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catradorazine · 5 years

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Hi, folks! We’re back and happy to announce your new Mod Team for the Catradora Zine! In case you’re wondering, the Catradora Zine is a project dedicated to the characters Catra and Adora, from the 2018 She-Ra Reboot, and their complex relationship with one another. Check below for info on our Mods, along with links to even more information!

Fonda

https://easyminds.tumblr.com || https://twitter.com/easyminds

Hello there, my name is Fonda. I’ve been apart of the SPOP fandom since the reboot aired but fondly remember the 1985 cartoon as luckily, I “retro” TV channels were a thing. I was the solo mod for the Fairy Tail Nakama, and I am currently planning a Allurance fanzine to launch in 2019. I was an artist on 4 other fanzines within the following fandoms; Miraculous Ladybug, Naruto, and Fairy Tail.

The reason I like Catra and Adora, as friends, enemies and as a romantic pair is because they as stand alone characters are not just defined by one another, but they both at the same time have had a huge impact on one another throughout season 1, especially Catra.

Maya

https://lordzarcock.tumblr.com || https://twitter.com/lordzarcock

Hi, I’m Maya! I’ve been involved in many aspects of fandom events since 2016, and I love helping out in the community. I used to be mainly involved in the VLD and PJO fandom, but have since branched out to TDP and SPOP. I can usually be found working on spreadsheets or handling emails, with a color-coding system of course! I love organization and am a bit obsessed with maximizing everything.

I love Catra and Adora’s relationship because it’s so complex. It’s not perfect by any means, but the way they interact and think about their past make it apparent that they care for each other, even if it is confusing with how it is now as they grow as individuals. The relationship is twisted and tangled due to many factors, but I hope that things will get better in some way. They’ve loved each other as friends before, and I hope that they still love each other enough to come to a mutual understanding of their relationship, whatever that may be.

Fricz

http://fricz-art.tumblr.com/ || https://twitter.com/FriczArt

Hello! My name is Noah or Fricz, I’m currently in a lot of fandoms being some of them YoI, VLD, Banana Fish and of course SPOP! I’m an animator and illustrator and my biggest dream ever is to become a concept artist and storyboard artist; I have previous experience being mod (particularly of Voltron zines) so I wish to bring my experience to this zine and learn a lot more.

I deeply enjoy Adora and Catra’s relationship because it feels real for me, it’s a friendship you can easily find in real life, making it easy to understand their personalities, I like how it portraits how it feels to grow up and how unavoidably friendship will change with it and how said friendship can overcome the change or how it’ll break. So yes, I like the complexity involving these girls and their relationship.

https://twitter.com/gesuko__

Hi! My name is Gesuko or AD. I was really excited for the SPOP reboot, and it delivered! I fell in love with the characters and their relationships with each other. This is my first time acting as a mod for a zine, but I’ve been an artist on 10+ other fanzines in the Voltron and Boku no Hero Academia fandoms, and many more on going projects. I currently work in animation, and fandom has really motivated me to work towards making my own show or comic someday.

I love Catra and Adora’s relationship because they have such a complicated history, and even though their sides conflict, they still care about each other deeply. What they do has profound effect on the other, but they’re both separate individuals with their own goals and motivations.

Shanimal

https://felicitywild.tumblr.com/

Hey, I’m Shanimal! I’ve dipped my toes in many a fandom, but magical fantasy has always been one if my favorite genres. Right now She-Ra and The Adventure Zone are at the top of my list, with shows like Voltron: Legendary Defender and Steven Universe close behind. Most of my involvement in fandom is as a fanfic writer, but I’m also currently a mod for two Voltron zines: If You Need Me: A VLD Whump zine, and the Voltron Yearbook.

Catra and Adora are one of my favorite dynamics in the show. As childhood friends turned adversaries, their relationship is wonderfully layered and complex, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out in future seasons!

The following Mods will be tag-teaming the role of Formatting Mod:

Saleha (Main): our Support Mod (see below)

Syn (Support): our Social Media Mod (see below)

syn

http://tiramiszu.tumblr.com/ || http://twitter.com/tiramirs/

( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ Hi there! It’s nice to meet you. I go by syn. I’m a fan artist & hobbyist who’s recently gotten into zines! I have been a zine contributor in the past, and, most recently, have also organized my own small-scale zine. I’m excited to have been brought on as a moderator for the Catradora zine & look forward to bringing my best to this project & the fandom.

Catra and Adora’s relationship is the main feature that really draws me to the She-Ra series, and I’m definitely glad for it. They’re both such a defining presence in each other’s lives, finding it impossible to hate, but impossible to love one another, no matter which side of the war they’ve found each other on. There’s definitely no easy way out for the two of them, but I’m certainly rooting for them.

FateReplay

https://twitter.com/FateReplay/

Hey there~ I’m Saleha, or FateReplay, and I’m a writer and creative works enthusiast. I love graphic design, layout, and organizing things! I’m currently the main mod for a FFXV Promptis zine (Insomnia High). I have a degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. I’m in a million fandoms and never have quite enough time for all of them.

She-Ra is a very nostalgic show for me. I love the reboot and the new twist it places on the characters and their relationships. For Catra and Adora specifically, to me their bond is something stronger than friendship but perhaps hard to define. They’ve experienced the worst and the best together, and now the state of the world is placing them on opposite ends of a war. I think they’re dynamic is complex, exciting, and worth exploring. The energy they have together is unlike any other!

★ Twitter ★ FAQ ★ Ask ★ Schedule ★ Mod Page ★

#Catradora #Catradora Zine #catradora zine: update #catradora zine: mods

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indige-zine · 6 years

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Spotlight Series: Social Shift

Advocacy takes many forms: educator, activist, artist. As Indian Country grows and becomes more connected, innovative resistances—both big and small—are sprouting through the concrete.

indige•zine did a quick round with three Natives doing their part to change the way society sees, talks about, and treats indigenous peoples.

G.M. Davis

Age: 29

What she does: Davis founded NDNInspired, a reclamation of all things culturally appropriated, or “Indian-inspired.” The online store and Instagram are filled with positive, diverse, and inspirational portrayals of everyday indigenous life. It’s a space of radical self-love for Native users everywhere.

Was there a time in your life where you had to start over?

Yes! I’m actually going through it right now. I was recently accepted into our tribal colleges’ B.A. program for Business Administration. My entire educational background surrounded science and health.So, as a returning student now majoring in business, I’m finding that I have to start over. I’m entering a field and taking classes I know very little about. Yes, I did start two businesses, but there’s still so much I need to learn! I’m nervous, but I’m also very excited. It’s a new beginning; it’s a breath of fresh air that I’ve been wanting to take for a while now.

What are some important ways in which you take care of your creativity?

Prayer and self-care. Prayer is essential to me. When I pray, I feel my mental and physical strength is reinforced—my mind is clearer, guidance is given, and needs are met. I also know that when I pray, I am changed for the better. A praying me means a clear-minded, humbled, healthy, creative me.

What’s your advice to indigenous businesswomen trying to get their ideas off the ground?

The “idea phase” could be an emotional rollercoaster, sister. Let’s be real—new ideas mean new challenges. But you got this! No excuses; you have to start somewhere. Continue to work hard, but also remember to work smart. Don’t give up on your idea, but do wait for the right time. Save, save, save your money and put it toward the come up of your business. Have faith in yourself. Be brave. Be audacious. As an indigenous woman, your success will be inspiration for many other indigenous women out there. Let that motivate you.

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez

Age: 17

What he does: Martinez has been a climate activist since he was 6 years old. He’s spoken at the U.N. multiple times and has collaborated with over 50 environmental organizations in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Martinez is one of the 21 plaintiffs suing the federal government and Donald Trump’s administration for failing to protect younger generations from climate change. When he’s not traveling the world and organizing communities as the Youth Director of environmental conversation organization Earth Guardians, he makes music.

Besides creating music, how else do you practice self care?

[My work] is pretty heavy. I’m on the go a lot. I like to hang out and get in trouble and spend time with my homies. I love to be outside—in the ocean surfing, in the mountains skiing and snowboarding, finding water to jump in, playing sports like soccer and ultimate frisbee. I love to be active and be with people that I love, to be surrounded with good people and have good conversations that push the limits of what I think is possible.

As an activist and musician, what does renewal mean to you?

Renewal is the opportunity to take mistakes and things from the past that haven’t worked but that we can learn from and integrate that into the foundation of who we want to be and the things that we want to create. Renewal in the sense of my activism is taking the broken parts of this world that we’re living in and using that as a foundation to build our future. As a person and as an artist, it’s taking everything that I was, the person that I am, and the mistakes that I’ve made and allowing that to be my learning platform where I can become a better person.

Any advice for people starting a new chapter in their life?

Life’s too short to not do what makes you happy. Whatever it is you’re putting your time and energy into, make sure it makes you happy, make sure it’s sustainable, make sure to take care of yourself. Whatever it is that you’re doing and are passionate about, you can use that to make waves in the world and tell an important story to help people. We forget how powerful we are as people and how much influence we actually have and how much potential we have to make change and create the world we dream of. Manifest, work hard for it, and fight for what you believe in—never let that go.

Sheyenne Sky

Age: 21

What she does: With her blog and YouTube platforms, Sky aims to change the lack of Native representation in art, fashion, and general Western culture. She challenges stereotypes and educates her audience by creating content about her passions. You can catch her interviewing Native designers, vlogging environmental rallies, or sharing the recipe to her mom’s fluffy Navajo frybread.

What does rebirth mean to you?

I think it takes a lot of courage to start over. It’s a process that feels really scary at first, but the more that you do it, the more you benefit from it. I think taking a look back and realizing what you didn’t like or what you want to change and then actually going through with it, that’s a rebirth. It’s a really beneficial thing.

Was there ever a time in your life where you had to reinvent yourself?

I actually cut all my hair off in high school. I was going through a time where I was discovering my indigenous identity and I understood how important my hair was. I realized that I had been sort of detached from that—I had been dyeing it and cutting it and dyeing it and cutting it. I wanted to have a fresh start. So I cut it all off. It’s really hard to feel feminine when you have no hair. And I’m not a tomboyish person—I really enjoy femininity and expressing that. So, having no hair, I had to think differently about what it means to be feminine. That was a really transformative experience. I’m just now coming out of it. I feel a lot more confident coming out of it because I had to get used to seeing just my face. My face was really round—I lost a lot of weight. I was like, okay, I can see myself for what I am. I need to eat healthier and exercise.

Any advice for young indigenous YouTubers?

The only way you can fail is to stop making videos. Keep going and rolling with the punches. If you get hate, just stay authentic to whatever it is that you want to talk about; you’ll be fine.

#spotlight series #social shift #indige•zine #indigezine #issue 3 #rebirth:renewal #sheyenne sky #g.m. davis #Xiuhtezcatl Martinez #interviews #indigenous artists #natives on tumblr

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therewasabrowncrow · 3 years

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New Year Update! Lockdown #2:

Last July we moved to a new place in Leith-- this is literally the second place we saw, the first we couldn’t visit- it had a virtual tour option only. We stood outside that building and speculated about our lives inside, our future room facing a freshly excavated burial site nearby where the tram line would go, and thus, we bounced.

