Brushes With Celebrity!

I have a good friend who is a tv writer (and most recently: comic books) who put the creator of Being Human in touch with me last year to do artwork for a t-shirt that was to be a gift for the writing staff. This year, she asked me to do another illustration that was printed on hoodies. 

I hadn't noticed this guy in previous seasons, but he's apparently always been hanging around the set. He had a few big cameos this year, and Jeff and I got a kick out of seeing him show up on a couple of episodes. I also got a kick out of this tweet:

… which was taken at the series finale viewing party. Nora and Aidan! Wearing my hoodies! So cool! Also? Great series finale. I was not expecting such a happy ending from a show that regularly featured so much blood. 

The second story is of my own doing … between gardening and taking Penny for walks, I was listening to a lot of audiobooks last summer. Kevin Smith's book directed me to the podcast he does with Jason Mewes, then to Tell 'Em Steve Dave, which he would reference all the time. I started with episode one in January and was caught up by March. It started out as something I'd listen to on dog walks then eventually listen to for hours, wearing earbuds around the house like a teenager. During this long, cold, miserable, grey winter, TESD was something I looked forward to every day. 

I don't know what it was that kept me so engaged … Bry dealing with his depression, Walt's rare sweet stories about his kids, Q's overall bravado … or maybe how their time-filling activity turned into something more exciting, and then into a tv show. I find it inspiring, because I'm constantly struggling with "what should I be DOING with my life?" 

(Also? True story: for the last twenty years, every single time I check a dozen eggs at the store, I think about the Egg Man. It makes me smile to think that I now hear him tell stories every week on a podcast. Crazy!)

I can't even say why I wanted to send them something, but I really did! Which is so odd, because I haven't done fan art since middle school (mostly comics of my friend Amy and I meeting Duran Duran and going on crazy adventures). My first thought was an illustration, but then decided on my other favorite time killer, cross stitch. This pattern was the base (if you've seen my Facebook page, it's also the one I used for our family portrait) and turned it into Bry, Walt and Q (and also Mr. Whiskers Benjamin Cat). I stitched it over a couple of evenings, then sent it off to NJ. Two days later, this showed up on Twitter:

… and was grinning like a goofball. Ming Chen tweeted my work! I showed it to Jeff, prefacing the reveal with "Please don't make fun of me, but …" It's very silly how happy this makes me, but I also need a little silly right now.