IP Blog Marjorie

[imadethisforschoolio]

Hey y’all. This blog post is very late but yeah. Shit sucks! I live at home again and I can’t make this story the way i want to. I’ve been working on cleaning up my comic and putting it together and keeping up with the rest of my school work but it’s hard to like or be happy about it. And honestly??? I don’t want anybody to convince me otherwise!!!! Maybe I’ll be happy about it eventually but I’m still hella sad! And that should be respected. It’s not going to effect my output, I can be angry and draw at the same time I’m a multitasker. 

[imadethisforschoolio]

This week has been more fruitful and inspiring than expected! I began the week unmotivated and not very put together, not even having a finished timeline in my exhibition plan proposal, and ended it with four pages of a comic inked. I don’t know how happy I’m going to be with those pages when all is said and done, but this intuitive kind of making (making because it has to get done, no thumbnails, no storyboards) has at least given me the opportunity to get out my head a little and just start making these comics. Right now I’m working on one of the frame stories within my comic, a story about my grandmother’s death and the weird way it seemed to be surrounded by cowboys and cowboy culture. 

This opening story will be about my history with the musical “Oklahoma”, a cheesy cowboy musical I never really understood but hated nonetheless, and how I had to get over my hatred of it while visiting my grandmother in rehab/hospice care, as it was one of her favorite musicals to hear us sing from. I’ve been a little nervous about writing these autobiographical/magical realist frame stories as I’m worried about misrepresenting my family or trying to tie together these story pieces that feel a little disparate from afar. I was recommended the works of Mary Karr from Stephanie this week to use as a reference in memoir writing without fear and it’s been helpful so far. But i think the biggest hurdle was just starting without fear. I don’t know how much I’m going to get done by the end of February (when I want to have all my comics done so I can have time to print them and fix up my studio space/make extra pieces for exhibition) but I feel much more ready to face the music now than I did even three days ago. 

Speaking of facing the music, I’m angling to finish at least three short stories this month. Let’s see how that goes.

[imadethisforschoolio]

New Post!

This week was a little slow but still pretty productive! I’m nearly halfway through my script for my prologue/frame story, and I’ve began storyboarding/thumb-nailing another (possibly wordless) comic to be featured in the collection. I’ve also been slowly but surely getting to work on those blanket designs, I have one idea pretty solidly worked out (another “bull dyke” character, see above) and I’m starting the process of creating a lineless color design for it that complements the design of my last blanket. By next week I want to have a script finished and a drawing or two started for these comics! I still feel confident re: the direction of this anthology, (well, as confident as I can be) but the calendar is reaaaallyyy very effective in scaring the daylights out of me. Well, we’ll see how this whole thing goes soon. 

Edit: I forgot to add my exhibition details for this post! I’m thinking of creating a little reading room, but I’m trying to rethink the way I direct attention in my space and what I want the new focus of my project to be. I’m thinking of getting a chair and a small table for displaying and reading my comics in, and right now I’m trying to think of new ways to display all the excess work I’ve been doing for this project. 

[imadethisforschoolio]

New Post

(I realize I’m posting this late SORRY!)

This week I found a really solid direction for my comic and my work to go! It took a little encouraging, and some inspiration from turning to older Western staples (like “Cisco Kid” comics and Once Upon A Time in the West) but I think I have a few basic plotlines I can expand upon to make this comic something special. After talking it over with Stephanie, I decided I wanted to make the autobiographical story I’ve been working on (ex. the story of my grandmother’s death) a sort of “frame story” for the other more fictional comics I’m planning to put in the collection. I still have a lot more I want to say with this story, and I think I can find a way to connect it to the threads I’m already pulling during my studio time. 

I’ve also started working on designing blankets again, though I don’t know how they are going to factor into the design of my studio space for the exhibition. I’m still very excited to finish them, I’m just changing the way I think about where they’ll end up in my space. And it’ll be nice to get something done before I throw myself into finishing these comics. 

[imadethisforschoolio]

New Post!