This second place faced the tram line too- the main road and shops (now almost all shut) but we were at least indoors looking out.

This north facing room is my home studio for now. I have imagined this to be a working studio for at least two people so consider this an open invite

I am very happy with it, I came here in January with a motherboard, power supply, a fan and a flatbed scanner --Don’t buy an expensive laptop they said, assemble a desktop--it’s so much fun, they said-- I don’t regret the decision to not get a laptop now

Since the entire room was built during lockdown a lot of it depended on delivery and it took more or less 6 months. I still need to add an overhead rig to attach a camera so I can make more Earthsea fan art! Unfortunately my cheapo tripod broke and my Earthsea feed is stalled. Now that we enter proper lock down 2 I’ll wait and see until March what happens.

I was not able to pay towards any rent this year and my partner had to manage from his first full time job at the university but I was able to save and pay towards internet and utilities for all of next year (still not enough to half the rent yet) I also have enough to pay off a debt finally.

I got my first paid project before I moved here, from a classmate-- a short animation! I remember sitting in Calcutta with no equipment trying to figure how to put it together but I had a self initiated project from summer 2019 that I pitched to them and it worked! I could buy enough time for me to travel end of the year to the UK. My partner had already managed to find a place for us to house sit while the owners were away on sabbatical.

Luckily one of the owners of the house is a professional sculptor so I had access to art materials but I already had a portable mono print kit with me and I was able to put together at least two frames per scene in loop. By now I had the CPU case and Monitor in place (thanks to the owners who let me use it).

The film was done! It also made it to a few selections this year, thanks Helmie!

During this time I was working with Nia Thandapani on a STEM facilitator manual for Quest Alliance. She was making a workbook designed for girl students that look into representation, goals, dreams, and coding basics. She approached me after seeing the icon work for A Cloud Called Bhura and another illustrator on this project.

Pages from the book:

During this time Amphan was raging in Bengal and Assam. The little veranda garden I made for ma before I left was washed away.

Now it was summer. I had the opportunity to work with Numbi Arts on a more or less retainer until end of the year. I knew about Numbi before I left UK three years ago when I volunteered to document some of their live events. The Numbi projects were a blessing

This year Numbi were working to build a Somali Museum and they were able to successfully raise the funds. I am excited to see how it shapes up. I made visual comms (posters, insta ads etc) for their events-- mainly for Your Mother tongue is Gold. Thanks to Numbi I got referred to another community project which will start shortly.

I had a few projects with Storyweaver. One was in the works since 2019.

Written by Yamini Vijayan Your Body is Yours has been a really interesting project -- in the middle I was fully giving up because I didn’t think I had enough maturity and knowledge to visually interpret consent and boundaries. But reading up and questioning oneself during lockdown helped. I am actually looking forward to seeing more books on consent and personal boundaries by others. When I made my zine about periods I was told that there were more than enough projects on periods. I see literature and art about periods that I failed to address in the zine-- so it’s never enough!

The other was also based on body and anatomy art directed by Snigdha Rao who is my NID animation classmate. I really enjoyed our brainstorming and I am quite happy with the way we interpreted the texts

Towards the end of the year I got to work on a very simple book about anatomy again..this time a chilli plant written by Radha Rangarajan

I had a few quick editorial projects with Current Conservation:

The first one of the year was made with Clip Studio. As you can see I used every brush in the arsenal to show off -- this was me saying fuck you to Photoshop forever so I spent a lot of energy to perfect this. Rookie mistake.

Later in the year, I use another technique where I locate a theme in the text and try and find organic materials that best compliment it. I then scan or mono print the objects/material and use them as a digital collage. This direction works very well when timelines are tight and usually foreground the main theme of the story quite well.

I have been building a library of these textures and scans. They are free to download and remix from my Gumroad account.

I used this technique for Moo Dunnit by C.G. Salamander

The story is a case of missing vegetables so the mono print of corn, peas, strawberries, dhaniya, as base of the illustrations really helped.

By this time I was going in and out of it with the pandemic and the Lockdown both here and in India. So there were lots of apology emails to the editor and finally I just sat down and finished in one go. I don’t think I have been able to relocate myself fully from the anti CAA-NRC protests in Calcutta. Some scenes will remain.

I worked on two documentaries. One was Crutch and the other was Moving Upstream: Ganga.

Crutch had been in process for the last seventeen years! I met the directors Chandler and Sachi when I was in CA back in 2017-- the time I dropped next door to borrow a lighter from Chandler :P and told him that I do animations that “explain complex stuff” which fit the bill on what they were looking for: Someone to animate the insides of a pelvic joint.

I had a small tester project with them before I got signed up on this project. We had a sit down with the team and I had the chance to meet the artist Bill Shannon on whom the film is based. I will share more scenes from the film shortly. A large chunk of my studio costs came from this project, so yay

The other documentary was with Veditum about their river walk. This film also took some time to happen and I was approached when the team were already finishing up with their edit. I met Siddharth when I was in Calcutta-- we had been in touch via Insta for years. It is always exciting to meet your social friends IRL and I was thrilled to be part of this project. They were very clear about the direction so it was easy to put my bits into the film--Mostly animated overlays. I will share the trailer shortly!

We contributed my bit from the project to Association SNAP for Ramzan Ration Kits and the WB Emergency Relief Fund.

End of Autumn I got approached for a few projects-- one was for Story Museum with my classmate again. They were making small online storytelling sessions on popular fairy tales. I made a few illustrations for them that my classmate animated. It wasn’t extensive animation work, as the budget was quite small but I had a lot of fun exploring different styles for each fairy tale

The first one dropped on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXTL6tkQRzk&feature=youtu.be

She also gave birth towards the end of the project--this meant that our project needed to be planned thoroughly ahead of the deadline.. and we did it!

The other project running parallel right now is due to end in February. This is another collaborative project with Falana Films based in Bangalore. We have a bunch of deliverables -- a series of films on STEM awareness for girls and I am doing the animation direction.

It took a while for me to come up with a specific look but by the time the script was written, it helped massively with the visual direction. Initially I found it quite hard to build a visual language that would explain STEM thinking without us explicitly pointing an arrow at things. So we decided to focus on the assembling and dissembling of objects, compositions etc. I am quite happy with the direction now:

I appreciate the commitment Quest took to be inclusive and get as many different participants on board, thanks to Falana

---

I wanted to make animations for a while and this year I had quite a few. I hope to make games next year. I made a bunch of fan art and WIPs and protest art and sketch notes this year, a lot of it made through bouts of different kinds of mental states.

I also joined local mutual aid and volunteer networks even though our socialisation was all online.

Ohhh did I mention the experience of applying for a visa in Brexit UK with an ongoing pandemic!

I wanted to make a living wreath for a family member and many who couldn’t make it during this pandemic -- out of all the projects, this took the longest and went through many iterations. This was in December and by now I felt tired and worn out.

#2020

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iesorno · 4 years

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Anxious Comics – issue 3 page 4

I first saw Daniel Bristow-Bailey’s work when he offered up free copies of his prose zine Dog. I ordered it on the strength of the cover, Dog handwritten above a very detailed drawing of a frog. It made me laugh, there was something oddly significant in that juxtaposition, couldn’t tell you why, but there was. Shortly after that he started his Anxious Comics series, which is a fast paced, underground influenced mash series that has a lot of nonsense and yet some very powerful moments. It’s daft, but also on point and so, exactly what I enjoy.

He’s an eclectic creator and has a set of skills that make his work pop.

You can find him here

shop

Use the discount code ZINELOVE10 for a 10% discount on anything you buy. Valid until the end of 2020.

instagram twitter facebook

Screaming page 2

Can you tell us a bit about the first creator whose work you recognised?

It would have been someone from 2000AD. I remember being very excited by Kevin O’Neill’s run on Nemesis and Simon Bisley’s painted artwork for Sláine. If I look at Bisley’s stuff now I find it hard to get past the grotesque anatomy, but as with people like Todd MacFarlane in the US he pushed past his technical limitations with a raw energy that appealed to adolescent boys. I don’t mean that as snootily as it sounds! Adolescent boys can be fierce critics.

Kev O’Neill – Nemesis the Warlock

Simon Bisley – Slaine

Which creators do you remember first copying?

My mum, who should get most of the credit for teaching me to draw, always strongly discouraged me from copying directly, but I came pretty close to it with Moebius! He always makes it look so (deceptively) easy that it’s hard not to have a go oneself.

Moebius – Edena

Who was the creator that you first thought ‘I’m going to be as good as you!’?

That’s an interesting question. Probably Gilbert Shelton. I started reading the Freak Brothers when I was far too young (got to thank my mum again for that) and that “underground” style with lots of fine linework and cross-hatching seemed to be achievable with the materials I had at home. I think the Shelton influence still shows in my black-and-white stuff.

Gilbert Shelton – Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers

Which creator or creators do you currently find most inspiring?

In terms of comics, I’ve recently discovered Al Columbia. I can’t remember the last time I found an artist who really disturbed me like his stuff does. Even the more restrained stuff has an evil, haunted quality. The book I’ve got (Pim and Francie, Fantagraphics, 2009) feels like a cursed object, like the Necronomicon in Lovecraft’s stories, or the video cassette in the Ring. It’s a great example of text, illustration and book design all working together.

Al Columbia – Pim and Francie

Nabokov – Pale fire – Gingko Press edition

I’ve been reading a lot of Nabokov. He’s one of those writers I keep coming back to. Sometimes I like to think about how you could do a graphic novel of “Pale Fire”. The first half of the book is a very long poem, written by one fictitious character, and the second half is a collection of footnotes to the poem, written by a second fictitious character, who has stolen the manuscript and is preparing an unauthorised edition of the poem. As the notes digress further and further from the text of the poem, another narrative emerges, that may or may not be “true”, so it would probably be impossible to do a graphic novel adaptation, but thinking about how one might do impossible things is often creatively rewarding.

Which creators do you most often think about?

David Lynch – Twin Peaks

Aside from the people I’ve mentioned already, I think a lot about David Lynch. I’ve always liked his stuff but Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) absolutely blew me away. There were points I was watching that when I thought “I didn’t know you could do that with television”. I think whenever a work expands your ideas about what’s possible within a particular medium you know you’re in the presence of real Art with a capital A. I love the sense of mystery in Lynch’s stuff, which I think comes from his letting the subconscious take the lead in the creative process – he talks a lot about using ideas or imagery from dreams, or meditation. It’s a process I’ve consciously been emulating with “Anxious Comics”.

Anxious Comics – issue 3 page 4

Can you name the first three creative peers that come into your head and tell a little bit about why?

Gareth Hopkins, because I’ve just finished doing a page for his “no new ideas” project. It was great fun getting to paint over a copy of one of his pages. Gareth posts a lot of his process online and I’ve found it inspiring how he reworks and recycles stuff. His work has definitely encouraged me to veer more towards abstraction, and not to be afraid, in comics, of decoupling the text from the image – I think he was a big influence on my one-shot “the Screaming”.

