SUPPORT THE APOTHECARY

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EYEiDEALabs is not a hobby waiting to become something else.

This is the work.

In February 2026, I left my survival job and committed full-time to writing, documenting, preserving, and publishing what had already been growing for years.

11-years to be exact. 

That was my formal declaration of sovereignty.

The Lab opening became inevitable. In 2015, ejection was bestowed upon me. In 2026, stepping away was my decision.

The work includes long-form journalism and memoir, archival research, poetry, photography, visual storytelling, experimental publishing, books in development, and the preservation of the source material underneath all of it.

Much of that work is published openly.

No paywall.
No algorithm required.
No institution deciding whether the story is worth keeping.

Just the work, increasingly visible as it is made.

You're supporting an independent writer building a body of work in public.

You're supporting the time required to research, write, edit, organize, publish, and pursue the ongoing story. You're supporting books, poetry, and other imagined endeavors to make life colorful and artistic.

You're supporting preservation: decades of photographs, documents, correspondence, artifacts and lived history assembled into something that can outlast the observer.

You're supporting experiments that don't fit neatly into one publishing category.

And you're supporting the continued development of EYEiDEALabs: A Structural Record.

Truth by inclusion without omission.

Why an apothecary?

Devilish Smirk and gAridChaos will always be about:

• Memory.
• Language.
• Evidence.
• Grief.
• Humor.
• Photographs.
• Documents.
• Mistakes.
• Patterns.
• Stories.

Nothing needs to be artificially sweetened. The ingredients are already here.

1. The Lab examines them.
2. The Distillery processes them.
3. The Apothecary helps keep the lights on.

$0.52 or $2.00 will do. Anything, really. 

MENTAL TIP JAR ME TO RETIREMENT

If something here has entertained you,

• challenged you,
• made you laugh,
• made you think,
• reminded you of something,
• or simply made you curious enough to come back:

YOU CAN HELP FINANCE WHAT COMES NEXT.

PLEASE CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING ONCE OR ANNUALLY.

GIVE WHATEVER AMOUNT YOU ARE COMFORTABLE GIVING.

KEEP THE APOTHECARY OPEN

• Read for free.
• Share something you love.
• Subscribe to the newsletter.
• Send $5.20.
• Send $52.
• Become a serious patron.
• Introduce the work to someone who should know it exists.
• Every form of participation helps.
• And if financial support isn't something you can or want to provide, keep reading.
• Attention matters too.
• The door stays open.
• The story goes on.

VENMO
@Travis-Garrod

ZELLE
Travis Garrod

(414) 899-8829

garrodtravis@gmail.com

Other / Sponsorship / Partnership
travis@devilishsmirk.com

Individuals, patrons, organizations and potential sponsors interested in substantially supporting the work are welcome to contact me directly.

There is no upper limit on believing in independent publishing.

THESE ARE MERELY SUGGESTIONS FOR RANGE.

A small contribution to an unusually large experiment.

A meaningful vote for independent work.

Now you're helping build the thing.

You're materially extending the runway.

Annual gift? Let's talk. I'm easy to get in touch with.

I'm not asking anyone to rescue me.

I'm inviting people who value the work to participate in its continuation.

There is an important difference.

I've already put my own time, money, history and livelihood behind this project.

The work exists. You don't have to fund a promise about what I might someday make.

You can look around.

The archive is here. The stories are here. The poetry is here. The books are being built, and the record keeps growing.

EYEiDEALabs A Structural Record.