Hey! It has been a while since I last posted. Since then, I’ve gone through my IP review and I’ve began writing about my thesis. Leaving the December Reviews I felt a bit disappointed in myself re: my presentation skills but I was happy to feel like I had the support of my reviewer and a few more references to look at in regards to my project. I feel like just now I’m really reaping the benefits of my sources, I feel like only now am I really using them to their fullest potential. I don’t have concrete ideas for new stories yet, but I feel super inspired by what I’ve been reading and making in the last few weeks. I think I want to make a bit more iterative work, and really focus on how to connect the themes I wish to express through my work to a cohesive plot. Maybe I need to do some character building? If I want to focus on stories about queer folx how do I do it without telling the same stories over and over? I’ve been playing DND recently, maybe that will give me some inspiration re: the kinds of stories I can create. Additionally, I’ve been thinking back to the kinds of stories I clung to as a teenager and I’m wondering if some of that stuff is key to the kinds of plots I can plan now. I’m gonna keep thinking this out and keep an eye on my new studio calendar. 

[imadethisforschoolio]

Weekly Post!

This week was a lot more productive and exciting than I could have imagined! I FINALLY was able to print something on the riso graph, I’ve started work on my next comic project, and I’ve been feeling a bit more engaged with my working process and how I want to make things (I switched up the type of paper I was working on and it changed my life!). I still have a lot of adjustments to make to my presentation, and I have to make an effort to document my work tomorrow, but I think I’m on track to make some good pieces! The only other thing I have to worry about is finishing my comic before its due Tuesday evening, which will be a bit of a drag, but I think I can do it if I can focus on it over the weekend. I’m also going to be showing my work thru a student org over the weekend which I’m super excited about! It’s been a good week. 

[imadethisforschoolio]

Weekly posting!

I’ve started to dig myself out of the slump I got myself into lately! It helps that there’s a break coming up that will finally give me the rest I need, but it’s also been good to get some feedback from different people re: directions my project is going. I’ve started writing a new story idea about my grandmother that I want to turn into a more free form comic, and I’ve started writing some more poetry again! Writing is so fun, I should do it more often!!! I’m going to make it a goal to start trying to pitch my work places and put it into a greater context. I want to start using the riso to make work as well!! I’ve got a great idea for a print I can make in the meantime!!!! I can’t wait for next semester to start so I can direct more of my focus towards ip. And that’s that on that!!!

[imadethisforschoolio]

Weekly Posting

This week was really disheartening re: working. I was sluggish and unmotivated to a degree that me in a self-induced crisis situation, and when all of that cleared I faced personal and worldly disappointments. I still was able to accomplish some things (I have a script and a direction for the next piece/comic, I started on some clay figures, I received a grant to continue making blankets/tapestries of the characters I’ve been creating) which have left me less somber and more ready for action, but it’s been a hard year this week (if you know what I mean). Maybe I need to spend a few days in the studio without expectation and see what I create. I’ve been doing more reading and exploring of sources, I grabbed “Desert Hearts” off the shelves again and I’ve made my way through a very saucy cowboy book. Suzanne Lacy’s presentation was inspiring but I couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated while listening to her talking about the future of activism. It’s not that I don’t need a call to action as a young person to involve myself in activism, but when older generations tell the young that they’re “going to have to solve” certain problems on their own it feels less like a call to action and more of a trade off; I fought, now it’s your turn. What’s needed is solidarity. Greta Thunberg, the seniors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schools, Little Miss Flint, yes they’re doing amazing things and yes they need to be praised and their message needs to be heard, but they’re children acting up because the adults around them act like it’s out of their hands. When Greta Thunberg talks about her stolen childhood she is talking about climate change but also about being in the limelight in the first place. Adults have the power, they were supposed to protect them. I don’t know, I know Lacy didn’t mean anything of the sort when she said this but I can’t help but feel robbed and scared and sad. Two children (14 and 16 years old) are dead today from the hands of another child and the pockets of a politician who sends thoughts and prayers. Adults could have fixed this. Now their children are left to die and fix the world themselves. It makes me so tired. 

[imadethisforschoolio]

Weekly Post!

I finished my first cowboy comic and I’m now trying to turn it into a part of an anthology! Which means I’ve gotta start thinking of more ways to play with these cowboy stories and my theming. I feel much more pumped up and ready create today than I have in a little while, I think I have to deal with some fallout of my emotional stagnation in my art which is...troubling (I already have a lot on my plate comics-wise for some of my other classes, but I think I can still make some original stories here) but I’m excited to make good work on the other end of it. I also started thinking more about making objects as sort of set pieces/a context to read my cowboy stories in, and I definitely want to make some more ceramic pieces and get back in the studio already. 

I submitted for a grant to make more blankets (in this vein of making set pieces) but I’ll have to wait to see how that turns out. In the meantime, I’m going to keep looking carefully at my resources to find sources of inspiration for the annotated bib. due in a few weeks (also to find artists to be more directly inspired by). I’ve already found “Coyote Doggirl” by Lisa Hanawalt and I’m excited to dive into my other references! 

