The Art Farm Pantheon āØ One of the things I worked on towards the end of my artist residency was taking these portraits of the rest of the cohort/long term Art Farm residents. Iād paint a mask onto the glass of an empty frame, hang it somewhere, and have the person stand behind it while I took their photo. Then Iād scrape the paint off with a razor and start again. It was fun to paint quickly, with a specific person in mind, and then destroy the painting 20 minutes later. Mostly I just wanted a memento for myself of each of these beautiful weirdos.
There are some songs that I canāt listen to without very specific mental imagery playing in my head, and one of those is @deerhoof ās āMidnight, The Stars, And Youā. Iād wanted for years to animate what I imagined when I heard the song, so I turned this frame I found in the trash into a miniature shadowbox theater. It involved a lot of painting and cutting and delicate glue work, which I LOVE. I let it fall by the wayside for a few months, but Iām trying to go back and tie up loose ends on old unfinished projects. Including a bunch of process pics/video because, as with almost everything I make, I find the work involved more interesting than the final product!
I got to film an interview with Zohran Mamdani back in June. I canāt post political opinions because of my job, but I can say that me and my coworkers have filmed a lot of famous and influential people from many different sectors and wow he has to be one of the most charming and lovely humans I have had the pleasure of pointing a camera at. Said hi to all of us, shook our hands. Learned my name, even though there is literally no reason he would ever need to know it again. Absolute class A sweetheart to everyone. Canāt say how Iām feeling tonight. Youāll just have to guess.
Today is āØMERIAMāS BIRTHDAYāØ so it seems like a good time to finally post some photos of the trip to Italy we went on earlier this year to celebrate (only two years belatedly) our TEN YEAR friendship anniversary.
I think maybe we are travel buddy soulmates? Thank you for being my favorite person to eat obscene amounts of truffle pasta and Florentine steak with, the most perfect and natural museum companion, for taking care of me when I was sick, for single-handedly planning the most incredible adventures, for being a fount of delight and creativity and brilliant little observations about the world around us, and for always being a second home for me.
I LOVE YOU, Iām so glad you were born!
Iāve got another lilā comic in The Gutter, this one is the (mostly) true story of a bike trip my dad took me on when I was 12 years old.
The theme of the anthology was āCyclesā and itās called āOuroborosā and you can read it at the link in my bio šāØ
One month of Oliver James Houtman! So grateful for this small and perfect human. I have never seen two people more exhausted and in love than Ben and Ella after Ollie was born.
Here are some photos and a screenshot of some notes I took after Ollie was born, a video of the baby mobile I made him, and the sonogram Ben sent to me with the text āmy son, the eldritch horrorā.
Somehow, despite definitely still being a tiny baby, my little brother got married! How is it possible? What is time? I have no answers, but it was one of the most beautiful weeks of my life and I love Ben and Ella so much and I love our families and friends and I love love.
