LONG TIME, NO UPDATE

HELLO EVERYONE,

It's been a while since I last updated, and naturally, a lot of things have happened.

First off, I'm currently back from my three weeks in California.

During that time, I got to showcase my art in person for the first time at "No Chill Summer" an event hosted by my very good friend William Nguyen that celebrated the various talent surrounding the area San Jose. If any of you guys are interested in seeing a recap video to get a feel of how the event was, you can go see it here: https://www.willyumn.com. On that note, for those interested in signing up for the second event that's coming up very soon, submission forms can also be found on the website. I doubt I'll be there but my team will be.

Second, the first ever meetup for The Naked Collective finally happened in San Francisco last month. Not much to say about it besides that it was nice to be in such an open, inviting environment with artists and good people. Another thing, after months and months of trying to figure out how to turn this idea into a reality, the collective will now have a podcast devoted to exploring the world of artists. That'll be coming very, very soon so keep on the lookout.

Third, as of right now, I will be permanently moving my store from Etsy to my own website. All orders will be taken on this site instead of Etsy. Not too big of a change, but still worth mentioning. Makes things much more accessible for everyone as well.

Lastly, over the course of the last few months, I've gained a few more followers for my art and I just want to say thank you to everyone who continues to support me, my collective and basically anything that I do. It's really cool, to say the least. 

Lots of shit coming, stay tuned.

See you later,
Francis

MY ARTISTIC JOURNEY (SO FAR)

Not too long ago, I made the conscious decision to devote myself to my art.

That was December of last year, we are now closing in on the last few days of February and things have been nothing short of crazy. Last month, I decided to have a little giveaway on Twitter where anyone can join as long as they retweeted the tweet. Then I would choose the winner within two days and make them a portrait of themselves using either colored pencils, oil pastels, charcoal pencil or watercolor. Initially, I expected to have twenty or twenty five people join the giveaway, and that number was me being a little generous with the amount of retweets that I expected to have. I was wrong.

Maybe the stars aligned that night, maybe I just got lucky. But the post reached over 1.4k retweets, which for me, who has only ever known of getting five or six retweets (at best) of the stuff I've been temperamentally doing for years, was something. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to meet so many talented and inspiring individuals who are doing just the same thing that I am, creating, creating, creating. 

I have a small following for my work now, a lot more than I did before all of this happened. These days, trips to the post office come more often than not. And to that, I say thank you. Thank you for spreading my art, supporting me and my work that I put so so many of the hours I used to just spend dreaming until the sun returned on. Thank you.

A few other things:

Last month, I've started an art collective where the only goal is to spread the work of the other creatives that I've had the privilege of creating alongside with. It is called The Naked Collective and it is a place concentrated with the work of others in order to give them, at the very least, well deserved exposure and recognition for their work. I am also in the process of figuring out a podcast for said collective, so stay tuned for that.

In addition, I've also entered my Floral Anatomy Series for this juried art show here in Dallas. I found out soon if I got accepted, so fingers crossed. If I get in, my work will be displayed at the art show here in downtown Dallas and that's pretty cool.

Anyway, I feel like things haven't been the same ever since, on top of all the commissions, projects and schoolwork that I have, sleep or just free time in general is now a little hard to come by - and I woudn't have it any other way. 

Much love,
Francis.

WELCOME

Hey everyone, welcome to my new website. 

Over the years, I've had plenty of blogs and sites where I put my work but it's begun to feel inefficient - especially when I'm trying to get my work out there. So I finally decided to just put everything into one place. And that's what this is, a collection of the things I've made and things that I will continue to make in the coming days, months and hopefully years.

Before I go, just a quick note: my store and all commissions will currently be halted until the new year as I will be going out of town very soon and won't be back until then.

Thank you.
And happy holidays.

x