[wildparsnip]

these are some sketches I made for the film Midnight Cowboy, for a poster assignment

[imadethisforschoolio]

cowboy art for my cowboy ip blog!!! I love wildparsnip's art and i forgot how much I loved this particular collection of their's

[margemakescomics]

I swear I write more stories than monster closure comics but HERE WE ARE! New comic, old faces.

[imadethisforschoolio]

Finished comic from a few weeks ago!

[imadethisforschoolio]

WEEK NINE

IT’S HALLOWEEN!!! I received some interesting feedback from my instructors today that made me reevaluate some of the ways I had been working in class. I’m going to have to rethink some of the ways I had been approaching this project, and also think about perhaps ways to incorporate the creation of more physical objects (products?) into my work. I don’t know how much this has to do with my project but. I really want to make a calendar. I lost my journal recently, so I may have to start from scratch re: certain ideas until it is found. On the flip side, working narratively has been really inspirational and productive for me so far! I hope to continue that and explore it in new ways. I don’t know what people want from me but they’re getting comics. Sorry i guess??? Fuck. 

Anyway Happy Halloween!!!!

[imadethisforschoolio]

WEEK 8 POSTING

Midterm critiques were this week! I feel a little like I didn’t exactly ask the right questions but I got a lot of great feedback from my peers, and was able to give feedback that I think help me work through some of the questions I couldn’t voice. I’ve started writing a comic that I think I can build more stories off of. It will be about monster myths shooting the shit and reconciling with their violent, traumatic pasts. It’s kind of an old hat for me at this point but! I still think its gonna be interesting! I’m definitely going to have to finish this comic before next thursday (or at least get it to a good stopping point for Phoebe) so I’ll have more to post by then. 

[imadethisforschoolio]

Week 7 Posting

My woven blanket order just came in! I’m really excited about it, it’s turned out exactly how I wanted it to. I faced a little bit of a crisis about what else I was going to start doing/what thread I was going to follow for the rest of my project. During ideation, I became intrigued with a few drawings I had made of the minotaur and medusa as western figures. Both characters are kind of tragic monsters in Greek mythology: the minotaur was born from a cruel joke, medusa was changed from a cruel retaliation on her assault. I was thinking of ways to fit these characters and other famous tragic Greek theater figures (Medea, Phaedra, Jason) into a western context. I’m not sure how to relate this new idea to queerness and western aesthetics, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about.

I’ve found that collaging helps me to explore some of my ideas and make art from my notes. As seen above, I’ve photocopied some of my notes and have colored, changed and arranged them in new ways. It’s helping me figure out what I want to do, and It makes a really interesting piece on its own!

I’m going to start making comics about some of these repurposed characters in the next week, I think that’s a good direction to follow. I also need to purchase some bolo tie kits, I think. I should also plan more ceramics pieces to make, i’m still interested in it and I’ve liked what i’ve made so far!

[crispycourier]

The art of Mark Maggiori

Oil

[justnoodlefishthings]

The man had one aesthetic and by god did he make it work

[imadethisforschoolio]

now these are some pretty sweet cowboys! definitely saving these paintings as a reference.

[imadethisforschoolio]

WEEK SIX POSTING BAYBEY!!!

I’ve been working on getting some pieces together for the midterm crit coming up. I’m going to try to have some ceramic pieces ready (tiles for bolo ties) and I want to have a woven blanket ordered by then as well. I’m still working on putting these characters together, but I’m intrigued by the snake-hair cowgirl I made in my blanket design (as shown above). Perhaps I’ll try to make a small character/comic zine?

Another possibility: photography! Should I create a cowboy character of myself? Do I become the cowboy? 

Brooks asked me earlier if I was going to work more with traditional Western iconography and I think that might be a good direction to go in. I should do more western research in the days to come, maybe catch up on my academic reading? I also want to start thinking more about specific symbols/character traits of cowboys, what makes them tick? Why were they so popular? Why do they endure? What makes me wanna put my gay little raccoon hands all over the squeaky-clean cowboy image?

I talked with my mom last weekend and she pointed out that the popularity of Westerns were perhaps a push for “Western” culture in a time of global red panics. Westerns are so engrained in American culture because they were trying to be. I wanna think about that more. 

[imadethisforschoolio]

Some pictures from the studio, post 50 explorations!