tfail: everyday Tina passed away this morning, and I’m really sad.I won’t claim that I

tfail:

everyday

Tina passed away this morning, and I’m really sad.

I won’t claim that I knew the ins and outs of her personal life. I knew her the way that lots of you know me. I knew her mostly online, by what she chose to reveal of herself. I knew her, of course, through her art. I met her in person just once–she was super nice and I enjoyed talking with her face to face. She had a print of mine, and I was lucky enough to end up possessing this collaboration we made in 2010. I’m crying looking at it again.

Tina was one of the first artists I started following here probably 6 or 7 years ago. It’s so sad and surreal that she died of cancer so suddenly, so young. I was explaining to my husband that I felt so weird to be so sad, and he just said, Well, it is sad. It is. 

I have–we all have–seen her evolution as an artist, from small watercolor works full of teeth and tentacles to the large scale graphic works featuring warrior women, to the raaaaad collaborations she did with her fiancé hauntedeuth. What is so jarring, surreal, and yes, sad, is that the evolution stops here, and that’s all we get to see. Those close to her mourn the loss of her as a beloved individual. From afar we mourn the loss of her as an artist, of her creations, the pieces of herself that we were privileged to see.

Gosh, Tina. Gonna miss you.