After a lot of thinking, I think I might close down Sabre's Sanctum either next month or in June (the domain name expires then).

I just don't feel up to the task of maintaining a website and don't think there's really room in my life or wallet for a website at the moment. I'm going to be starting school in June, and I'd rather be spending my spare time (and that website money) on my Japanese studies.

You can, of course, still follow me on deviantART for all my art updates, and my Photobucket account will likely remain active for sketches I don't feel like adding to my deviantART scraps.

I also post random things on LiveJournal, though most of my posts there lately have been Friends Only.

I may move my art blog posts to another site somewhere, and if I do, I'll announce that here (if this place still exists) or on deviantART or something.

Since pretty much the start of this year, I've been quite inactive on the internet, actively participating anywhere only sparingly. I feel like I've become burnt-out and can't bring myself to do much in the way of creative activity lately, so I've been taking an unintentional break from everything. I'll rest my mind until it's ready to face the trials and tribulations of artistic pursuit once again, hopefully returning with a fresh perspective and an overall more healthy energy towards pushing myself further as an artist.

I mentioned previously that I began learning Japanese, and maybe that plays a part in my unexpected break from art. Learning a new language has been a welcome and refreshing change of pace, and the novelty of reading and writing what I always thought of as 'strange squiggles' has been very motivating in a way art hasn't been for me in a while. You could perhaps claim that I'm having an affair with Japanese. Shhh, don't tell Art though.

It didn't help either that my numerous attempts to redesign this website never led to satisfying results. I'd settle on a design for a while, but would realise it was inadequate after I had some time to get used to it, so I've been avoiding working any further on my site like the plague.

For a long long time I've been pushing myself to keep making art, even when the inspiration wasn't there. "Draw yourself out of art block", I'd hear all the time, but it doesn't appear to be doing me any good psychologically. Hopefully a break from stressing about whether I am or am not focusing my spare time on drawing/painting sessions, and from forcing myself to draw things I just don't want to draw will do me some good and I can eventually return to drawing because I couldn't keep myself away from a pencil if I tried. I doubt I'd make much progress if every scribble I did had me suppressing mental cringes and protest anyway, so I can use this as a time to do other things (like Japanese!) which I enjoy more at the moment.

So, we'll see where things go from here, I suppose.