Gareth Brookes. I’ve not talked to Gareth much about process but he seems drawn to ridiculously labour-intensive media, like embroidery or linocuts. As if making comics wasn’t hard enough already! But as I said before, there’s nothing like setting yourself an impossible challenge to get the creative juices flowing. Also, when I look at the spread of stuff he’s got for sale at conventions – a mix of self-published zines and two or three big hardback books published more traditionally, I think it’s where I’d like to be myself in a few years’ time, so I guess he’s kind of a role model for me right now.

Hannah Lee Miller

Hannah Lee Miller is producing some lovely stuff. I picked up a copy of her zine about condiments at Catford Zine Fair and it’s one of those things that initially seems rather slight and inconsequential but is actually really, really good, it just doesn’t shout about it. Also, Hannah is, in my limited experience, infallibly enthusiastic about other comic / zine people and always ready to help out or lend support where it’s needed. An asset to the scene.

Finally, can you tell us a bit about your recent work and yourself?

For a long time I tried to be self-disciplined and only work on one thing at once, but recently I’ve come to accept that I’m happier when I have several projects, preferably in different media, on the go at once.

The last thing I self-published was “The Screaming”, an experimental one-shot comic about dreams and mental health. I wrote about it in some detail for Broken Frontier.

Screaming page 8

I’ve got five pages in the upcoming anthology by Obsolete Comics. I’m really excited about this one as it looks like it’s going to be great, and hopefully represents the start of another small comics press. We can never have enough small comics presses.

I’ve also got Anxious Comics, my ongoing series – four issues out to date and the fifth long overdue! My long-term plan with that, if you can call it that, is to keep it going between other projects for as long as it needs to, or until I get bored. At some point it would be nice to do a collected edition.

I’m currently drawing a comic written by Steve Thompson, which he’ll be pitching to publishers soon I think. I like drawing other people’s scripts because it forces me to draw stuff I otherwise wouldn’t think of.

Looking to the longer term, I’m working on a script for a longer-form comic. It’s kind of a superhero thing. But not quite. I’ve got this character who’s kind of my own take on the super-violent costumed vigilantes like the Punisher and Deadpool that were popular when I was a kid, but transplanted to the “real world” of early-noughties London. It’s pretty bleak. I think it’s funny myself but as with some other stuff I’ve self-published in the past it will probably cause people to express concern for my mental health.

Gareth – Hunt Begins – work in progess

Bio: Daniel Bristow-Bailey was born in London in 1978. Growing up during the “dark age” of mainstream comics, he quickly became attracted to the alternative / indie scene and, encouraged by his mum and the bloke in the local comic shop, started drawing his own from an early age. Like many others, he drifted away from comics in his late teens, put off by their uncool image and lack of seriousness compared to grown-up art and literature, but came back to them in recent years as he realised that no-one was going to think he was cool or take him seriously anyway. As well as making his own comics, he draws other people’s scripts and sometimes writes prose fiction. He has a day job working as a mental health person in schools. He lives in Richmond with his wife and two children.

Thank you very much for taking the time to fill this out and let us into your mind.

Gerald – work in progress

all art copyright and trademark it’s respective owners.

content copyright iestyn pettigrew 2020

Small (press) oaks – Daniel Bristow-Bailey @bristowbailey details who influenced him (tl:dr mostly his mum!) in our latest look creator's influences #smalloaks #comics #zines #inetrviews #zinelove I first saw Daniel Bristow-Bailey's work when he offered up free copies of his prose zine Dog.

#comics #horror #interview #smallpress #zines

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apricot-to-rot · 4 years

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A Professional Practice: Graduate Strategies File

Contents:

1 Link to power point slides & evaluation

2 Current avenues:

- ‘Apricot to Rot {in progress}: An Independent Artist’

- Curator & Events Organiser- The 372 collective & Spike Island Coordinator

- Art Therapy Career and Volunteering

3 Future Career Plan Evidence & Evaluation

Link to Power Point

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nkruGAGsBUJtVLIEc14-UcM0OEtI8TyDUPfYF5qpd8U/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation

Looking through my presentation now, seeing the work I was making at the beginning of this project, the visions I had for what this module might be... It is beyond what I imagined. I’m writing this after spending so long in lock down I don’t know how long its been and life at Spike Island seems hard to fathom. Although I miss Spike greatly, in many ways I think think lock down has given me an experience of making that is totally unique and through this it has transformed the work greatly, I think for the better.

In the presentation when discussing my current work I focused on how I wanted to grown my archive, and how I set out to collect and gather, far/wide and near by. At the time of the presentation my work was dictated by text, although I now realise the words have become an equally woven part to the archive; a component that informs the objects as the objects inform the words. I seem a more developed and experienced practice of techniques with the relationship between text and the other medias. Through the greater importance of the curative environment the parts have become connected, thus allowing loosely for objects to speak a narrative in their symbolic presence. Narrating more so through objects than the words has allowed the text to become more ambiguous. I feel the less informative sensory stories of memory and other themes allows the audience to come on their own journey with me.

I have continued looking into some of the artists or themes within my research back when I did the presentation. I had a great interest in artists who dealt with hospitalised bodies and works that emulate or incorporated bodily experiences. This led me to research around the idea of the decrepit and thus led my interest in collecting and ‘framing the decay’ and treating the broken with fragility. Since the last module, the work has evolved through new avenues of photography and the importance of curation and thus how structures and reflections within these can narrate my themes through the archives in subject. I hope to continue researching around relational aesthetic art.

When making the presentation I was at the beginning of planning these collections, where I would go, what I might hope to find... Through this I wanted to shift the 30 credit module into new themes. The work has grown through moving between transforming concepts around ‘domesticated-ness’ that have carried the collection to integrate with and place under the magnifying glass- the mundane. How do we see things, how do we see differently from each other and what is seeing if not experiencing.

I am feeling very fulfilled to have made so much progress with the collection I set out to create and how the work has evolved and the exciting prospects of splicing these with sounds. I will continue widening this archive and finding ways to curate them in spaces including digital space, books, places, exhibitions... Now turning to the career aspect of the presentation...

At the time I had undertaken a lot of exciting responsibilities, in particular the role of coordinator for level three and training for an arts facilitator session through St Mungo’s Homeless Charity. On the evening of the presentation I reflected on how I felt I did, I felt I didn’t have much to show for the art making but I had lots of plans to discuss. I felt very excited with where it was going and the possibilities as it was about to take of. However, for the career side I felt there was a lot I didn’t say. It was the part of the presentation I felt most excited to discuss and possibly the pressure I put on myself to talk about it almost made it difficult to fully translate the lengths of my passion and efforts. I guess the lack of visual aid didn’t help when referring to the the presentation, but it was pretty impossible to include pictures. I think I didn’t give enough of a platform in the way I discussed it and its presentation on the slides when in fact both the art therapy and the coordinator role were two things I felt very strong about and was putting a lot of energy and soul into it. I’m not sure... When presenting things dear to my heart I often loose the outline of my body and find it hard to be sure of what I did or didn’t say.

I feel like I have accomplished a lot since this presentation. I have completed all of my training including additional training for the prospects of learning to work in an arts therapeutic role. I have worked in a complex needs hostel running my own sessions and I joined a team for the Drugs and Alcohol Recovery College at St. Anne’s facilitating art groups. This is something I am keen to pursue further and although this year has been very demanding I am in a position now where I feel my efforts have set me up with new possibilities. Additionally, the experience and connections I have made through being the coordinator with Erin and Esther has enabled my full involvement with Spike Island peers, events and tutors. Spending most days at Spike has allowed me to be full immersed and develop connections that I hope to carry through.

Current Avenues, ‘Evidence of Future Plans’

In many ways my practice is a true reflection of my personality and what I seek in life. I don’t want to be limited within one career when there are many avenues I am keen to pursue. Thus, my many interests in life seem to combine into one globular paradigm, this is equally mirrored in my use of varying mediums and concept based art work and my taste in music. This multi meaning and substance encompassing practice I have developed is a reflections of my equally expanding and shifting interests in many other aspects of my life. Reflecting on this, I decided to focus my efforts and developmental skills within three specific fragments as a way to develop my skills and progression towards a career that can encapsulate some areas of my varying interests. Thus the following is split into three segments of current avenues:

- Apricot to Rot {in progress}- An independent artist

- Curator & Events Organiser- The 372 collective & Spike Island Coordination

- Art Therapy

Within each section I shall be discussing, analysing and reflecting on my aims to peruse and develop these areas during the past year and looking towards the near future. In addition to this, I will discuss the current situation of Covid-19 in terms of successfully continuing my future career plan within these constraints and the implications of these limitations.

‘Apricot to Rot {in progress}: An Independent Artist’

- Artist Instagram account

- Covid-19 limitations and planning

My original vision with becoming an Independent Artist has been some what delayed in terms of selling works as I am unable to produce and distribute during Covid-19. However, working to exceed these constraints I have recently focused more on elevating my online presence. I have created an art account on Instagram to advertise my work so that once I have access to facilities I can set up my website again and continue selling prints.

372 studio

26/3/2020 Image: Screenshot of Artist Instagram account, displaying my zine page segmented into 15 images.

18/5/2020 Screenshot of Artist Instagram account

In addition to my Instagram, after submitting this Tumblr account I hope to create another account into a professional space that displays ‘digital books’ of images, sounds and texts for isolated listeners. I think my work is very suited to the formats of installations of photography ‘books’, but I have been unable to produce any in physical form because of limited access to facilities and equipment. Therefore, I am very keen to continue making whatever work I can and use my Tumblr as a space to almost digitally plan the works that I will one day publish in a physical book. I hope to make these digital spaces as immersive as possible and try ensure the digital aspect of it doesn’t change the narrative too much.

11/4/2020 Screenshot of Artist Instagram account

Research into Digital Books See under DIGITAL BOOKS/ PUBLICATIONS RESEARCH

Curator and Events Organiser

372 Collective

For the past year I have been developing an art/music collective residency at 372 with ten other artists and musicians {including many more who have passed through}. We have decided to stay for another year, for me this collective is integral to being an artist as it gives me the space, peers and creative city that allow me to be fully submerged in setting up myself as an independent artist and forming this collective. Before the out break of Covid-19 I was running events and exhibitions almost every other weekend with the collective at 372 and my plan was to continue running these as a main source of income through this next year however this may not happen quite as I envisioned but the show must go on. My vision is, to get events and exhibitions back on- to give up coming independent artists a space to exhibit work, collaborate, showcase and create and a space for the collective residents to curate and present their work.

6 month Calendar I have created for residents-

Art Based Residents: April Kirkwood, Sadie May, Sylvie Whitfield, Anna Young, Ashleigh Swain, May Bell, Katya Skyes, Charles, Toby George, Oli Camp, Joe Camp, Max

June Aims: Transform the garden: Build plantiers, wormary compost, risen beds, water system, Grow our own vegetables. With aims for 372 to be a communal and fully sustainable place with our own fresh fruit and vegetables all year.

