Portfolio Review
From a dream.
(Digital)
This dream, which was about going up in front of a portfolio review board for comics I did not have (because, obvs, I am an illustrator, not a comics artist), reminded me of one of my favorite videos: Ice Cube Celebrates the Eames. In it, Ice Cube discusses his love of architecture and the Eames in particular. I’m not sure why my anxiety dream about comics and identity made me think of this awesome thing Ice Cube made. Something, maybe, about a deep, deep love for an art form for no reason other than it just speaks to you.
If you don’t love Ice Cube already, I have no idea what to tell you about the way you live your life. But, hearing him talk about how rap and modern architecture are alike because they both sample from their respective predecessors… holy shit. It changed the way I think about space, architecture, and music. In one sentence.
I guess that’s what poets do best.
…I’m not really one of those either….
I wonder what I am.
Storytelling
From a dream….
(Digital)
A dream about infinitely folding pages covered in infinite panels with infinite connections in all directions.
The Tower
Tarot Major Arcana XVI
(Ink on Paper; see more in the Tarot Gallery)
I have two more art shows this year and one of them will include as many Tarot cards as I can finish before then. Hence: the intensity of recent Tarot content.
Which is kind of a lie. This is just how my brain works. I’m best at tasks when I’m looking side-eye at them. If I look directly at anything I have to accomplish, I flinch. If I sort of… sidle up next to them I do things like get a PhD, open my own tattoo studio, and write a bunch of (decent! not good but decent!) books.
The only thing I’m always doing is being an artist. And I’m a better artist when I’m studying something new and I'm better at studying something new when I’m working on an intense art project.
Right now, I’m getting my second master’s degree. No offense to the counselors of the world, but this one (in counseling) is significantly less intellectually taxing than the first one (in art history). Probably because it’s practical, and there’s less use for a full onslaught of philosophy in practical, hands-on matters.
It is, however, far more personally and emotionally taxing. Getting a master’s degree in counseling requires near constant self-awareness and self-confrontation. Nearly every day is The Tower. Was that your foundation? Hahahaaaa… we blew it up. How about this one? Nope! Not anymore! Sucker!
Revelation does not come easy. Which is kinda fun… if you’re into that particular brand of suffering.
Bright Light Detail
From The Tower.
(Ink on Paper)
It took every once of my being to resist making this a Dark Tower reference. Maybe I'll make another version…. I also want to make a second version of Death with Terry Pratchett's Death of Rats sitting on Death’s shoulder.
But there are limits to how many things I can do.
…I guess….
Tower Line Work
When the pencils for a drawing are particularly messy, I like to treat the outline like I would a really large tattoo.
(Ink on Paper)
I line everything with the lightest weight, erase all of the pencil, and then go in with blacks. I’m sure there are smarter inkers/tattoers than me who can hold their plan in mind when staring at chaos, but sometimes I need a little clarity.
The Ten of Swords
So much drama.
(Ink on Paper; see more in the Tarot Gallery)
Pollack writes about this card that “it signifies more of a reaction to problems than the problems themselves.”
It’s hard to not react. It’s hard to not take things personally when it feels like the things (often quite scary things) are very much personal. I struggle with this every day, mostly because I'm a dramatic little bastard and my first reaction to unpleasantness is mutual unpleasantness. I can damn well out-unpleasant anybody, just watch me!
But now I know the “punch it in the face until it plays nice” approach to life is not only egregiously stupid, it also just doesn't work. Ever. In a twist that I find very upsetting, there are also very rarely clear wrong and right sides. As you may have deduced, this is one thing that gets in the way of punching solutions.
When one is hoping for a simple solution (e.g. “I am right and good, you are wrong and bad, ergo I punch you and win) and finds that a more nuanced approach to looming threat is necessary, one is bound to… take that badly. Maybe get a little woe is me. Maybe get a little “toss oneself in the pond to drown with a bunch of swords that are totally unnecessary except in a tortured-soul aesthetic sense.”
It’s mostly the card of unnecessary suffering. Life is bad enough: you only need one sword to die, don’t get all dramatic and add a bunch more.
Swords in Progress
(Ink on Paper; WiP detail)
The viciousness of air and intellect never ceases to impress me.
