spring is everywhere and fillest all things / rogation days + st. john's bible amid broken tulips crabapple blossoms lilac so much muguet and a video of the cutest baby bunny i've ever seen in my whole entire life
happy may crowning day! the transcript of my lecture given at @ascensionchicago as part of our spring faith formation series is now on my substack. it was an honor to be a part of this series of lectures entitled "resurrection: what we have seen and heard and touched" - and to bring together my expertise in fragrance and my catholic anglican faith. i've been reflecting on how lucky i am to have found my church community on the one year anniversary of my baptism, and i'm grateful to be able to worship in a place where i can engage my critical and artistic practice - teaching and learning from a wide group of friends and like-minded intellectuals. the link is in my bio, and the lord is risen indeed! 🌷🕯️
keeping vigil for the month of may. lily of the valley, bleeding hearts, lilac, canterbury bells, hyacinth, tulips, cherry blossom, and the paschal candle - still burning.
my writeup of @fumedexpo is finally live! read at the link in bio to hear my thoughts on chicago's first ever niche perfume convention, and to find out all of my favorite fragrance discoveries from the weekend. thank you so much to all the organizers and the independent fragrance houses that participated. chicago has such a vibrant experimental perfume culture, and i'm so glad to see it finally being celebrated and recognized. here's to more events like this in the future!
scenes from altar serving this week at @ascensionchicago 's tenabrae service. set to a series of chanted nocturnes and antiphons, this liturgy has become one of my favorite services of the year to participate in. starting from light, 14 candles are gradually extinguished representing the male and female disciples, until one lone flame shines in complete darkness. the liturgy is simple but powerful - leading you sensorily through our slow abandonment of christ, and the bitter reality of evil in this fallen world. it ends in complete darkness, until a thundering noise called the strepitus foreshadows the power of the resurrection, and the single candle is brought back out to burn for the rest of the night. i hope you had a meaningful holy week, and may your easter season be joyful 🕯️⛪️🌷
i wrote briefly about @weardjupiter 's "castration movie anthology ii: the best of both worlds" - which was an unsettling five hour sequel film about the embarrassing and desperate ways in which a certain type of far too online trans woman in new york fails at interpersonal connection and self-presentation. through these synchronized character-pieces passing into and away from trans-identity, weard deliberately casts light on the vulnerable underbelly of queer counterculture at large. read my full review of the film at the link in my bio.
happy feast of the annunciation! the archangel gabriel's message to the virgin mary and her emphatic yes to mankind's salvation is perhaps the most commonly interpreted motif in all of art history. it's easy for me to understand why. the sheer curiosity of this event was one of the first things that drew me to studying the christian tradition. it is the center action of the angelus and hail mary prayers, and is prayed thousands of times a day by faithful across the world. mary's free and willing consent to nurture the foretold christ in her own womb was the moment in which eve's fearful distrust of god's love was met with feeble but sure confidence in an utterly incorphebsible and awe-inspiring cooperation between the divine and humankind, actualized like the burning bush of exodus through the shining body of one woman from nazareth. these are some of my favorite beautiful and often unsettling representations of the annunciation in letters, fiber, paint, and song. 🪽🌷
In an attempt to add to the vast sea of personal essays about eating disorders, I wrote for @theastorianjournal about the pathetic and meaningless core of anorexia, why the illusion of control it provides to women has remained such a tempting source of artistic inspiration, the broader state of Women’s Lib in the 1970s, Greer Lankton, and one of my favorite movies of all time: Todd Haynes’ student film biopic of Karen Carpenter made entirely from barbie dolls. I'm really proud of how this piece turned out, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. The link is in my bio as always.
