Hello!
This got a bit of a different turn than I initially planned for but eh, I'm no stranger to being vulnerable and human; it will never be a weakness to speak of tough experiencesand those who judge such displays of inner strength are emotionally and intellectually compromised fools, sorry not sorry. I've been through a lot and I haven't thrown in the white flag yet. By believing in my art and my own abilities I'm now creating an opportunity for myself that I've had to carve out by silencing all those voices of naysayers I heard all my life.. to the point that I eventually internalized them as my own beliefs. This is my act of resistance – my act of choosing hope in a world that repeatedly told me I wasn't good enough as I am.
tl;dr I was always an artist but now I'm also an upcoming Artist Alley vendor. Debuting at Mericon this year!
PS. One might notice that I created a new tag for my Artist Alley experiences which will be added to con summaries where I'm vending in the future and yes, contrary to my norm I wrote the tag in Finnish. The reason is that in Finnish Artist Alley is called 'taidekuja' and 'taidekujailu' is when you're selling (or browsing/attending) at the Artist Alley so it's a very useful single word to explain a whole thing you're doing in a specific place. So convenient.
I have some big news to share! This has honestly been a long time in the making (and even longer in my mind lol..) but I finally gathered the courage and commitment to try my luck at making a small childhood dream of mine come true – namely selling my art and crafts, as an independent artist, at anime conventions and other events!
Some of my more perceptive readers might have noticed that over the past couple years or so that there's been some implications of something happening in the background and yes, I can now confirm that said something is that I've been slowly starting up my Artist Alley business behind the curtains.
My artist name, as some might remember from my Mericon summaries, is different from my cosplay name and I'm intentionally separating these two identities to not cause unnecessary confusion. Shiro Samurai will remain my cosplayer name and KaamosWolf is my artist name. I will, in due time, add a page on this blog for my Artist Alley information, kind of like a portfolio type of thing. :)
My new artist instagram: KaamosWolf
I made a new account to make it easier for anyone interested to follow and keep tabs on at what cons to find me, what I'm selling and so on. Please note though that I won't post direct artworks there due to several personal concerns along with my lack of trust in Meta; the account will be mainly for relaying important information!
I don't have anything uploaded yet but that's mainly due to my trusty 10+ years old Lenovo laptop suddenly dying last week (while installing a routine Windows update I've done hundreds of times before lmao) and the logical conclusion is thus that I'm currently without my own computer. Thank lord the SSD wasn't fried and so I could salvage my whole lifetime's worth of important files, literally. I had no backupsrookie mistake I know and to say I was panicking is an understatement. Lesson learned: buy an external hard drive immediately.
Needless to say I'm currently writing this on a borrowed computer and yeah, this sudden setback made me unable to apply for Terucon's Artist Alley, which was one of the two conventions I had originally planned to attend as a con artist this year. The other one, which will be my Artist Alley debut, is none other than Mericon! Probably not too surprising seeing how I've been their equivalent of a graphic designer before but hey, a perfect first opportunity for me to dip my feet in! This is already confirmed so anyone who wants to support me, and several other artists, head on over to Rauma's main library on 1.8.2026 ~
I'm still very new to this all, I'm still learning as I go and I'm making it a priority to not stress myself up over this new little side hustle. I will for now only be doing a tiny amount of events per year as I don't want to overwhelm myself too soon. You can expect me to be a rather rare occurence starting out, mainly appearing in the north. I'm doing this in a very small scale, slowly building up an inventory of various original art and fandom products from sources that bring me joy. I'm strictly a traditional artist, meaning I draw everything by hand on paper, canvas etc (after which I scan it and prepare it for production) and I also only draw things that I'm personally passionate about – I refuse to chase current trends or what's popular just to sell more; I will draw what I enjoy and hopefully my art will resonate with those who like the same things. <3
I'm doing this to finally fulfill a childhood dream I've discarded countless times (gaslighting myself into thinking it's foolish, being discouraged by society at large and urged to "get a real job" etc) and to hopefully regain some economic independence as a bonus. I haven't spoken much about it in detail but I'm gonna be real here for a moment and admit that I've been struggling with mental health, chronic pain, traumatic life experiences, constant nightmares since I was like 6 years old and sleep disturbances along with other difficulties for a vast majority of my life – I am effectively disabled and have been unemployed for years. I'm not proud of it and neither am I looking for pity. I've tried everything, really everything. I could write a book about all my life experiences that led me to this situation but the point is that I've always wanted to be an artist, for as long as I can remember – and creating in the peace and safety of my own home is one of the few things that keeps my nervous system calm and regulated. I've never had a defeatist attitude though; I love life and I value myself and what I have accomplished, despite all hardships continuously thrown at me. By choosing self-employment I choose an act of love and that of truly understanding my needs.
