2009 has come and gone and I couldn’t be any more content with this year. Of all the 24 years I have had, 2009 was probably the most eventful and accomplishing. This is probably the year where I have felt most comfortable being myself and I have gained so much because of this.

While I am still not where I want to be in my creative career, I definitely made some big steps in the past year that helped steered me in the right direction towards my goal. In the beginning of the year, my dream of becoming a unionized film production designer was put to a halt due to some trivial technicalities (long story…).  Looking back on it now, I’m actually glad this happened. For the first time, I felt my creative options opened up for me and I realized that even if I had a film degree, I didn’t necessarily need a film career with the big shots in order to fulfill my creative mojo. I just wanted to create and it was better for me at this point to create on my own terms and not under someone else’s direction. I further explored other creative outlets: my illustration, toy customizing and even stage production. The experiences I’ve had this year have been incredibly rewarding and I feel like I’ve grown a lot more doing what I’m doing now.

Earlier this year, I started participating in vinyl custom toy shows. I’ve shipped my little creations to various places in the States and they’ve been in gallery shows alongside many artists of my generation that I admired. Wouldn’t you know, I even sold my first vinyl custom at the IWG Humans Beware Custom Show! Even if I wasn’t able to attend the opening, still being able to share the experience of displaying my own custom for a show was wonderful. I’m making it a point to improve my sculpting skills so I can participate in more custom shows this year… and maybe perhaps design my own resin toys when I feel inspired enough!

2009 was also a great year for me to grow as an illustrator, especially when it came to erotic art. Earlier this year, I managed to score a solo art show for July, 2010 at one of my favourite sex shops in the city. To help inspire me to create more pieces for the show, my husband looked for a life drawing class so I could practice my human figure drawing. That is how we stumbled upon The Keyhole Sessions, an erotic life drawing class that has become one of my biggest muses. Not only did these sessions give me sketchbooks upon sketchbooks of amazing ideas for finished pieces as well as the discipline to pump out a ton of drawings on a consistent basis, it also gave me the opportunity to give back to the community by becoming a life drawing model for the class. Having grown up a pretty timid girl with body image issues (as I’m sure 99% of girls have also experienced), it was nice to be able to put all of that negativity behind me and celebrate my own sexuality in front of a room full of creative people. Tuesdays will always be the day I look forward to most thanks to the Keyhole Family!

One of my biggest accomplishments… also, my biggest WTF?! moment this year was being part of the creation and evolution of Repo! shadow casting. While I’m a total geek at heart and do enjoy cosplay, I never thought I would ever find myself prancing around on-stage like I’m some drag version of a broadway star. I used to avoid being under the spotlight (I get stage fright… even public speaking made me queasy), and yet a year ago I helped found the first Repo! shadow cast in the world… and became the first chick to ever shadow Paris Hilton in a movie. Sound geeky? It is. I became absolutely addicted to shadow casting this year and seemed to have caught up to all the school play experiences I missed in school, which included me running around in a dinosaur costume. I met some awesome people through the shadow casting network and I was also able to explore a rather extroverted part of myself that I didn’t even know existed. Crazy!

Other wonderful moments in 2009:

- meeting and interviewing my favourite artist Junko Mizuno for spankystokes.com
-  seeing my graphic design projected on massive movie screens and printed on giant canvas posters
- having Ashley Wood compliment my blog briefly after I did a fun photo shoot for a thread on the 3A boards (I should really join this messageboard soon…)
- being the subject of a documentary about the zombie culture in Toronto
- learning how to make fascinators
- registering Pretty Poopie as a business

And of course… getting married to my partner in crime.

Happy New Year everyone! Here is to a brand new decade! Now where is my flying car?…