Happy New Year!
Lili ChinA few days ago, I saw this quote by artist Frank Ape when I was scrolling instagram: Making Art After Your Day Job is Just as Romantic as Making Art Full-Time.
As many people already know, making art is my full-time day job: I take commissions from clients in the pet industry, I create prints, books, and gift items to sell, license my art for royalties, and draw portraits of many adorable dogs and cats. I also do non-art tasks like ordering supplies, packaging, and shipping. My income fluctuates from month to month and to be honest, I don't find any of this "romantic" but I get that earning a living doing what I do is a rare privilege.
In the quote, the part that resonated with me was Making Art After Your Day Job.
In my first blog post of 2026, I would love to share with you some of the art that I've done outside my day job. These were illustration projects that I wasn't hired or paid to do. I did them to help someone else out, because I wanted to.
1. Art for a Board Game
My husband Nathan designed this trick-taking game and I drew 36 anthropomorphic animal characters for it. There are 4 suits with 9 cards each. Nathan sent me photos of 1920s-30s celebrities and gangsters so that I could refer to what they were wearing and carrying, and apply these to the badass dogs, cats, rats, and pigeons. And then he named the characters. Trick City Gang Wars is seeking a publisher.
2. Art for Protests & Social Justice
I created these illustrations earlier this year for Americans who wanted to get out there and protest but who may not have the resources to create signage. You can find these in the Free Downloads section of my website. To be honest, many of us are no longer sure what these once-every-few-months "protests" accomplish. If these evils were happening in another country, people would be persistently out in the streets and striking with very clear demands, not stopping until bigoted authoritarian governments were overthrown.
This is a graphic I created as a gift to General Strike US. It was based on a simpler graphic with an octopus. I wanted to redraw it because I feel that octopuses don't deserve to be villainized. Someone commented with "Guys, you missed like 100 countries." Yep, this is just the tip of the iceberg!
3. Art to support a local small business