Repaint house areas- fresh vibes! Enquire for paint from land lord {end of may}

July

Week One: 4 new residents {Ashleigh Swain, Anna Young, Oli Camp, Joe Camp} Walls to be painted in personal spaces, communal areas.

Week 2: Discuss Covid-19: how can we utilise this collective when on lock down, digital exhibitions, publications, use event spaces as studio spaces, apply for group funding/ research opportunities.

Week 3: Turn the Basement into a transformable studio space so that artists have a space to make work which we can still use for events and exhibitions.

August Aims:

. Move into basement

. Create one croup art work

. Hold an exhibition {for exhibition plans see section 5}

September {Lock down lifted?}

Week one: Organise an in depth Calendar: When do people have work, university deadlines. When can we do Events. Create off limit days on a calander.

Week two: Social Media take over! Using the social media account I created this year, document everyone's work at 372 and post about up coming exhibitions and opportunities to curate/ rent / attend the space.

Week 3&4: Everyone split in 4 groups to plan a different exhibitions running everyone other weekend from October- November. Roles and responsibilities to consider: sound system, decorations, event staff, bar set up, call out posters, clean up team

October: {information to be added} Names of artists, themes, name of exhibitions, roles, equipment needed

Group A Exhibition {Week 1}

Group A Deinstall/ Clean {Week 2}

Group B: Exhibition {Week 3}

Group B: Deinstall/ Clean {Week 4}

November: {information to be added} Names of artists, themes, name of exhibitions, roles, equipment needed

Group C: Exhibition {Week 1}

Group C: Deinstall/ Clean {Week 2}

Group D: Exhibtion {Week 3}

Group D: Deinstall/ Clean {Week 4}

December/ January Performance Month: Transform the basement into an immersive space used for a ticketed night(s) of performances: sound system, decorations, event staff, bar set up, performers, scripts, costumes, call out posters, clean up team

Artist CV:

Ebony A Wray/ Apricot to Rot

Tumblr: Apricot-To-Rot

Instagram: EbonyAwray

Email: [email protected]

Artist Statement

I am a ‘visually challenged’ independent artist, part of the 372 residency in Bristol UK. I am a collector. I gather fragments, ‘bits’; these bits can be sounds, rubble, discarded plans, disembodied parts, words or objects. The work questions boundaries between ideas, emotions and objects through space, narrative and sound. My practice is multi-dimensional, dealing with installations, sculptures, photographs, sounds, film, painting and poetry. Too access this archive of work please see my social Media or request my documentation file via email.

there are no installations- only words, there are no sculptures- only sound.

Education

Fine Art A-Level, York College 2015, Grade B

Fine Art Foundation Diploma, York College, 2016 Grade Distinction

Fine Art BA Hons Degree, The University Of The West Of England, Present

Exhibitions/ Curation

Tits and Bits, 2019, The Flat . Curated by Clara Troy. Role: Life drawing model & Sketcher.

Whoever was using this bed, 2019, The Flat. Curated by Clara Troy, Isaac Jordan & Alis Toe. Work exhibited: Tea cup Rabbit Spatula, 2019, Painting, 1m x 1.7m. Untitled Sketch book works, 2019.

Trust Absolute Unconditional, 2019, The Crypt. Curated by Leah Wellington. Work Exhibited: Untitled, 2018, Sculpture, Dimensions Variable.

Callaborative Painting UK, 2019, Kosar. Work Exhibited: Untitled, 2019, Painting on Canvas, 1m x 1m. Untitled, 2019, Painting on Canvas, 5.3m x 1.6m.

Fine Art Fright Night, 2019, Spike Island. Role: Coordinator & Curator of Events Managment. Work Shown: How to Mourn An Orange, 2019, Installation, Mixed Media, Dimensions Variable. King Barry, 2019, Performance, Costume Design, Make-Up, Cat walk model.

80s! Prom Fine Art Fundraiser, 2020, Spike Island. Role: Events Coordinator.

Take Two Fine Art Fundraiser, 2020, 372. Role: Events Coordinator.

Curator and Events Organiser

In this section I will be providing Visual documentations as evidence for the events that have taken place at 372. This section will continue to discuss similarly my role as coordinator of events and fundraising for Fine Art Level 3. This sections aims to demonstrate my efforts throughout this year in developing skills to equip my future career plan in terms of curating, organisations and fundraising music events and exhibitions.

372 2019-2020

Coordinator Level 3 UWE

This year I had a joint role of coordinator with Erin and Esther. I took the lead in coordinating for the first half of this year, and I have also ran fundraising events at 372. Through the events at 372 me and Sadie organised a Bursary scheme to offer students unable to pay the £50 degree show entry a free ticket to curate their work. However, since covid this money has been contributed towards an online degree show. My role as coordinator was to ensure the connectivity between each member of the team, to record all information and act as a point of call for any queries within the organisation of all events. I took more of a lead role within coordination in the first half of the year. My main hope was to form a connected group on level three through encouraging people to contribute creative ideas and take of roles within the fundraiser events. I wanted all creative voices to be heard and so I spent a lot of time ensuring and supporting everyone's contributions came to fruition. Looking back now I am very proud of these events and my efforts because I wanted to create a series of exciting events at Spike and bond the year to combine everyone talent.

Planning meetings, organising roles and keeping track of information to chase people up with their jobs:

I leased with Wayne and other tutors, musicians and accessed tech support for these events. I ensured everyone working at the events understood the health and safety procedures and kept to the licensing. I bought and transported all the alcohol and used my knowledge of bar work to run a cheap but efficient bar with trained staff.

Social Media control and encouraging the group to engage:

Link to rota for events I created: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eVUXUOf71-J2GYIz4hD5dzNesCW_5xJmly6ZeVvDXUg/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Power Point Lectures I held:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yzB5pouN0jlWI-xkKe5cbu9hIUdM8XuKpdb28hmWzRc/edit?usp=sharing

During the events I took on a multitude of roles, including; First Aider, overseeing the bar, ensuring the change and cash flow of the bar through Beckie and our bar team. I would greet all the event goers by standing on the front door and introducing them to the event. I would be the point of call for every team member on the night, ensuring the time plan of the night was kept to and solving any issues and pointing people to the right person to talk to. Finally, I made sure Spike was left in a clean acceptable condition with everything recycled.

As the year has continued, I have spent an increasing time in hospital so I took more of a back seat within the coordinating. Esther and Erin did a fantastic job with organising the publication for the degree show and as a group with Beckie we did a lot of expenditure planning for how our fundraiser money would be spent on an ambitious and innovative degree show. My role was to still ensure all voices were heard in the creative decision making and the decisions around democratising how the fundraising money was spent. I held a series of discussions, power point lectures and workshops for all of Level 3. I recorded this and then me Esther and Erin made the final decisions on where money would be spent most effectively.

My main hope in doing all of this was to get some really exciting events happening at Spike with the importance of inclusivity by getting as many people involved as possible. I am very proud of the events, I learnt a lot and have made a lot of connections through doing so.

Event Pictures:

Spike Island 31/10. Catwalk Models Pose for group photo. Models: Ebony Wray, Clara Troy, Alis Toe, Ashleigh Swain, Joel Mansfield, Lucy Mardell, Fran. Todd Clarke and Sadie Arellano.

Spike Island 31/10. Set Design and Installation work by Ebony Wray and Daisy Jones. Face Painitng workshop.

Spike Island 31/10. Ebony Wray Installation Performance.

Spike Island 31/10. Ebony Wray Installation.

Spike Island 31/10. Set Design: Sheets of paper for event goers to draw illustrations.

Spike Island 31/10. Photograph: Ebony Wray. Model: Sadie Arellano, Catwalk Costume.

Spike Island 31/10. Sadie Arellano and Barry {Ebony Wray}

Spike Island 31/10. Barry {Ebony Wray} and April Kirkwood

Spike Island 14/2. Exhibition space.

Spike Island 14/2. Dance Floor, Projections and set desin by Diasy and Ella.

Spike Island 14/2.

Spike Island 14/2. Photobooth made by Loulou Jane and Daisy Jones.

Spike Island 14/2. Bar area.

Art Therapy: A Vessel for Self Expression

Before studying Fine Art I placed great importance on the ideology of using creativity as a way to heal and enrich the self from experienced trauma. My passion for this has always drawn me to explore a sense of underlying self within poetry, collecting and story making. Although my practice usually explores a multitude of important concepts such as the notion of home, nostalgia and uncomfortability... The underlying cathartic release is the integral experience that continues my growing practice. My interest in this relationship between therapeutics and Fine Art is what has led my sought training and PPWE research this year; with the aims to develop basic skills and knowledge to equip me for progressing into to the industry of Art Therapy.

[Due to Covid-19 complications, the ‘evidence’ of my efforts to develop these skills will be presented within six screen shots of emails between myself and my employer.]

I went to the UWE Frenchay employment and volunteering fair in November and through this learnt about St Mungo’s Homeless Charity. Since then, through this charity I applied for my DBS check and have undertook a multitude of training programmes. I then set up my own art based group in a complex needs hostel.

Training completed:

Core Training

Mental Health Training

Conflict Resolution Training

Complex Trauma Training

Borderline Personality Training

Shadowing existing session

Setting up the Art Group

Longhill’s complex trauma hostel St Munngo’s: I gained a lot of experiences and knowledge from running these sessions. My next step after this was to join another existing team doing art sessions at The Drugs and Alcohol Recovery College, starting on 27/4/2020.

Covid-19 complications:

Since Covid-19 I have been in contact with St Mungo’s and I plan to return after the 26th of May. I hope to progress within this charity to develop a career within care that can involve therapeutic art practices for vulnerable people.

Additional Evidence of Future Plan

Future future?

UWE Bristol Postgraduate Santander Scholarship of £4,000 to continue full time post graduate study in September 2020. {Deadline 19th June) Waiting for feedback on draft submission to 'My Questions' on InfoHub {Curating MA, One year course.}

DLA for Adults Application

Evaluation of Future Plans?

Throughout my reflections on current possible avenues I have already evaluated at lengths the three avenues my efforts have gone into persuing these. The Art Therapy role through St Mungos’s, my interest in curation and running events and finally being an independent artist. Advancing on what has already been said, I find it hard to fully create a water tight, logical future plan right now for a society that is constantly changing. My health and abilities are constantly changing and the many innovative opportunities that may arise in the end couple of months are hopefully unimaginable as I’m sure exciting new roles will arise for me. So, with that said I think the plans I have discussed is the best I can provide right now. I am looking into applying for DLA through the government to support me throughout my hospital endeavours. Becoming visually impaired has massively impacted my life and my sight is constantly changing like the world is right now, so I will just have to take life as it come. I am passionate about following these three avenues through and I will think about the curating MA. It is tempting because it is free although I think the opportunities I already have lined up this year are overwhelming and a masters in art psychotherapy in later years would be better suited to me. I will continue to keep my ears open for open calls and I really am passionate about making exhibitions happen this year at the residency.

