Hey guys. It's April 2008. The last time I was in here was ... what. October 2004, I think? That's almost four straight years I've been away from this place. I never even realized it was that long. Most of you probably don't even remember me, nor care that I've been absent, as I've not exactly given anyone a reason to And to all the new folks who might've joined... um... hi My name is Jen, and I used to post a lot of art here, and then stopped doing so.

Why? I guess I have to explain myself, and some of it may seem odd to some of you so please bear with me.

Well, my number one reason for leaving was due to the crazy amount of art theft that seems to populate DA. I've had a number of people popping up over the years who would rip off my style, my personal character, even go so far as to just straight up trace/steal my work (wiping out watermarks or manipulating things). When confronted, many would either lie, ignore or flame me, even though what they were doing was clearly wrong. And they would just continue. As a result, I found it extremely discouraging to continue to post my work only to see it get stolen by others, and so... I left. I realize that's not the answer to the problem, and I know in the long run it just goes to show that the art thieves have won, but it's still a very hard situation to deal with To me, my art style is my fingerprint, it's my identity as an artist. It's taken me years upon years to develop, and to take that from me is akin to artistic identity theft. At least that's my take on it, and I hope that people can understand.

Case in point, currently I am going through just such an issue and am having a lot of trouble dealing with it. I do not wish to spread drama, so for those who wish to know what is going on, you can check it out on my LJ --> Spunkywulf @ Livejournal. I'm very unhappy, but hoping to try and get it resolved. That remains to be seen, so please wish me luck

Sooo... as pathetic as it may sound... I'm a little afraid to come back to DA. I know it's a HUGE awesome place full of wonderful artists, but because of the aforementioned problem and a few personal ones, I've had serious cold feet coming back. I want to come back. I want to be able to participate in one of the biggest on-line art galleries again. I want to share my work with the world. But I'm a little gunshy... I hope you can understand why?

Currently I only post my work to my website Toonapalooza! and my FA account, so for those of you who have been curious what I've been up to, there's tons of stuff in there, my personal site especially. I suppose that's really no better as anyone can rip me off there as well, it's just in here it's so much more prevalent 'cuz there's so many more people XD

So I'm nervous about returning. I know I've been gone awhile, and I think I also have like 2 gajillion private notes built up from my absence. I've not checked here in years, I lost my password awhile back, refound it recently, and the entire layout is different and I have a ton of messages and I'm so overwhelmed AAAAHHHH XD HELP HELP HELP I don't know anything anymore XD I think if I do return, I'm going to have to do some serious housecleaning to start over

So... all that aside, what have I actually been up to? Well, creating more art. I have TONS of art all piled up that I'm hoarding due to aforementioned problems, but I'd like to bring them out eventually. I'm also working an awesome job that kicks tons of @$$ but is tons of work. I freelance on the side when I can, and when I'm not working and busting my butt, I'm spending time with my boyfriend and friends. We eat, play lots of videogames, go out and goof around, make merry, act like dumb nerds. Life is busy, but that's how I like it

Errrrr.... this entry is getting to be too long. I really didn't want to post something like this upon returning briefly after a 4-year hiatus, but... well, my friends knew what was going on and strongly encouraged me to finally re-find my account password and come in and say something. And I felt I had to explain myself for my absence since it was only fair to the rest of you.

Also... in closing, a big Thank You to those of you who have followed me faithfully elsewhere, watching my works in other areas, and even going so far as to enjoying them I really appreciate the support that has been shown, and I can only hope that if I decide to return, it will be a welcome one Thanks for listening

-- Jen