Some of my more perceptive readers might have noticed that over the past couple years or so that there's been some implications of something happening in the background and yes, I can now confirm that said something is that I've been slowly starting up my Artist Alley business behind the curtains.
My artist name, as some might remember from my Mericon summaries, is different from my cosplay name and I'm intentionally separating these two identities to not cause unnecessary confusion. Shiro Samurai will remain my cosplayer name and KaamosWolf is my artist name. I will, in due time, add a page on this blog for my Artist Alley information, kind of like a portfolio type of thing. :)
My new artist instagram: KaamosWolf
I made a new account to make it easier for anyone interested to follow and keep tabs on at what cons to find me, what I'm selling and so on. Please note though that I won't post direct artworks there due to several personal concerns along with my lack of trust in Meta; the account will be mainly for relaying important information!
I don't have anything uploaded yet but that's mainly due to my trusty 10+ years old Lenovo laptop suddenly dying last week (while installing a routine Windows update I've done hundreds of times before lmao) and the logical conclusion is thus that I'm currently without my own computer. Thank lord the SSD wasn't fried and so I could salvage my whole lifetime's worth of important files, literally. I had no backups
Needless to say I'm currently writing this on a borrowed computer and yeah, this sudden setback made me unable to apply for Terucon's Artist Alley, which was one of the two conventions I had originally planned to attend as a con artist this year. The other one, which will be my Artist Alley debut, is none other than Mericon! Probably not too surprising seeing how I've been their equivalent of a graphic designer before but hey, a perfect first opportunity for me to dip my feet in! This is already confirmed so anyone who wants to support me, and several other artists, head on over to Rauma's main library on 1.8.2026 ~
I'm still very new to this all, I'm still learning as I go and I'm making it a priority to not stress myself up over this new little side hustle. I will for now only be doing a tiny amount of events per year as I don't want to overwhelm myself too soon. You can expect me to be a rather rare occurence starting out, mainly appearing in the north. I'm doing this in a very small scale, slowly building up an inventory of various original art and fandom products from sources that bring me joy. I'm strictly a traditional artist, meaning I draw everything by hand on paper, canvas etc (after which I scan it and prepare it for production) and I also only draw things that I'm personally passionate about – I refuse to chase current trends or what's popular just to sell more; I will draw what I enjoy and hopefully my art will resonate with those who like the same things. <3
I'm doing this to finally fulfill a childhood dream I've discarded countless times (gaslighting myself into thinking it's foolish, being discouraged by society at large and urged to "get a real job" etc) and to hopefully regain some economic independence as a bonus. I haven't spoken much about it in detail but I'm gonna be real here for a moment and admit that I've been struggling with mental health, chronic pain, traumatic life experiences, constant nightmares since I was like 6 years old and sleep disturbances along with other difficulties for a vast majority of my life – I am effectively disabled and have been unemployed for years. I'm not proud of it and neither am I looking for pity. I've tried everything, really everything. I could write a book about all my life experiences that led me to this situation but the point is that I've always wanted to be an artist, for as long as I can remember – and creating in the peace and safety of my own home is one of the few things that keeps my nervous system calm and regulated. I've never had a defeatist attitude though; I love life and I value myself and what I have accomplished, despite all hardships continuously thrown at me. By choosing self-employment I choose an act of love and that of truly understanding my needs.
This got a bit of a different turn than I initially planned for but eh, I'm no stranger to being vulnerable and human; it will never be a weakness to speak of tough experiences
tl;dr I was always an artist but now I'm also an upcoming Artist Alley vendor. Debuting at Mericon this year!
PS. One might notice that I created a new tag for my Artist Alley experiences which will be added to con summaries where I'm vending in the future and yes, contrary to my norm I wrote the tag in Finnish. The reason is that in Finnish Artist Alley is called 'taidekuja' and 'taidekujailu' is when you're selling (or browsing/attending) at the Artist Alley so it's a very useful single word to explain a whole thing you're doing in a specific place. So convenient.
That's all for now, if this resonated with you feel free to comment your story below!
Thank you for reading~
Thank you for reading~
