Hello, people of newsletter!

Welcome to the first-ever edition of my monthly-ish newsletter! Whether you signed up because you know me irl, follow me on Instagram, or met me at the recent rat trap gallery show, I genuinely appreciate you being here and caring about what I have going on in my art-stuff-life. Now . . . here’s what I have going on!

I’ve put my upcoming events at the top so if you don’t want to read me going on and on about my recent projects you can just stop there, no judgement. :)

Upcoming Non-tabling Event
I’m giving a workshop on zines with Boston Poetry Slam! It’s this Wednesday, 8/05, at 6:30pm in the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. $10-20 sliding scale. First time doing something like this, but it should be cool and chill.

Upcoming Tabling Events
(subscribing to this newsletter means you get to hear about the events I’m doing as soon as I know about them, sometimes months in advance! Everything is daytime situation unless otherwise specified) 
8/08 Watertown Arts Market, Watertown, MA
8/09 DykeFest concert, (evening!) Somerville, MA (see @DYKEFEST on Instagram for ticket info)
8/15-8/16 Flamecon, NYC, NY (see Flamecon.org for ticket info)
9/19 Gaymer Fest, Cambridge, MA (see Gaymerfest.com for ticket info)
9/20 Brighton Bazaar at Harvard Allstonway ERC, Boston, MA
9/26 Providence Indie Comics Creator Con, Warwick, RI (see https://ic3.art/ for tickets)
10/04 Brighton Bazaar: Big Gig Fall, Boston, MA
10/18 Brighton Bazaar, Boston, MA
11/07-11/08 Brighton Bazaar Elks Lodge Season Finale, Boston, MA
11/14 Nonfiction Comics Festival, Burlington, VT (I JUST NOW found out I got in to this one and I am SUPER excited!!)

New Art
I have some illustration and comic things that either just now emerged into the world or are about to emerge into the world to tell you about! First, I recently did an illustration for Pavement Coffee’s new seasonal blend, Summer Camp, which very cool.

Then! For the next six months, I’m a cartoonist for the Boston Compass, a free monthly artist-run newspaper! I get six issues, which means six strips. The six-part story is called “Former Friends, Current Acquaintances.” Lately I’ve been reading plays in a way I haven’t before, especially plays with more naturalistic dialogue that are primarily only set in one location, and that’s kind of where this story comes from.

In but a couple weeks, at Flamecon, I have a longer comic debuting! All You Can Feel is an entirely watercolor and ink comic (including the text, I lettered everything by hand) about a girl who’s haunted by her own ghost. I’m very happy with how it turned out! Also, it does feature girls kissing in a gay way. So, you know.

Speaking of watercolor, a picture book an author commissioned me to illustrate is available for preorder! Dina, the author, is a 4th grade teacher and is really lovely, and she wrote a really lovely book, which is called Catch of the Day. A really lovely book that allowed me to paint a lot of watercolor sunsets, which is a bonus! :)

Also, I have an 8-page colored pencil comic that is soon to be published in an Online Place that is not even my own website or social media! I’ll let you all know when that’s available. 👀

Other Thoughts
It seems like I have a lot going on right now, but I feel like at least half of that is that the timing worked out that multiple major projects of mine finished up all around the same time. I have one or two potential things coming up, but nothing close to the extent of Catch of the Day or All You Can Feel.

So, uh, if you want to commission me, now is the time, haha! Seriously though, I am at a point where I need to figure out what I want to put my drawing-time into next. Other than my comics for Boston Compass, the current plan is to work on revising the script for my graphic novel pitch before I continue querying agents, make a new minizine to debut at ic3, and maybe make another 8-page colored pencil comic? We will see what Occurs.

Enjoy the end of summer, everyone! I recently attended a workshop at Milkwood in upstate NY, related to my beloved 9-5 work of making books for kids look as good as possible, and it was pretty magical. I hope you’re all able to find time to drink cups of coffee very slowly or look at the stars this month.

—Ellie