I think you're sauceome.

I almost drew a picture of Bowl Noodle soups today. This damn summer cold isn’t going anywhere, and I love Bowl Noodles when I’m sick. If only they didn’t contain ALL THE WORLD’S SODIUM.

Anyway! Over this horrible sickly week, I haven’t been able to bike to work, even though Chicago’s weather has been just beautiful. Instead I’ve been taking my usual bus-train combo to work. Earlier this week, my friend Kristin asked me if doing Sauceome had changed how I saw other people as well as myself. I hadn’t really thought about that. Back in the day, when I was constantly worried that I was fat all the time, I would instantly assess any room I walked into, asking if I was the fattest person there or not. Or I’d walk down the street feeling cruddy and see someone bigger than me, and think, “well, at least I’m not THAT fat.” It’s a horrible way to live.

Fortunately, I definitely see myself differently these days. I don’t see my oversized breasts or hips as a personal failing, as evidence that I’m not doing a good enough job. They’re just me. It’s who I am. Having to find a shirt that’ll fit my boobs or jeans that’ll fit my hips isn’t a punishment or even an incentive to diet – it’s the same banal necessity as having to find shoes that are size 8.5 instead of a size 6.

But Kristin made me think about looking outwards, and I think she’s right. I do see people differently. I’m still looking too hard at what they look like – a hard habit to break, maybe; or maybe it’s that I’m a visual artist and that’s what I notice – but these days all I seem to notice is how DIFFERENT everyone is. I feel a little lazy that I only drew six people here, I feel like I registered a good two dozen women that I wanted to draw, amazing, interesting, confident-looking women, waiting for buses or trains, all completely different shapes and sizes, heights, proportions, everything. When you realize that, it just seems dumb that we’re all trying to shoehorn our bodies into the same cookie-cutter shape. It also seems pretty ridiculous that all of our media is dominated – no, even “dominated” seems too weak a word for it – that our media is 99.999% populated by that same body type.

Anyway. Hey, let’s do the shameless self-promotion thing again! In case you are interested in such things, I have a Facebook page where I often post pictures of works in progress, a Twitter where I talk about far too much stupid stuff, and now, even a Tumblr, where I have so far just been posting crap that I doodle on my desk when I should be doing more important things.

And hey, as long as I’m shilling for things, don’t forget that you can order books like my award-winning Complete Ouija Interviews, and awesome things like this Everyone Deserves to Feel Awesome print, over at Shortpantspress.com.