville glamping!! so, yeah. we had a whopping 24 hours of vacation this year.  ;D

we got to stay in an actual treehouse. the porch was everything.

and i honestly don’t remember what month it was, but nathan attended a art + theology conference at duke university, so i tagged along to durham and wrote and read and walked around campus (pretending i was at hogwarts/chilton) and it was wonderful.

i also joined SCBWI (society of children’s book writers and illustrators) and am still overwhelmed at the amount of information on their website and within my local chapter(s), so again:  2020, i’m coming for ya!

i was in durham, nc again at some point for centerfest and my art won 3rd place for the whole festival!

had a beautiful art festival weekend in durham, nc, and my faerie tale feet paintings won 3rd place out of 120+ artists!!

october:

i attempted #inktober for the first time, but it was also my busiest road trip art festival month, so i didn’t quite make all 31 days of drawing.  but i had a few good ones in there…?  :D

here was my ode to moaning myrtle (who suspiciously looks like me) for inktober. yes, that’s my wedding dress, too. ;) i wrote short stories with all of my inktober entries, too. you can read them on my instagram….

but i got to travel back to williamsburg, va for an occasion for the arts and eat at the cheese shop about 90x.  and nathan painted some colonial “cityscapes” while i was at my festival booth.

i also got to be at readup! greenville and see some super-famous authors and bask in their glows and furiously take notes from behind my vendor table if their sessions happened to be in the lobby where i was.  

november:  

i attempted #nanowrimo and got a few starts.  but here’s to finishing a manuscript or few in 2020!! (you can’t edit an empty page!)

i also got to present a workshop at the south carolina arts educator’s association annual conference and as nervous as i was, it was so much fun to share my work with art teachers who can apply the impetus of my faerie tale feet paintings and integrate story and art into classrooms across the state.

december:

i traveled to nashville, tn and made an appearance (as did sean brock and amanda valentine, but no one asked for my autograph… ha!) at porter flea’s holiday market.  so many goodies!

i also got to write a forward for a “long-lost” high school buddy’s new music memoir project.  i was photographed for the january issue of talk magazine.  and i’m working on a james potter illustration for january’s novelly yours marauders box!  and some other stuff i can’t tell you about yet, but i’m grateful.  ;)

and yeah.

the rest is a blur.

but somewhere in there, i also got to do some work for:

nerdypost (which got me back to my disney roots and i’ve made all sorts of princess and sidekick paintings since out of sheer joy of where my art life started as a traditional animation fangirl)

pixie dust crate (their logo and an exclusive bookmark going out in december’s box to subscribers!)

literary treasures (more bookish logo designs!  yay!)

sara ella (pre-order sticker art swag to celebrate her amazing retelling of the little mermaid in her ya fantasy coral)

nadine brandes (baby Christmas ninja?  yes, please.)

and the upcountry history musuem/furman university let me create some alice in wonderland art to celebrate their touring exhibit of alice art throughout the past century!!

and over the course of the year, collectors gathered 20 or so of my original paintings, illustrations, and commissioned portraits!

the first week of 2020 is already looking amazing.

i’m #blessed as they say.

an amazing new house (still cozy, but i have a whole room to paint in instead of just being in the middle of the living room, plus having nathan “home” instead of commuting to a studio is a real gift and money-saver!), i read upwards of 120 amazing books, i love my church community, my chiropractor has me back to almost-normalcy instead of being in constant chronic pain 24-7, and my family is pretty swell, and i’m painting and writing and happy.  (and we’re also prepping for nathan’s first NYC solo gallery show this upcoming spring; specific dates to come!!)

so here’s butterbeer cheers to new adventures and pursuing our passions and what we were created to do in the new year.  wishing you all the peace, love, and all colourful reads you can handle,

*halthegal.

that fancy new packaging we made way back in january. :) seen here with a night circus #faerietalefeet bookmark!!

it’s what you're halthegal.etsy.com bookmark orders arrive in.