News, early June

This is what my thoughts look like

What's new for June?

• Fun with watercolor in the FibroShark book
• Go see Elise Wagner's encaustic masterpieces at Frederick Holmes & Co in Pioneer Square; & Amelia Marsh's sculpture at Trabant Coffee & Chai downtown
• Art dates & studio visits with potential collaboration in the mix
• Seattle Arts Coalition: call for art by disabled artists 

I'm still stalkable on Instagram & Facebook. You can also follow the progress of FibroShark Hungry on Facebook.

❤❤R

Fun with watercolor in the FibroShark book

The above image is a frame from one of the comics in the upcoming book. I'd like to say I'm about halfway thru the illustration phase, but it's really probably closer to 30% complete. Which, when you take into consideration the scope of the project - including the impetus, namely, being a fucking cripple* - that's not too bad. 

Honestly, I wanted to be way closer to the finish by this point. I'm not mad at myself for not being farther along because that just makes life harder, but it irks me that as hard as I'm working I'm not where I want to be. I guess that's just how life works tho. 

Anyway, I'm doing a lot of great painting & addressing some pretty rocky topics (see previous post on writing about death), so it's going. It's just not going as fast as I want. Boo-freakin-hoo, right?

Elise Wagner at Frederick Holmes & Amelia Marsh at Trabant

One thing I managed to do this week was see a bit of the Pioneer Square Art Walk. It was a bit of a celebration (since a year ago, River & I had our first real date wandering around 1st Thursday), but I also wanted to make sure I saw my friend Amelia Marsh's first solo show. It always excites me to be part of getting a great artist's work out into the public. 

We wandered into Frederick Holmes & Co, (just like we did last year), & I was immediately enthralled by the large-scale encaustic paintings therein. There's so much I could say about Elise Wagner's work, but I won't. My words can't properly express the impact of this work. Just go see it. Seriously.

Art dates & studio visits

Most of the time I'm alone** in the studio, but I really like to hang out with other artists & do art things together. Earlier this week, painter & fellow EDGE graduate Jennifer Chin came by Accidental Paradise & we made a batch of paper. It was a great time & the paper turned out really awesome! It was the first run with the linen I bought last month, & that really improved the texture of the pages. We were even able to make a few pages of tissue paper.

So now, at some point, I get to go visit Jennifer's studio & make some tie-dye papercraft. 

I think the best thing to come out of the EDGE program from last year are the relationships I built (& continue to build) with serious artists who are at similar stages in their careers. Come to think of it, that's my favorite thing from the Cornish years too. I want to continue to have art dates with my colleagues, & if you're interested in doing an art date with me get in touch.

At some point, I want to do some podcasting of these art dates so we can share stories & processes & all that. I don't know when that will happen, but for now, it's enough to spend time with artists I respect & share our work with each other.

Seattle Arts Coalition: call for art by disabled artists

Later this year the SAC will be putting up a group show for artists with disabilities. The theme of the show will revolve, predictably, around the idea of chronic illnesses & other debilitating conditions (both mental & physical - because mental health is physical health). The focus of this show will be to raise the volume on the voices of those often shouted over in the art world. So, keep this idea somewhere in your brain so that you'll be ready when the official call goes up. Obviously this isn't that.

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*One of the topics included in the book is why I use that particular c-word as often as I do. I know there are a lot of people who object to it, & that's your prerogative, but using that word only when speaking of myself is mine.

**At least to a certain value of "alone", since I'm almost always accompanied by the Pug of Inextricable Virtue