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thesis-kalyani · 5 years

Text

Week 5 - Who stole my time?

EXPERIMENTS

I monitored my creative mood in Union Self Test Manual by Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Art (Artist: Emily Larned). It reaffirmed some of the inklings of my own time cycles. The purpose and scope stated in this manual were to 'optimize' our experience of time by saving our most alert time for valued activities and other time for 'impractical labour' such as answering emails, household chores. While I liked the idea of attending to our time cycles, I want to push back on the conception of optimization as the ultimate goal.

WHO STOLE MY TIME?

Inspired by this manual, I decided to map all the interactions with my personal devices (mainly phone) in a day on a sheet of paper. The goal of the experiment was to rediscover and claim the small amount of agency over personal time. I hoped it would answer the following questions -

1. Does the process of recording my time help me better understand it? 2. Is the act of slow transcribing reflective? 3. Do interactions with fast technology affect my emotions? If yes, how? Do they affect my daily rhythm and a sense of time?

For the first experiment, I mapped all the interactions per hour. Each interaction was assigned a colour to understand its recurrence. The map gave me a general idea of the interactions but failed to indicate the intensity or the duration of it.

For the next experiment, I chose to go granular and map every minute of the day. It was hard to collect data accurately as sometimes I wouldn't even realize that I am engaged in an interaction. My inability to disengage was apparent.

Giorgia Lupi’s Data Humanism approach was instrumental in making these.

WHAT DID I LEARN?

I have been fairly conscious of my phone usage. My notifications for most apps are turned off. My phone is perpetually on 'do not disturb' mode. Yet most of my waking minutes are spent interacting with technology. These interactions moved from foreground to background. For example - My interaction with the music player would be to start playing music after which the activity happened in the background without me realizing it. I noticed how often I was multitasking. Each activity was mediated by another. I was particularly surprised by my usage of text/ Whatsapp and Instagram. These popped in small bursts during periods of work - fragmenting my attention.

The act of colouring my data sheet was slow. I could have easily printed this. But this gradual activity made me pay attention to the meaning of the data rather than the data itself. It was a meaning-making exercise.

QUESTIONS FOR THE NEXT EXPERIMENT

Would people want to do this activity? Who would want to do this activity and in what context?

What medium would be ideal? Should it be colouring book or stitching or something else?

How would this activity be if was conducted over weeks, months and years?

Is this a solitary activity or a community-based practice?

What if I decide to map my emotions as well?

What would emerge out of mapping archived interactions or data?

Note : I want to stay away from a 'self-help' kind of approach. I do not want to commodify this concept. The ultimate goal of this activity should not be to be more 'productive & efficient'.

RESEARCH

On Friday, I had a brief conversation with Rachel Simanjuntak. She is the founder of Tiny Tech Zines -'an accessible space to use zines, art, and workshops to collectively reveal and counter the weaknesses we see in tech'. I was attracted to the quote - ‘sparking more conversations about care and its critical role in the future of art and technology’. 'Care' pointed towards an alternate founding value with the potential to sculpt new, better forms of technology. The goal of the meeting was threefold - to connect with people like Rachel working at a similar intersection, get introduced to the larger community of practice and get feedback about the work done so far.

Rachel talked about how the idea of care stemmed from her experience of growing up. Today, she is exploring how it can be an art practice. At Tiny Tech Zines, unlike other zine fairs (which are overwhelming), the team spent a lot of energy in nurturing the idea of care. They took efforts to make sure the participants have access to food, water and that they are able to hold an intimate conversation with the visitors. They even crafted the language to induce warmth - eg vendors were referred to as participants. The fair involved a range of zine makers from marginalized community to counter the industrial voice of technology. Upon asking how this kind of structure would be scaled up (or should it even be scaled up) she said she imagines it to be an educational community (especially for the marginalized groups) that would teach each other and in the process take care of each other.

This conversation assured me of two things -

There is a place out there where my work can live. (We briefly discussed holding a TTT workshop together)

That place already has a bunch of people doing pretty great work.

WEEKLY REFLECTION

Bolstered by my conversation with Rachel, I reached out to more people on my list. I will send emails to a few more this week. I will continue working on my experiments - perhaps make an artefact that other people can use to do a similar activity. I want to spend some time working on my midterms presentation to identify areas where I need feedback from my cohort and midterms panel. And yes, work on the paper.

#week5 #thesis #time #slow #technology #data

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cloakedmonk · 5 years

Text

“…we continue to encourage and support participation in the 100TPC global event, with the hopes that we can encourage poets, musicians and artists to stay vocal and engaged in these difficult times. It is so easy to feel hopeless and lose heart when it seems the world is coming apart around us. 100TPC hopes to counter despair and disillusionment, encourage and support celebration through the arts of peace, justice and sustainability. This is the good fight for us and we will continue to provide a global platform and venue.” 100TPC Cofounder Michael Rothenberg in a recent email to me.

There’s a lot going on around Global 100,000 Poets and Others for Change (100TPC.org) and this is the point each year when I like to share special updates along with a sampling of the posters for the event.

Yesterday Michael Rothenberg announced that there were 500 events registered for Global 100TPC (September 28) and Read a Poem To A Child Week (September 23-28). Yes! We’re jazzed about that news.

At The BeZine Michael Dickel and I are collaborating on the September 15 issue, themed social justice in honor of 100TPC. 100TPC concerns itself with Peace (our March issue theme), SustainABILITY (our June issue theme), and Social Justice (our September issue theme).

Over the past year and especially the past month or so, we’ve had some changes to The BeZine activities and publishing policy. Modified guidelines will be available soon … would have been sooner if I hadn’t been in-and-out of the hospital so much. Our Mission remains the same and you can see from it why we are so partial to 100TPC. Please always read our Mission Statement, an issue of the Zine, and the guidelines before submitting work to [email protected]

Meanwhile, my feature How 100,000 Poets Are Fostering Peace, Justice and Sustainability was shared today by Kella Hanna-Wayne on her social justice site: YoppVoice!

Meanwhile …

The BeZine blog is hosting a month long series in solidarity with the climate action events that are taking place around the world, These events include Greta Thunberg’s and also the U.N. Climate Change Summit 2019.

(Please note the first post on the Zine blog is always a copy of the front page of the most recent published issue of the Zine. If you scroll down, you’ll access the rest of the blog posts.)

And …

The BeZine 100,000 Poets and Others Banner, 2019 is by our resident artist, Corina Ravenscraft

On September 28, we’ll host our annual 24 hour Virtual The BeZine 100TPC. Everyone is invited to come read, listen, and contribute. If you want to contribute work the post that day will provide instruction for doing so. It’s easy. We encourage the sharing of art, photography, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and music videos. Michael Dickel will moderate and I’ll be present for back-up.

Here’s a sample of the banners from events around the world. Enjoy!

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BECOME INVOLVED

100,000 Poets for Change Facebook CommunicationHub

The BeZine

The BeZine 100TPC Facebook Discussion Group

READ A POEM TO A CHILD WEEK

September 23rd – September 28th 2019

Download the Poetry Compilation for Readers.pdf

Download the curriculum Simple ways to make poetry engaging 2.0 and the poetry workbook.

Freely accessible Sound Cloud playlist of 100TPC Read a Poem to a Child Initiative

– Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor The BeZine

ABOUT

The Bardo Group Beguines are pleased to present THE BEZINE, an eZine published each quarter. The people who visit here to read, “Like,” and comment are as integral to this community as are the contributors. Visitors lend their energy, support, imagination and insights to this evolving effort. Comments are open and kindly expressed perspectives and suggestions are welcome.

The team is comprised of Naomi Baltuck, cloakedmonk (Terri Stewart), James R. Cowles, Jamie Dedes, Michael Dickel, Priscilla Galasso, Christy Darby Hendrick, Joseph Hesch, Lana Phillips, PoetJanstie (John Anstie), Ruth Jewel, dragonkatet (Corina Ravenscraft, , Charles W. Martin, Michael Watson,

The goal of this collaborative is to foster proximity and understanding through our shared love of the arts and humanities and all things spirited and to make – however modest – a contribution toward personal healing and deference for the diverse ways people try to make moral, spiritual and intellectual sense of a world in which illness, violence, despair, loneliness and death are as prevalent as hope, friendship, reason and birth.

We share work here that is representative of universal human values however differently they might be expressed in our varied religions and cultures. We feel that our art and our Internet-facilitated social connection offer a means to see one another in our simple humanity, as brothers and sisters, and not as “other.”

We acknowledge that there are enormous theological differences and historical resentments that carve wedges among and within the traditions and ethnic or national groups, but we believe that ultimately self-preservation, common sense, and human solidarity will empower connections and collaboration and overcome division and disorder.

We ply our art, meditations, and prayer toward that tipping point when compromise – an admittedly imperfect peace – will overcome war and respect for life will topple resentment. That may not happen in our time, but it has to start somewhere and sometime and this is our modest contribution toward an end for which diverse people the world over are working and praying.

Follow to enjoy every issue of The BeZine. The BeZine is a volunteer effort, a gift of love.

Global 100,000 Poets and Friends for Change: Get Ready, Get Set … "...we continue to encourage and support participation in the 100TPC global event, with the hopes that we can encourage poets, musicians and artists to stay vocal and engaged in these difficult times.

#100 000 Poets (et al) for Change #About #Global 100TPC 2019 #Global Action Month #September 2019 issue #The BeZine #The BeZine Virtual 100TPC

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deadspaceaus · 7 years

Text

Deadspace - Interview with Chris - Afterlife Zine

https://www.facebook.com/afterlifezine/

DEADSPACE INTERVIEW

By Ricardo Rengifo

"THE WAY I VIEW THE WORLD IS LIKE A MASSIVE CANVAS"

What's the meaning of a Deadspace? A place where you find solace or a place where chaos rules supreme but you still feel that tranquility to come back over and over again to that "place", the first time I heard this band it was spellbinding and epic at the same time, layers and layers of sounds painting the perfect picture, envisioning this band is like looking into a glass mirror and you will see the beast of what Deadspace is made of, Afterlife caught up with Chris Gebauer to find out what's inside his mind and how much Deadspace means for him.

Through the bleak moments and the madness that goes in between or viceversa, how deep you get involved within yourself to make Deadspace an entity upon others?

Deadspace for me has always been deeply personal. An emotional, almost spiritual beast in which I have allowed myself to absolutely lose control as a human being. For me it is the child within. Angry, tortured, disobedient but pure. Then the other members came into the picture. I think it’s ridiculous to say that they draw the exact same purpose from the energy that is Deadspace. In saying that, I don’t believe anyone will every understand it like I do because the inner workings reflect differently to people closely involved. But I can certainly say I 100% feel like the energy burns infinitely harder when we’re together as a unit. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why… but it is a feeling I live for every day.

This is what we offer to our fans and loved one. This is a haven where you will not be judged or cast away for your lunacy. We consider it so that every Deadspace show is a surreal experience for all involved.

Can you describe the first time you fell in love with music?

Well that depends on what aspect of music we’re talking about. But here is a theory I have previously held value to, encompassing the idea of growth.

