This week has been a delight in terms of reading. The Lonely City was wonderful - I may go back and re-read it tonight - I had to pull out a pencil and mark some passages, which is something I usually do not do in a physical book. There were some descriptions of paintings that I haven't seen, and I think it might be a fun exercise to have those to work on in the studio and then see how different they are. David Wojnarowicz is one of the people featured in The Lonely City, and I had his memoir on Kindle - I am always checking to see what drops to $3 and then snatching it up - and I had started it a couple of years ago, but had put it down and not come back. I think that it was not the right time then, but that after The Lonely City it was the right time for Close to the Knives. I made a lot of highlights. There were moments reading it that put me firmly within a time and place, and then moments that could've been written yesterday. The world is poorer after losing David Wojnarowicz. After Close to the Knives I have been reading We Are Everywhere, which is a treat and a delight and full of wonderful photographs and historical facts. We're lucky to have Matthew and Leighton (and their fiery social media presences on Twitter and Instagram). It's great to have a historical reference to the queer liberation movement that examines the movement but does not center only one experience. I'm moving into another book soon, and I'm glad I have all these available so I can keep the momentum from one and move to the next one! I have been in the studio a bit - not as much as I should have been this week - I did work on a piece last night and this morning, but it is Not Quite Done and I am trying to figure out what will bridge the gap to Done. (It involved some application of gold leaf, which was not as terrible as the last time I attempted to gold leaf something because the secret to a successful gold leaf operation is gloves. Wear some gloves.)
This piece is one I had actually laid out last summer in the sketchbook, but I'd forgotten about it and caught it as I was re-visiting the sketchbook. So when it's done, I'll post the sketch; it has changed a bit since I first envisioned it, and I'm happy with the changes, but it still needs some 'jeujeing' as Pharis would say. The best thing for 'jeujeing' something, in my opinion, is to have some tracing paper handy, so you can trace the change you are thinking of making onto the tracing paper so that you aren't making an irrevocable change without seeing what it looks like first. This is always my advice, but for some reason I never have tracing paper. For a little while, I've been using colored pencil or just graphite pencil, and this piece I'm almost finished with is in Posca with gold leaf and it's odd to be back in that stark world of flat color! I never thought I'd find it strange.
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AuthorArtist, essayist, divinity school dropout. Here for a good time, not for a long time. Archives
February 2024
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