Its for the MythoLogic show. I don't know what happened...one moment I was just thinking about how nice it would be to have a black and white drawing with some concentrated color...and the next, I'm filling in waaaay more detail than I anticipated, and drawing something that looks like a psychedelic pagan shaman Jesus Christ bleeding rainbows out of his hands. Maybe I'm listening to too much freak folk these days.
I was up on the crane this time, with my fellow aerialists with the lights at the end of our antennae. I had no idea how amazing we looked until I saw this video.
I was much more involved this year than ever before - between all the rehearsals, costume-makings, planning, and procuring the right kind of equipment I barely had time to appreciate the usual magic that accompanies this event for me. But looking back at some of the photos and videos I've been finding and hearing people's reactions to it I realize that it was just as magical and amazing as ever.
I've been spending a tremendous amount of time fretting about the near future - jobs, money, moving, etc. I worry about how I'm not doing enough, how I'm not challenged, I'm not growing, I'm not good enough, Tucson isn't enough. Yet watching this video reminded me that I AM doing amazing things, learning, growing...and I am very lucky to work with and train under Flam Chen. I'm looking forward to the next couple of months.
I finally completed this series of seven drawings that I have been working on off and on since March. I call it the Witch series, dedicated to the young witch queens whose power and beauty has been demonized for centuries by the Western world.
These will undoubtedly be in MythoLogic, and also available as a set of post cards to be purchased either through me, or through Lulubell. I'm hoping to get them printed on a similar kind of paper that the original drawings are on (Arches Rives BFK, which I'm kind of in love with), but we'll see what happens.
I have been reading all of the books by Judika Illes that I can get my hands on - they are wonderfully well researched, fun to read, and are fascinating if you have any interest in history, anthropology, and spirituality, and gender studies (regardless of what your stance on witchcraft or magic may be.) Her writing, in many ways, is what is inspiring much of the drawings and paintings for this show, and I am incredibly grateful to have come across her work.
My awesome friend/roommate Kim Piet is actually coloring her coloring book! I really like how this came out, and I think I'm going to apply the same colors in Illustrator and look into getting some stickers like this printed out for the upcoming show at Lulubell.
Speaking of said show...its all official and settled: we're doing it in February (February 6th to be precise), and it's going to be called MythoLogic. I've been working on a series of 7 drawings (which I'll hopefully finish very soon!), experimenting with painting gold on black, and looking into the cost of getting stickers and buttons made. I'm also planning to have a paper forest and various witch-creatures.
Here's a small preview of what's to come:
she & his beard
I will most likely add color and some texture to this piece digitally, but I also quite like it just as a drawing.
It is a beautiful, cool Tucson night. There are some lazy rain drops falling on the patio next to my room. Every year, I wait for these couple of weeks of perfect desert weather, and it always surprises me when they come.
I want to express my sincerest apologies for neglecting you for so long...this summer sped by in a mad rush of travels and adventures, and upon returning to Tucson, I found myself back in a new house surrounded by a sea of boxes, with million new projects and ideas and hardly enough time to sort through everything.
Most of my time these days is split between either sitting hunched over a desk or computer, or climbing things and hanging upside down (seems like a good balance - right?) I'm designing/drawing and rehearsing for the All Souls Procession and other ventures, working on various freelance projects (one of which could potentially involve illustrating a graphic novel about circus aerialists - I won't pretend that I'm not tremendously excited), learning Flash, and planning/madly scribbling down ideas for a show in the spring at Lulubell with two of my good friends/roommates Kim and Margarita. There's definitely more going on that I'm forgetting, I'm sure, but that's what happens to be floating at the top of my head at the moment.
I just returned from performing the Rusalki piece in Arcosanti with Flam Chen for Earthdance. This was my second time performing in the space, and it is such a magical experience to be there - I hope I have the chance to come back again. Who knew that a pretty simple idea for Continuum more than half a year ago would continue to grow and grow and take us to a place like Arcosanti...? (And what other wonderful places are out there just waiting for us to perform there....?)
But! Enough words...to try and make up at least somewhat for my inappropriately prolonged absence, here are some pictures of my summery whereabouts in no particular order. I hope you enjoy...
Jerome, AZ
Arcosanti, AZ
Arcosanti
Arcosanti
Arcosanti
Arcosanti
Arcosanti
Flam Chen performing for Paolo Soleri's 90th birthday in the Arcosanti vaults...
140ft above the ground, suspended from a crane - yours truly on the left
San Francisco airport
China Town
Seattle Science Fiction Museum
train ride from San Francisco to Portland.
Next time: new work! more project details! Potentially ridiculous flash animations! Excessive use of exclamation marks! (Well, I'm not so sure about that last one...)
Hello! It has been such a long time since my previous update, that I fear I'll never be able to fully catch up documenting my whereabouts this summer so instead, I will just jump right into what's going on right now.
First and foremost, a very primitive version of my website is finally up and running. check it out!
I will be adding and editing things on it constantly, so I'm sure its going to evolve pretty significantly in the next couple of months.
I am currently in San Diego for Comic-Con, and will be traveling up the coast to San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle in the coming weeks. Comic-Con is incredible (and overwhelming)...I wish I could clone myself and be at 6 different places at once, just so that I could see everything I want to see. We went to a screening of "Ponyo" by Hayao Miyazaki yesterday and it was aaamazing.
I hope I have the chance to come back here next year!
"In Japan, for an international conference on religion, Joseph Campbell overheard another American delegate, a social philosopher from New York, say to a Shinto Priest, 'We’ve been now to a good many ceremonies and have seen quite a few of your shrines. But I don’t get your ideology. I don’t get your theology.'
The Japanese paused as though deep in thought and then slowly shook his head. 'I think we don’t have ideology,' he said. 'We don’t have theology. We dance.'"
from The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers
