2024 Show-and-Tell

Hello! I'm a little late in writing this, having only just revived from working retail this holiday season. And now the calm of January has settled in and I figured it would be a nice time to look back at how this all went.

A couple years ago, we threw a New Year's Eve party at our house that featured a show and tell, where everyone brought the thing they were most proud of making/accomplishing that year. It was by far and away one of the best parties I've ever been to, so uplifting and fun. It was a huge motivating factor when coming up with the idea for this newsletter.

So I figured I'd try to replicate it in the newsletter format, and I've got some very fun stuff to show off!!

I'll start with my own just because if you've been subscribed to the newsletter you've probably already seen it. I thought about picking one of the tattoos I did but it was too hard, so I decided to go with my gut and pick this:

It was my favorite painting I made and it kind of came from nowhere. I hope I can channel more of this energy in 2025 but I really don't know how I got it in the first place.

Wanda Tali - Duality

Up next we have the one, the only, THE Wanda Tali!!! She is an incredible artist from Argentina whose signature style is these amazing pink paintings. A lot of them are pop culture subject matter, and also spooky witchy things! I love her work and it's pretty obvious why.

She also had this to say about it:

This is my first painting of 2024, done in August... After about 8 months of the worst art block I've ever had, I came up with this. I felt so relieved after painting it, so it is definitely my most precious and proud moment from last year. I didn't know how to name it, so I asked my instagram followers for help, we made a poll, and "Duality" was the most voted option. I think it fits them perfectly!

I always love her composition. What a stylish way to come out of an art block also! Thank you for sharing, Wanda!!

If you want to see more of her work she's on instagram at tali.wan and bluesky at wandatali.bsky.social. There are too many good pieces to look at!

James Gameboy - Lolife

Last year Victor--I mean, James Gameboy–was hired to compose a score for another Playdate game. Just like Initial Daydream, this score was made in Pulp (the proprietary development software for the Playdate) and has a purposely limited sound engine. This piece was the first one he wrote for it.

This game is going to play it straighter than the goofiness found all over Initial Daydream, so I'm trying to be a little less playful and more deliberate in my composition. This struck me most immediately as sort of a title screen type jam, but we shall see in the months to come where it ends up, if anywhere.

I really like this score. It also always blows my mind seeing how quickly Victor can whip stuff like this up. I'm really excited for this project to keep developing!

Also, if you're not already, you should subscribe to the James Gameboy Patreon. There's gonna be a lot of cool stuff happing this year and you can see it all come together behind the scenes!

https://www.patreon.com/c/jamesgameboy/posts

Paris - Le Cirque Solitaire

My friend Paris and I go back many years, and I know she's been telling me about this project for a while so I'm so excited she finally published the first part! It's a fantasy story about a character in a weird, mysterious circus. Every night she sings a sad song for the crowd (girl, same), and eventually realizes there's more going on behind the scenes than she realizes. It's such a cool setting and I'm really looking forward to see more of it come to life.

There's a little teaser image for you. It looks so good!! You can find the first two entries here:

The Lonely Circus - I Don’t Remember

For years The Weeping Swallow in the Sweeping Willow has spent her nights in the lower tier of Walton Palmer’s Wonder Circus—singing the woeful song that inspired her name—and her days working up the courage to befriend her fellow performers. Until she’s invited to witness the circus’s most revered and mysterious exhibition: Voltaire. Even stranger, Walton Palmer himself has an offer for the singer, but dark forces are brewing beneath the big tops, and soon the circus could be changed forever.

www.webtoons.comYasmin Blossom

As a bonus, Paris also sent this really sick digital drawing that was a composition experiment. I'm obsessed with it, the mood is so dark and exciting. It's so fun seeing your friends play around with their art styles, this looks so different from her usual stuff but I totally see her in it.

Thank you for going down memory lane for me, Paris!

Joshua Warneke - Cascading Windows of Variable Time

Josh submitted this EP he made! It's mostly guitar and drums with Pink Floyd-esque chord choices, very mellow and vibey. And he played all the instruments himself! I like the bass in Cool Guy Walkin' the best. Maybe I'm just biased.

Thanks for the submission Josh! Also kudos for putting this together.

Iain - Michelle Fiver

Well, we might as well go out on a banger. Iain's art is posting, and he made this last year:

It pretty much speaks for itself, I reckon. Thank you Iain for your contribution to the arts.

Thanks so much to everyone for submitting stuff! This was a lot of fun to put together and really captures the vibe I've been hoping to achieve with this newsletter. I'm excited to see the things everybody makes in 2025.

On that note, if you make anything cool you'd like to share please email me at heyladycelery@gmail.com! I'll have another one of these out sometime in late February and would love to keep this momentum going. I'll also be taking my tattoo license exam during that month so it's gonna be an interesting one. See you then!