Hello everyone. This is a very important journal if you are currently a supporter of my Patreon or wish to become one. Please read it if this is the case. I have already contacted each and every one of my Patrons individually.

My Patreon will be moving to being tip-only: all tiers will be deleted, and the “Little Helper” tier has been renamed to “Squelfologist”. This is the last remaining tier. It starts at $5 and can be anything you want, but it will no longer have cumulative rewards.

When I made the decision to close commissions, I still wanted to hang on to Patreon (as in, offering rewards) for three different reasons:

🌈 First: I felt so much gratitude to my current Patrons. I didn’t want to cut them off of receiving art that was so easy and pleasant for me to do.
🌈 Second: it was my only “fun” money, as well as money for some minor bills.

Now, circumstances have once again shifted. You might recall me mentioning on my blog that I was getting very few hours at my job, a job I love with a team I adore and a great store manager. The lack of hours is corporate BS –everyone dealing with the same at this location. I LOVE working there and still do. But 5-10 hours a week was simply not enough, even if some random weeks it is twice that.

So I found a full time job, minutes from my house. But I’ll still be doing some hours at my current job, periodically, whenever I can fit it in. And the housework/grocery shopping/some cooking. And taking care of the animals. AND I still have some commissions and Patreon rewards to finish.

Very soon, I am going to be very stressed out. Truth be told, I have been already for a few weeks, and it is showing on me, physically. I’m having some persistent eyelid twitching (something that often happens to me when I am under a lot of stress) and I’m forgetting things and making unusual typos (that part is a little scary).

So, I’m going to need to clear my plate of art as soon as possible so that I can concentrate on raising as many funds as possible before September, when my mom may need to move closer to us. If I could I’d probably refund everything that is left in my queue, even though they are all pieces I will love to work on. I’m just concentrating on finishing stuff when I can. Thankfully it is not too much.

The third reason I wanted to hold on to Patreon: community.

For all of my griping, I struggled to fully “let go” of the community. I know a part of me never quite will, but it’s amazing how quickly I became isolated/forgotten as I pulled back more and more. Looking through old spaces, I can see I’m far from alone: on FA and elsewhere, comments and engagement are all very minimal. In 2015, a top creator in our community and close friend of mine had 112 comments on a submission. Their latest on a similar piece? 30 comments. Other social media is no different. It is literally everywhere.

These days, I get almost no comments at all and most submissions I see have little to no comments. Everything is so empty and quiet.

Patreon was my way of holding on to the community still, sort of. If I stop Patreon (or at least if I stop drawing furry/littlefur rewards) I know I will step away completely, other than chitchatting with people on my Telegram group, but I expect some/many to leave when they see me posting fantasy art over littlefur art, just as many forgot or lost interest in my and my work as soon as diapers became featured less often.

I know some people will still be there for me, talking to me, being interested in what I do, but I still consider this a big deal. I don’t take this step lightly.

I already professed my gratitude, repeatedly, for all the years of commissions: now I do the same for Patreon support, the only way I managed in certain harder months to cover all my personal bills, and on less difficult months, to get myself a treat.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.

I hope most of you won’t go away. I’ve disappeared from a lot of radars, become quite easily forgotten. This is more of a musing, than a gripe. I’ve removed myself from radars, after all, and with this –no more Patreon rewards, no more commissions, no more furry cons… I guess it’s pretty final in a way.

In its new tip-only form, Patreon will continue to support my personal projects, as well as art related bills for them (printer ink, paper, my Adobe subscription). None of my original content is paywalled, but whatever support you are able to give me makes a tremendous difference in my life. I feel like you are personally cheering me on, and, in spite of my currently overwhelming schedule, it gives me that extra push to still find time to at least work on my projects and share them with you.

All of the money I make with my two retail jobs will be for my mom.

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. Words in a journal hardly do justice to express my feelings. Thank you.