From a very young age I was always fascinated with how a good song would reflect on an entire room of people and fuel an ambience. This was the first step for me, falling in love with how music could make you feel.

Then as a more dissociative being, I became obsessed with the ability to disappear into music and to feel nothing. It was like a drug. I could put on a record and just disappear for as long as I needed. This is most likely where my love for post rock and severely heroin influenced stuff NIN stemmed from.

Then I hit my teens and I got angry. I wanted to see people willing to destroy themselves for art. For some obscure reason I really put emphasis on this (and still do). I wanted to see Manson kick in speakers, I wanted to see Reznor fuck his keyboard and smash shit with hammers and the idea of people like Kvarforth and Carlsson covering stages in blood was neurotically exciting.

You take these 3 moods and then you apply them to a day of Melbourne weather. All 3 feelings, about 5 times a day. It’s a mess, music has become the only thing that drives me insane and keeps me together at the same time.

In your formative years as a musician can you name a record or records that shaped your musical direction and why?

First of all, I’d encourage the idea of perhaps the ‘formative’ years still being in progress. Some albums that have seriously influences me as an artist are:

Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals: This record blue me out because it had an overwhelming sadness to it while still being heavy and the vocal delivery feels very honest.

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile: This record just speaks for itself.

Placebo - Without You I’m Nothing: I just don’t know another vocalist doing anything even close to Molko in so many aspects. I love the version of the title track on this with Bowie also. Beautiful. Anything Placebo is in my favourites.

Jeff Buckley - Grace: My all time favourite favourite record. Jeff was, in my opinion, one of the greatest souls that ever lived and his voice will forever be untouchable.

That’s just me, the other guys have their own tastes but this is my personal standpoint.

As an artist and performer how important it is for you to give your audience an endless memory by them saying "that was intense"?

Absolutely imperative although it’s not a challenge at all, it’s a given. Majority of shows we play, it takes me about 15 minutes to remember how to breathe after. Everyone gives it everything they’ve got and I think that’s the beauty about being on stage. We’re all 100% emotionally invested in each others crafts and we could be on a stage we’ve never been on before and it feels like home.

I was blown away by the violent way you can crate music but at the same time there is beautiful moments in there, how important is to have band members that share your same point of views in a musical way?

I think not as such same points of view, but members with eclectic and unique points of view, working together towards the same idea. The light and dark shades are reflective to life in general and I’d say these things being clear in our music is a reflexion of honesty. Honesty with ourselves, each other and our music/audience.

What is your thought in the current music business, how much effort a band have to put into to be heard and to have some sort of success?

Well you’re not going to put together anything like what we’re doing and earn a living off it in this country. The business side of things has always taken a backseat with us. In saying that, it’s important to a certain extent but we’re definitely (at this point anyway) travelling around, making friends and building up a strong/loyal community in which we would like to share this experience with.

With anything, success if all conjecture. It’s a self established goal and the idea of succeeding in regards to your personal values. So in my opinion, we are successful. This is enough for me right now.

Your last release "Gravity" in my opinion is an opus, it feels like a life journey, how much input did everyone contributed to make this record a master of it's own?

Gravity was really just a little concept I was playing with at the time. I really wanted to get something strong out as a unit with our solid lineup. The concept is really quite observational and brutal in nature. Basically summing up the idea of birth, life, death and rebirth as transitional inevitabilities. The character takes form of a narrator, living inside a soul that is enduring and learning such fate. All members came together to create the piece. Whether it be shared duties recording piano parts or just handling their own instruments parts. Finally, Nish mixed and mastered the fucker, which was a massive learning curve for everybody I’d say. We’re all growing into the strongest versions of ourselves.

Chris your lyrics are just something that a lot of people can relate too, what makes you write such as strong and dark but at the same time meaningful, what sort of message are you trying to deliver?

I’ve always been a person that values truth and honesty over diplomacy. I just say it how it is and try not to fabricate complexity by adding superfluous vocabulary. The idea of my lyrics is to stimulate the senses. Either in a visual way or a nostalgic feeling that makes you feel alive. That’s for this record anyway. Truth be told, It all gets spat out on a piece of paper without any thought. Then when I wake up in a different mind state, I refine it so it still makes sense. Sometimes you’re feeling something so passionately that the actual words hold no meaning and need a second look.

Who were your main inspirations to write and put lyrics together?

I’ve always written, even as a child. I guess it’s always been something that nobody could ever take away from me and thusly has been a gift I’ve held dear for some time. To be frank, as many inspirational people as their are out there. My writing is on its own journey. I don’t want to say things other people have already said, no matter how amazing the sentiment may be. I’m very good at disturbing people’s beliefs and thoughts, not deliberately, but I love the idea of everything I’ve ever ‘known’ to be turned upside down. I’m also very bad at being certain about things. I’m not a logical person and the idea of certainty/stability bore me beyond belief.

The last song on Gravity has that spoken word at the end of the song and the part that strike me the most was when the narrator said "if you have any possessions, give it all away" what is the message you are trying to send across?

Well the whole idea of Rebirth was to throw a curveball. Birth, Life, Death - these things are certain. Rebirth is a concept dreamed up by humans, for humans. This is the shit that keeps life interesting. A lot of people don’t recognise this either that it’s actually the uncertainty that keeps their minds and souls alive. So who better than Alan Watts and his own words of wisdom to add the element of conjecture and ‘certainty in uncertainty’.

“Don’t cling to things”, don’t hold on to what you know or what you think you have, it’s going to change and one day go away.

But please note: with Gravity is was never intended to be a solid message for people. It’s just food for thought. It’s a personal reflection and I’m not by any means saying ‘live your life like this’. It’s just insight into where I was at that point in time.

Let's deviate a bit from the music side and let's talk about your views about society in general, is this a better world to live in?

Better than what? It’s the only world we have. It’s full of pain, suffering, joy, love, loss…

The way I view the world is like a massive canvas. There’s paint everywhere but not all aspects of the peace are going to be the colours or shapes that you can relate to. I’m not entirely sure whether I see it like this because I’m a coward and need to take a back seat or if it’s just my place in society to think like this. As far as I can tell I’m not hurting anybody and hopefully actually bringing a few people up (lets not kid ourselves though).

This being said, everybody has their own struggles. A lot of mine are internal and health based. I have a good family, a house I’m welcome in, I’ve travelled extensively. These inner issues provide me with some challenges but they also make me get up every day and want to do something with it. I think for someone with a different genetic make up, the challenges would be elsewhere, inviting them to see the world in a different light.

Also apart from creating music you love photography, how much inner peace you found when you see something that you want to capture and show it to the world?

It just depends where I am at a certain point in time. Sometimes the beauty is just too fucking beautiful to capture in any generic forms of art. If I didn’t have to work I would definitely live behind my camera by day and in a studio writing music at night. This would be incredible but for now I view the day job as earning my keep so I can continue to explore.

Would you "compromise" and make your music more accessible so it can be heard by a bigger audience or this is something that has never crossed your mind?

Not deliberately. But I don’t really see us as a severely underground or inaccessible band. Most of the inspiration comes from melody and the rhythmic aspects are not necessarily difficult to digest. We build our audience by emotionally connecting with them. And that’s what we’ll continue to do through our music and lives in general. The sounds will only change to facilitate getting out how we feel within the foundation of our musical integrity.

The balance between all your records are very different but still keeping the Deadspace sound, would it be major changes for the next record?

Exactly what I was saying before. Nish has grown as a producer, we’ve all grown as musicians. My voice is more of a reflection of where I am right now. We have new ideas on tones, new ideas on what is ‘us’ in general. The production on our split is a lot cleaner, the low end has been handled in a much more experienced way. I also tracked my vocals in a studio with a producer, mainly as a confidence boost as they are very defined compared to beforehand.

Thanks Chris for your answers, final question, what do you expect from 2017 and onwards?

I expect the world to keep orbiting the sun. I expect people to be people. Some will be born, some will die. One man will drink alone every night until he shoots himself, another with start a multi million dollar company and live on materialistic happiness until he loses a house in a divorce.

For us, I expect that we keep doing what we’re doing. Making noise, meeting amazing people, playing amazing shows and expanding our handprint on the world bit by bit.

Gravity is out now on Deadspace bandcamp

www.deadspacecollective.bandcamp.com www.deadspace.com.au

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tomorrowgirlstroop · 7 years

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Introducing Korean feminist movements to Japanese art audience at Girls Power Cafe

@ Tomorrow Girls Troop’s installation at 3331 Arts Chiyoda

This is Myeongsoon Kim, a Korean member of Tomorrow Girls Troop (TGT). I visited Tokyo last week to attend the Socially Engaged Art (SEA) exhibition held at 3331 Arts Chiyoda from Feb.18 to Mar. 5, 2017. In the show, TGT’s recent works were presented along the renowned artists including Ai Weiwei, Pedro Reyes and Susan Lacy.

TGT had two pieces in the show. The first one is their new project, <Believe> campaign, which pushes Japanese government to revise the hundred-year old law regarding sexual assault. Coming from the old era, the current law is favorable to offenders. The second work is a site-specific project, Girls Power Cafe (GP Cafe) in the exhibition hall that resembles a feminist study room or an information booth, displaying a table of feminist books and zines, TGT designed feminist t-shirts,... etc.

During the exhibition hours, one of the TGT members sat on the Cafe table to engage the audience. This time during my visit, I had an opportunity to introduce the recent feminist movements in Korea at GP Cafe on the 25th. My presentation was followed by another talk about Chinese feminist art by our member Qiqi. In the below, I will briefly introduce the recent movements in Korean feminism based on the presentation I gave in GP Cafe.

@ Myeongsoon Kim giving a short presentation at Girls Power Cafe about the recent feminist movements in Korea.

Feminist movements rapidly spread out in Korea from the end of 2014, gaining massive attention. It was induced by the long-lived misogyny of the internet culture in Korea, yet triggered by an accidental event. In May 2015, there was a news broadcast that two Korean women caused the MERS epidemic in the country by refusing doctor’s advice. Netizens accused entire Korean women for being ignorant and selfish, which was based on the long tradition of insulting women on the internet. Few days later, it turned out to be a wrong broadcast, but women did not tolerate this time. Feminist actions had been spreading on the internet, such as hashtag movements on twitter (#IamFeminist) from 2014, however, it was the MERS epidemic that brought together large number of women in solidarity. These anonymous group of women came together as Megalians. The group, Megalia, which borrows its name from MERS epidemic and the Norwegian novel Egalia’s Daughters, gained a huge attention for mirroring the way how Korean men treated women online. For example, they made fun of the men’s small penises as a counterpunch for being complaint about small breasts. The feminist movements in Korea have gained broad attention, became active and popular since then. Megalia’s activities went beyond teasing men online, engaging in many social activities. For example, they played a huge role in closing down the porn website, Soranet, which was a hotbed of crime as a platform for sharing sex videos taken from hidden cameras.

@ A subway advertisement by Megalia. It reads, “Do not take pictures with a hidden camera”

Nevertheless, Megalia has faded out from feminism scene since the winter of 2015 due to an internal conflict. Among Megalians, some feminists actively positioned themselves as man-haters insisting to exclude queer issues from their interests. The others who did not agree to the argument, separated from the group. Megalia stopped being active since then, but I think it played a role of an ignition point for the current feminist movements in Korea.

(*image from Media Today “http://www.mediatoday.co.kr/?mod=news&act=articleView&idxno=130092") @ Gangnam station exit 10, May 19th, 2016.

Another incident that brought wide attention to feminism was a murder crime in May 2016, at the public restroom near Gangnam station. 23-year old woman was brutally murdered by a schizophrenic man, who waited for a woman to enter the restroom after letting go six men. He said the reason he killed the woman was because “women ignored him”. It was an obvious hate crime, yet the court announced it was not, because the criminal was a mentally ill person. Numerous women identified themselves to the female victim, reflecting on their lives in Korean society as young women. Many people left condolence post-it messages to the victim at Gangnam station exit 10.

One of the active feminist groups formed around this time was Femidangdang, who executed a ‘mirror action’, marching on the street with mirrors. These mirrors were in the form of a portrait picture of the deceased, implying that any person (woman) could have been in the position of victim. A member of this group joined our conversation at GP Cafe on the 24th introducing the group’s activities. The ultimate goal of Femidangdang is to establish the first feminist political party in Korea.

@ Femidangdang’s marching performance, ‘Mirror Action’

(* image from “http://www.womennews.co.kr/news/110289")

@ ‘Femi-zone’ at the massive protest for president Park’s impeachment in Dec.2016, initiated by Femidangdang.

Femidangdang and couple other feminist organizations came together to create a��misogyny-free protest zone, where people can avoid unpleasant encounter to sexist comments or actions. The misogyny within protests has been stressful dilemma for feminists, which you can easily run into at massive protests in Korea (ex. sexual harassment towards young women, protesters yelling sexist comments, etc).

Including Femidangdang, many of the recent feminist movements in Korea are initiated by young women. Their activities are often based on the internet involving DIY activities. Last year, numerous feminist goods and zines were produced and distributed. I introduced variety of these activities at GP Cafe by showing examples of books and goods that I brought from Korea.

(* image from “https://tumblbug.com/mersgall4")

@ Megalia’s Facebook(FB) Korea lawsuit project in June, 2016 was one of the largest funded feminist projects on Tumblebug, the biggest crowdfunding website in Korea. Most DIY feminist activities had been crowdfunded by this platform, Tumblebug (cf. Kickstarter). Megalia’s FB page was closed down multiple times by FB Korea due to “offensive contents”, while a FB page run by misogynists, “Kimchi Women” displaying even worse contents, was never put into trouble. Megalia FB page proposed an online crowdfunding to file a lawsuit against FB Korea for their unfair actions. The t-shirts in the above image were produced as rewards for funders. This project has gained a lots of attention and collected around 1500% of the initial goal, reaching approx. 116,000 USD. However, the project was put into controversy, because Megalians were received as man haters, but not “proper feminists”. For example, a voice actor of a game company was fired from her work after uploading her selfie on Instagram putting on this t-shirt. The company was afraid that her t-shirt would offend their male customers. This affair brought a large conflict between some feminists and the general public who were against Megalia.

@ Feminist goods designed by Bozziparty (i.e pussy party) (https://twitter.com/bozzyparty)

Bozziparty is one of the creative initiators of feminist goods, who started their activities in 2014. They made t-shirts, pussy shaped bread, and pussy coloring book.

@ Aladdin online book store also joined the trend of feminist goods in 2016 Feb. They gave out feminist themed mug cups for customers who purchased feminist theme books over 20 USD.

The two books below written by a young feminist writer, Minkyung Lee, are my favorite feminist DIY projects among all. They were initially self-published by Tumblebug crowd-funding, but currently sold in major bookstores as they gained huge popularity.

@ A hands-on manual for having conversations about feminism. (2016.7)

The above is an image from the crowdfunding website Tumblebug, which shows the book and following rewards. This book gives you advices on how to deal with endless questions and arguments by people who don’t understand feminism. According to the book, the most important thing to remember is that you don’t have to be engaged in every conversation! The writer says, if the person is not willing to listen, you should rather save up your energy. It also provides you couple of predictable scenarios and how to deal with them.

@ Korean feminist history workbook. (2016.9)

Created in the form of a workbook, this educational book includes a brief history of Korean feminism. It emphasize the importance of recording, remembering and celebrating past struggles to bring changes in society. Thus, the book is created to celebrate the often forgotten/belittled feminist achievements. It was accompanied by a calendar that has illustrations of Korean historical feminists in the image below.

@ Calendar illustrations of historical feminists in Korea

@ The first issue of photographic magazine, Vostok, dealt with the theme of ‘feminism’. (https://tumblbug.com/vostok) (2016.11)

@ Zuzn (*means ‘wet’ in Korean) magazine claims to be an ‘alternative porn magazine’ made by women. (http://zuznshop.co.kr) (2014~)

The pictures below are taken by me at feminist goods pop-up store, which took place at Sunshine bookstore from December 2016 to January 2017. Sunshine bookstore is a queer independent bookstore, which is sometimes utilized as an event space.

Coming from my personal observation, the story narrated above and given examples are not based on a thorough academic research. They may not include all the important feminist activities happened in Korea, yet I believe they still provide a rough picture of the recent atmosphere and movements here.

I hope you enjoyed my report. It was a great honor to share my research at GP Cafe. I am happy to see the growing interest in feminism in Japan, and look forward to the change in our societies.

@ An audience participating in filling the blackboard at Girls Power Cafe.

#projects #events

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chloehenderson · 4 years

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2019 was a mixed year for me. Fantastic ups, and melancholic lows; it really was the year of ups and downs, dips and peaks.

My 2019 started with an epic high! I graduated from the Birmingham School of Jewellery with my Masters degree with Distinction in Jewellery & Related Products.

In January, sadness hit the Henderson household when the best dog in the world voyaged over the rainbow bridge. Bailey you were the goodest boy and we miss you so much.

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In March, we had a German adventure, and I achieved my first ever international exhibition! The Masters class of 2019 from the Birmingham School of Jewellery showed Oscillations Exhibition as part of Munich Jewellery Week 2019 and I was lucky enough to be able to screen my film The Chimera Artist to an international audience. I am so proud of this achievement, and while I have not pursued my Chimera work as much as I wanted this year, I am feeling re-invigorated by the new decade, and I am excited to put all the exciting plans that I have had stewing away in my mind for the past year into action… stay tuned…

The Chimera Artist also made an outing to the Out of the Blue Makers Marque later on in the year. It was here that more of the story was established, and The Filmmaker started to get active in his search for The Artist again… I think 2020 will see a lot more goopy blue infections…

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I tabled at my first ever zine fair this year! and then did it again a month later! I am getting more and more into zine culture, and the DIY art of making and documenting ideas, so it was really nice to take my little zines out into the world and meet like-minded folks at the Solid Gone Zine Fair and the Duplicate Publishing Fair. I hope to immerse myself more into the little world of the zine-makers in 2020, and will hopefully make a bunch of new zines too!!

Poor mental health got in my way a lot this year, and it has only been towards the latter months of 2019 that I have started to actually try and deal with my own head instead of just ignoring things and muddling through life. I am plagued by both depression and anxiety, and when I look around at the state of our poor little planet, I feel it is only going to get worse… so, of course, I need to address my issues. I think my biggest issue is the thing I have titled The Overwhelm. I am easily overwhelmed, and knowing that fact really irritates me. I don’t want to be one of those people that is scared of everything, and never does anything because they just can’t even. I let things get on top of me so much that I can’t move, and I get nothing done… and I hate it. Giving my issue a name, and recognising what it is is the first step in trying to battle The Overwhelm. I know it will never really go away, but I just need to figure out my best fighting moves to achieve enough maximum damage points to make it bugger off for long enough for me to actually make art!! Saying all that, the art I did make this year, I am super proud of! I even managed to land a super fancy corporate commission for Leith Theatre, which was really great to work on. It’s hard to make it out there in the world as an artist, so little steps like this really are glorious achievements, and I need to make sure I don’t let the anxiety tell me otherwise. Here are some of my favourite illustrations from this year…

A new year. A new decade. What will 2020 bring?

The first move in my battle against The Overwhelm was to write out a list of Goals to achieve in my 2020…

Keep on top of my mental health enough to achieve my goals and make more art! Seems simple enough when you add it to a list! but I think this will be the most tricky goal to achieve on my list. I am starting off my January with a positive mental attitude, and it is helping me to be productive… I can only hope that will continue throughout the year, and I can figure out strategies to conquer the dark spaces in my mind. Good vibes are appreciated!!!

Learn to Drive You know that anxiety thing I mentioned earlier?! Umm… yeah… well driving gives me LOADS OF ANXIETY. I actually hate it so much. However, I realise the importance of it to achieving some of my other goals, and it is therefore high up on my list. I am learning to drive in an automatic vehicle, because I never want to own a car that is not electric.

Move into our own Home In 2019, I moved back from Birmingham into my parent’s house with Stuart. We are attempting to establish ourselves with jobs in Edinburgh, and save up our wages, with the hopes to move into our own place in the not too distant future. I love my parents, and I am so grateful that they are letting us live here… but the two of us being couped up in my bedroom with all of our stuff is not overly conducive to art!

Achieve my first goal on Patreon I am $83 (£63.39) away from hitting my first goal on Patreon, but more importantly than the money, I want to get my Patreon community move involved in my process and I want to try and achieve a greater sense of engagement with my audience. If you like this blog, and can spare a few pennies, become my Patron for even more art love from me, including behind the scenes, sneak peeks, early access, gifts, and more!

Participate in 3 Markets/Fairs/Cons/etc. Pesky social anxiety stops me from getting out into the real world as often as I want to, but I really love attending events with my work. If you know of any cool art events coming up in the Edinburgh area (or I will happily travel a little further afield), please get in touch!

Get my work into an Exhibition The struggle is real. It is hard to get lucky breaks in the art world if you are an unknown artist… but all I can do is keep applying! Every month in my Patreon updates I talk about what opportunities I have a applied to, as well as my progress with them, with you can check out for less than the price of a cuppa brew each month when you become a Patron!

Create 25 finished Illustrations Ideally, I would like to create a lot more than that! but I have gone for a goal of two finished illustrations every month to give myself a fighting chance against The Overwhelm, but hopefully you will see a lot more doodling from me this year!

Make art everyday #ArtADay I am starting 2020 by setting myself this creative challenge of making art everyday. From full-scale illustrations, to a sketchbook doodle, or a cut and paste collage, to a little poem, or an abstract painting, to a ring made from glitter… and everything in between!! I want to get into the good habit of daily art practice, even if it is just a tiny sketch. I often fall prey to the big bad feeling of The Overwhelm, and it stops me from making art completely… so, I hope this challenge will help me to beat The Overwhelm, and get back to my most creative self! It’s 2020!! I need to starting living my best art life!!! Instagram Stories are an ideal place for me to document this, so do pop over to Instagram and hit the follow button to keep up with my progress on this challenge!

