Tabascofanatikerin

Well, this was 2023.

A year with a few pleasant highlights, of course, but overall I cannot really consider this a good year.

As you might have noticed, I did not do a 2022 summary a year ago. No special reasons, I just procrastinated and then it was too late and not relevant anymore.

So here we go:

PROS: - My second visit of Scotland this summer. This time I went with :iconThemrock: to Scotland for the summer holidays. And it was great, we spent the days in Edinburgh and Dunblane, briefly visited Doune and Stirling as well. We were seeing a Festival Fringe performance by the wonderful Mike McAlpine as an Elvis performer, strolled through Edinburgh (including the Royal Botanical Garden and the Art Museum), visited the Doune Castle in Doune (where parts one of my favourite films – “Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail” – were made) and also enjoyed the Scottish nature and cousine.

- This was the most political year in my life so far. After joining a small party in 2022, I even was a candidate in the 2023 Bavarian state election (I did not win anything btw), talked with citizens about the election and my party in campaigns and went to Mainz (in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate) to attend my party’s national conference. It was somewhat exhausting but also a very interesting experience and it was an effort to hold something against far-right extremists who gain more and more power in Germany (again). I also proceeded to support LGBTQs a bit with some artworks and by participating in a pride march during the summer.

- I saw Heinz Strunk in Munich (he did a live reading) and I even got to say a few words to him and give him a watercolor painting). He’s one of my favourite writers btw.

- Some other little trips like to Berlin, Neuss or Hessia were sweet little interruptions from everyday life.

- I got myself a tattoo this summer. My first and (very likely) last one. It's a symbol on one upper arm. SO-SO: - I tried to figure out this year if I might be on the autism spectrum. So I worked with my psychologist and got an appointment at a special clinic but it was not fruitful due to bad preperations of the clinic and miscommunications. Since everything runs a bit slow and appointments are not easy to get, I had to make another one for the beginning of 2024. A good project to begin this year but it just went on a snail's pace and hasn't brought me anything yet.

CONS:

- I lost my father this year. He was 72 years old. As a “daddy’s girl” this was a hard pill to swallow, even though his death was no surprise, it was just a matter of when it will happen as his health declined even more. I miss him very much…

- Another crisis situation was going on in my family that I’d rather not describe here further. I am not directly involved, however, I tried my best to help and I was regularly informed about the current state. So I also felt and suffered with the regarding family members in a way. My biggest wish for 2024 would be that life finally treats them better and they’ll have it easier.

- Another year without my boyfriend being able to move in with me.

- Living conditions were okay but a little bit more difficult this year. For the first time I had some serious financial troubles (however, I recovered) and some things in my apartment just broke down, some haven’t been fixed until now.

- Depression and anxiety hit again here again, especially when it came to my dad or work.

- Artwise I am not satisfied. Again I failed to do some art goals like my “One cover every month” project (redrawing a cover from a music album every month) and overall I was just battling art blocks and inner barricades that held me from being really productive.

- Hardly any sports done.

You love reanimated collaborations? Those, who really put talent and love into a project and have a take on a rather obsure, weird but fun cartoon? Please check out the newest one: The 1960 low budget Popeye cartoon "Barbecue for Two", directed by Jack Kinney, was reanimated by a whole bunch of awesome animators (and me ^^, you can see my segment at 1:44), organized by Themrock (Dirk Erik Schulz). Have fun!

My father passed away two days ago, so it's likely that I won't react to comments or notes as quickly as usual now. I need my time to cope with this. We had a good relationship and I tried my best to make the last phase of his life more happy and entertaining. I already started missing him a couple of years ago but now he is entirely gone and I dearly miss him...

Oh, I haven't told yet? After some long thinking I have created my Instagram account. Its purpose is showing off my best of of my artworks (what I consider best of) so it is not 100% the same as my DA gallery here. You can see my Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/tabascofanatikerin/

I just learned that I am one of the three winners of this contest

It was about recreating one of the offered screencaps out of Disney movies (not 1:1 but more like in another style). I won the "Tangled" section in "Popular Vote" Check out the news here (and the other winners and entries).