#about ip

[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]

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]

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!

[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]

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]

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! 

[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!!!!