Make 3 Zines As I mentioned above, I am super excited by the zine world! and I want immerse myself more into zine culture… and the best way to do this is to make more zines!

Make Chimera film No.002 The Chimera Artist is coming. That is all. Stay tuned…

Create 25 new Jewellery Pieces They may be Chimera pieces, they may be little pieces that I have had in my head for a while, they may be a collection, the may be one-offs… but I have not made nearly enough jewellery this past decade, and I am going to rectify that starting this year!! A year of making is very much on the agenda!!!

Achieve 5,000 Blog Views + 1,000 total followers on Instagram and Twitter + 50 total YouTube Subscribers I try not to get too bothered my the social media numbers, but there are a few milestones I have really wanted to hit for a while, so I am going to make the push to get my numbers up this year! Help me out by following me on Instagram and Twitter and subscribing to my videos on YouTube, and if you haven’t already, please hit the follow button on the side of this blog to up my viewership here! All my love to you for this!!!

Make 25 YouTube Videos If I manage to achieve my goal of 25 finished illustrations, then this goal should be easy! as all I have to do is film, edit, and post my doodles in timelapse form!!

Phew!!! That was a lot of reflecting, and a lot of looking into the future! Thank you if you read all of that, and got here! I reckon you deserve a cuppa… go and pop the kettle on! I have a lot to look forward to this coming year, and I am really excited to take this positive energy forward and getting making art! I hope you enjoying journeying on this art adventure with me, and I will leave you with a few of my festive photos from this Hollyday season as my final little reflection…

Much arty love, and a Happy New Year to you and yours 💙💙💙 Chloe out.

A new year. A new decade. What will 2020 bring? 2019 was a mixed year for me. Fantastic ups, and melancholic lows; it really was the year of ups and downs, dips and peaks.

#2019 #2020 #achievements #anxiety #art #artist #christmas #depression #failure #family #goals #inspiration #mental health #new year #reflections #success

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goope-jp-tenmei · 6 years

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Behind the Stationery: Free Period Press

Our next installment of Behind the Stationery takes us to Cleveland, Ohio to chat with Lora of Free Period Press. Bringing a different perspective to the stationery business, Lora works with different designers to make her creative ideas come to life while running the business and fulfillment side of things in her spare time. Here to share about how she ideates and works with designers, here’s Lora! —Megan Soh

From Lora: Hi there! I’m Lora, the founder of Free Period Press, based in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. We make nice paper things for a thoughtful and creative life, and I’m honored to share our story on Oh So Beautiful Paper today! The name “Free Period Press” comes from the free periods you get when you’re in school — those times when you can choose whatever you’d like to do. We want to create more space for adulthood free periods — and make them as fulfilling as possible.

I started Free Period Press a few years after graduating college, when I realized that I had a bunch of creative product ideas that I wanted to see in the world. I’m not a designer, so instead of going back to school for design, I asked my artist-friends to collaborate with me in the creation of Free Period Press’s product line. It’s been so fun to see how my buddies take my initial ideas to the next level, making them better than I could have ever imagined. Katie Daugherty is my most frequent collaborator and has illustrated our Self Care Zine, stickers, and postcards for writing elected officials.

Our first product was one of the first coloring books for adults. Adult coloring books may sound like a cliche now, but at the time it felt like a major innovation! Since then, we’ve evolved into making products that are more self-improvement focused. I love thinking about the aspects that make up a fulfilling life (nature, relationships, play…) and creating products that help you make those a priority. I’m constantly getting inspiration from authors like Gretchen Rubin, Cal Newport, and Adam Grant.

For example, in Gretchen Rubin’s Better than Before, she talks about the power of tracking habits, which was a major inspiration for our Habit Calendar. And since I pride myself in being a master list-maker, I turned the way I prioritize my own to-do list into our Schedule Magic notebook and notepad.

Our most recent product is Come Over All the Time: A Creative Guest Book, which is all about capturing everyday moments with the people you love.

My favorite part of the creative process is that initial moment of inspiration when a new idea strikes. I keep track of new product ideas in a pocket notebook that I take everywhere. I don’t just write down my idea, I also note where I was and what I was doing when I thought of it. I’m a creativity dork like that – I try to see patterns in where I am when I have these moments of inspiration. In case you’re curious, most of my ideas come when I’m in the shower, washing dishes, listening to a podcast or audiobook, or in that right-before-I-wake-up dream state. I even keep a notepad next to my bed for those middle-of-the-night ideas that I don’t want to lose (most of those don’t make ANY sense in the morning!).

I often let my new product ideas marinate for year or more before I act on them. I pay attention to what ideas I can’t stop thinking about, but I also give myself room to see the idea from different perspectives and let it evolve. At the end of every year, I go through and rank these ideas on a bunch of factors: how much energy I have around the idea, profit margin estimates, ease-of-execution, and informal feedback from friends and followers.

This process helps me identify the products I want to develop the following year. By this point, I usually have an idea of the designer that would be the best fit for each product, so I’ll approach them and ask if they want to collaborate. Once we’re on the same page, I like to outline every little task that will go into bringing the product into the world. This makes the process seem a little less daunting and gives us a clear game plan of where to start. Then we just start chipping away! I try to spread out our product releases so that we’re releasing something new every quarter, but inevitably there’s a mad dash to get things released before the holidays.

We partner with a few different printers in Cleveland depending on the complexity of the project. When looking for a manufacturing partner, we have to find someone that has the capabilities we need (binding, finishes, etc.) but we try to stick with smaller companies where we can have a face-to-face contact. We’re lucky enough to have Jakprints in Cleveland, and have developed a great relationship with their team. We still use a couple of mom-and-pop printers for smaller projects like postcards and marketing materials.

Free Period is still my side hustle at this point. While there are days that I daydream about taking Free Period full-time, I love the freedom that my full-time job gives me – it allows me to experiment in ways that would be harder to do if I were relying on it to pay my bills.

Of course, this also means I’m living that side-hustle life, squeezing Free Period tasks into every spare second of the day. I’m a morning person, so I prefer getting up early to email stockists, fill orders, and work on new products. Having a home-office makes that much easier, especially now that my wife and I moved into a house and are no longer being suffocated by inventory in our one-bedroom apartment!

Since the time I have to work on Free Period is limited, I really have to stay focused on my goals and prioritize my to-do list. It’s a constant juggle between growing wholesale, branding directly to consumers, and developing new products. When looking at the tasks on my list, I find it helpful to think about which tasks could have the biggest potential to move the needle towards my goals.

That’s Free Period in a nutshell! Thanks so much for taking the time to learn about our labor of love. You can find us at freeperiodpress.com and on Instagram at @freeperiodpress – please come say hi!

Photos courtesy of Hilary Bovay Photography.

Want to be featured in the Behind the Stationery column? Reach out to Megan at megan [at] ohsobeautifulpaper [dot] com for more details.

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sweetest-sunlight · 6 years

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i want to write more, maybe i will say this is for thinking and not monday. i have been thinking that i want to be more artistic and that in order to do that i need to spend a lot more time by myself and i need to spend more time being inspired and categorising everything that i do. okay that sounds weird but i want to make a blog for my poetry and i want to get in a routine of things as well. i want to get enough sleep too. i do want to sew and i do want to make music and art and work on my poetry zine. i have a lot to say here i think. i do need to set boundaries and i can’t waste my time with things that are irrelevant. i want to be able to choose things for myself and i think that meditating has helped so much. it’s like i can��t control my thought and control how much i am thinking but eventually i am able to see what i am thinking of and realize whether i want to think about it or not. honestly both ryan and kegan are so cute. i hope that they think that about me. i love kegan he is so precious to me. i’m feeling very appreciate of everyone and i feel like colors and sounds are brighter. i want to tap into my creativity and i still want to stop living in fear. i think that i need to write everything down. i want to be able to express everything that feels right to me and not be afraid of judgement. it’s just so strange that from one day to the next it seems like i’m viewing the world from a different lens. some days are dim and some are bright. it’s different from moment to moment. i think that i am appreciating others perspectives though. i don’t want to blame other people on my lack of productivity. everything in my life is ultimately my fault. i think that i really can only learn and be inspired from people for so long. all of the answers do come from within. i think that i ca learn absolutely everything that i need to know just from journaling and meditating. obviously i have to learn from books and such, but i think that the hardest steps and things i need to learn, i can learn from just reflection and being quiet.

i think that it is important to live without negative labels. to say that i have ocd is to put me into a box of limitation. i need to replace all of my negative thoughts with positive ones. i really have been enjoying meditation because it has been helping me with monitoring my thoughts and lately it has been helping me with breathing deeply. i have loved working with Uriel as well. i feel like they have given me more energy, more inspiration, more self-confidence, more authority, and more self-assuredness. i have a plan for my life. i will take the gre. i will apply to different school. i will travel when my lease is over, then i will apply to different jobs in order to get a RA ship. it would be nice to move somewhere and see what it would be like to live in a US city. it would also be nice to connect with nature and work more on the farm. i believe that i can do all of these things. i’m so glad that my work and my priorities are really first in my life. it is really easy for me to get lost in helping other people, and to make other’s needs my priority. i think that i can still advocate for the rights of others and still have time for myself. i think that is important to care for myself, nurture my own needs and creativity, before i reach out to others. before i leave greensboro, i want to get closer with a few people. i want to be able to be more social, i want to make friends with similar interests and do more magic. i want to work on my grimorie. i want to do a photoshoot. i want to make music and put on a show. i want to make vegan cheese. i want to make clothes. i want to make a poetry book. i want to be able to paint on photoshop. i want to download photo shop. i want to be able to paint with watercolours. i want to read a book every month and i want to really appreciate my life everyday. i think that it’s important to note that in big cities it almost feels like things are happening towards you. you aren’t really the agent of change and it is easy to go with the flow. i think that i can be the agent of change in the big city and i do accept my position and a leader and a life path number 8. i’m really excited to work on my grimorie and i need to actually get a grimorie to write in. i think that my other book should become a sketchbook instead. i want to get a book with recycled paper. i also want to learn a language. i think that honestly the more i organise my own personal preferences, the more that i come into myself and the more i know myself. i once had some bookmarks of my favorite blogs and checked them so often. i want to get into that space again. i want to get into the space of what can i create instead of what can i clean? i still want to be able to focus on the now. i think that really respecting myself also comes with respecting that i need to spend my time wisely and not choose escapism. i love meeting new people and they really teach me a lot about myself. i don’t think anyone can really think lowly of me, but at the same time, i can’t be afraid of what other people think of me. it’s interesting to get the point of being so authentic that you live in a vaccuumm and no one understands you, i don’t really think that is being authentic. you have to be able to relate and listen to other people, and gage their desires in order to be well received. for me, it’s a process of learning how to be myself, without fear of judgment, and how to put my best foot forward an become a light of hope, fun, happiness, and wonder to everyone around me!

#11/28/17

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