in 2017 i started a series of drawings under the moniker “mood tracking app”. it was and is a collection of simple and scratchy drawings depicting life via smart phone, everyday anxieties, little jokes, and notes straight out of a diary.
i started making these after a couple unsuccessful months of using a literal mood tracking app to try to help curb depression. (note to 2017 self: go to therapy already.) the app quickly became un-used, but drawing has always been a staple. since then, i’ve self-published two collections of these drawings, as tiny risograph-printed zines, that i’ve been peddling ever since.
here are some of my favourites from the 2017 zine,
when tabling at zine fairs, i sometimes see people flip through this zine and laugh, say they relate to this or that drawing, show their friend and say “this is me”. i appreciate the sudden honestly, sometimes vulnerability, and show of camaraderie. that’s the point really, to make something for you to hold in your hands and feel connected, if only for a second.
seven years later i had the brain wave to keep this series going (for this reason, the name “mood ring”) and give it a semi-permanent digital home on substack. whatever doesn’t get published here will be squirrelled away to be made into a future zine.
until then,
p.s., you can buy your own copy of “mood tracking app” zine here.