may 2025

art-a-whirl - day one

Art-a-Whirl is an event in Minneapolis where artists in the Northeast neighborhoods open their studios to sell work. I went to this year's chilly Art-a-Whirl with my partner, and we successfully did the entirety of the largest building! We also hit up a few other locations, so I am pretty exhausted from it all.

NE Mpls has the Arts District which contains a number of former industrial buildings that got turned into art studios. The neighborhood still has a lot of leftover industry infrastructure like different railroad lines everywhere and yards. You can hear the booming of shipping containers being stacked throughout the day and night still. The art studios are in buildings that were for making fire doors, secret bomb-sights, seed packaging, transformers, and more. You can see what was left over in these places like watch towers, freight elevators, strange hallways, hand-painted signs, etc. It's super cool!

We started our Art-a-Whirl with a mission briefing written by my partner which he handed to me while we were still in bed. There was a personal secondary mission that I had: find a cute bolo tie. First stop was to get breakfast and coffee. I had probably the best blueberry turnover I've ever had. We made our way to Quincy Hall where I bought one item: a SICK truck belt buckle.

Then we meandered to the big building, Northrup King. This is where most of the artists and the whirlers are. It's a lot to walk through. There's four floors with dozens of rooms per floor. This was the former seed packaging place!

What's super cool about these buildings is that there's a variety of different artists with different mediums in each place. It's not like one building only caters to one type of visual artist. You can be a metal fabricator, textile designer, painter, etc. Hell, the Thorp building has a store with custom military legos.

We only did the first floor of the Northrup King building, though. The other floors were left to do the following day. I did buy a cute little fish, a cool UV ink print, and a pronto pup print before leaving!

The Thorp building was next. This building is where the watch towers were. These are leftover from when the top secret bomb sight was being produced. Now, it's more art studios! There is a variety of artists, but clay artists tend to flock to this place because of the ceramics facilities.

From the Thorp, we made our way up the main street for lunch, and ended the adventure by watching some cars get crushed. I got a Toyota gas plug and a dipstick from the wreckage.

My partner had to leave to attend another thing, but I was left with some friends. We walked what I had already done earlier that day. I felt like my feet could have fallen off. Day one ended with no bolo tie.

day two

Day two was dedicated to finishing the Northrup King building. First was to stop at the Thorp again for coffee from the extremely cute coffee shop inside the place. Then, we walked over to Northrup King. We did the other three floors and spent lots of money buying art for our house. Now, we have to buy lots of frames... If a piece had a hot dog, I wanted it. I don't even like hot dogs that much.

The very very last stop was the cidery which was having their own Art-a-Whirl market. I wanted to go because it was outdoors, and the outdoor art markets tend to have the work I like. I am so into goofy looking handmade goods like jewelry and clothes. This is where I found the bolo tie! I had spent two days hunting down a cute bolo tie, and this was my moment. On the way out, we watched this group of kids playing on the stage. I don't want to put other people's kids on the internet so I won't attach the video, but just imagine 8-11 y/o kids playing Nirvana. It was spectacular and the cutest thing in the world. My partner and I meandered back home gawking at people's yards especially a weather station that one person had. I love weather stations.

Overall, Art-a-Whirl is always so fun, but every time I go, I realize that I should be taking part in it as an artist. My work has mass market appeal that would go well, but I just never do art markets. I really should. My partner has been super encouraging about it, too, so I don't know I guess watch out for me at markets in Minneapolis maybe? I am really inspired.

our haul

may's vibes

cool cars

Here are some fun cars I spotted this month.

for june

Things really mellow out in June. It's kind of concerning because work is slow and slow work = less money. It'll be okay, though. It gives me more time to breathe and to create.

trying to make (written before attending Art-a-Whirl)

I am still struggling with actually sitting down and making stuff. It's been long enough that the thought of doing so makes me feel anxious. I wish it was easier for me to just hunker down and do it. I need someone yelling at me to do it or like a deadline. Deadlines really keep me focused which is why I was able to make so much more doing school. I miss the overlapping projects and being so busy all the time. I kind of thrive on that.

My teachers were not kidding when they said that art students struggle once they're out of school. It's been two years, and I feel the least creative I've ever been. Imagine six years of constant exposure to other artists, mentors, and art itself then it all disappearing. It's really hard. I don't know what to do with myself. The only way to connect with other creatives is on the internet which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but social media does cause me to feel imposter syndrome. I get stuck on certain artists and their skills longer than I spend actually making anything of my own.

Community is what I actually need. I am really introverted, but, somehow, I'm still dependent on socializing. It's definitely caveman brain stuff. Humans need connection. It's probably why I've taken bartending so well. It's kind of magical that chatting with bar patrons doesn't drain my social battery.

I have spent these last two years in a state of "my portfolio just needs to be good enough before I can send cold emails." I'll plan out what I need in my portfolio to wow clients and get hired. Unfortunately, it is a very important part of presenting your work as an illustrator/designer. A client has to know if you can make what they're looking for, and there needs to be consistency. You constantly work with the worry about whether someone will like what you make or not.

It's difficult to make an action plan to fix this. There's a few ways about it:

-I've tried this, but it is exhausting. I often look back at what I make with discontent.

-Make deadlines, plan ahead, etc. However, if it's a deadline I make myself, I still do not follow it.

-This is probably the healthiest way about it, but it takes longer. I'm not the most patient person. I do work fast, so it may be faster than I think it will be.

-Portfolio may not need particular client needs. It could be really easy to draw similar subjects on accident.

-I'm not the proudest of my portfolio, and I do think that I could do better. This isn't me really being hard on myself. I just know I've done better in the past.

-Quickest to start, but would make me feel inadequate. Imposter syndrome through the roof!

In a perfect world, I could do #2 and have a healthy relationship with my work. I do feel the pressure to get work right away or a salaried job in design because I see a lot of my peers doing so. This is the imposter syndrome going crazy. I am extremely happy for them, but I feel like I would never reach that. Being a nihilist doesn't help me either...

Thinking about how much of my life I've wasted not doing anything does make me severely depressed which then prevents me from doing anything to fix it. It's an evil cycle. I do know that I'm probably not alone in this. Another thing that really messes with my productivity is social media. I've been on and off trying to quit social media for months now. It's been pretty great so far! I have greatly limited my time on twitter and instagram already. What has been really getting me is pinterest and youtube. I have a real addiction to both of those. I absolutely love pinterest (except the AI slop and the ads on it), and I could scroll it forever. However, it does give me the imposter syndrome like instagram does, and it makes me spend money on things like clothes. It's how I find the images for the month's vibes for these blog posts! I adore pinterest, but I need to drastically limit my usage of it. My youtube addiction is similar. I spend day in and day out with a youtube video playing in my headphones or airpods. It's like 8-10 hours a day. It's really, really bad, and I don't really consume educational content. It's content that I really don't need in my life. Thinking about limiting youtube or going about life with no airpods creates a pit in my stomach. This addiction goes very deep. I am not sure how to fight it, but I have some ideas. I think either rawdogging it or using YTCH.xyz, a website that compiles youtube videos like channels on a tv. It starts the video at a random spot like you are really watching tv.

Anyways, wish me luck on my artistic journey. Find me art Art-a-Whirl next year. Hold me to it.