November Studio Recap
Skate Deck Show Opening, SQUEEZE! Sculptures, & More!
Hi friends! Happy December! I’m still feeling quite thankful in the wake of this week—especially for u! for reading this! I hope you’ve had a lovely month and that you have so so many things to feel grateful for <3
I’ll keep this one quick so you can get back to your leftovers and whatnot. Let’s take a look at November!
Skate Session Show at Firetrucker Brewery
The skate-deck-themed group show I made a piece for in October went up this month, and I had a great time at the opening seeing what all the other artists created (and trying some beer 😎)!
I also shared a quick behind the scenes video if you’re curious to see more of the process:
The show will be up through December if you’d like to go check it out! All the pieces in the show are up for auction too if you’re in the market for a special deck 👀
SQUEEZE! Sculptures
After several months of work I’m vv excited to share these finished sculptures!
This has easily been one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever done. It’s not often that I start a project without at least a decent idea of how it’s going to work! It ended up being a very long process of trial and error, and while they definitely aren’t perfect I learned SO MUCH along the way, and am really excited to keep exploring this concept in the future.
I’m working on a process video for this project, so keep an eye out on my socials if you’re interested in seeing more about how these came together!
Throwback to the initial seed of this series that I shared last April (!), which was a quick drawing that I had a feeling I wanted to bring back someday. I think it’s so exciting to watch ideas grow and develop over time!
5 Things I Loved This Month
1. Listening: Shelter by Alice Phoebe Lou
Alice’s music is so bright and warm and comforting—all things that I need more of during this time of year when it feels like it’s literally dark out all day???
2. Eating: Grandma Pie by Molly Baz
A perfect pizza/flatbread recipe from her book More is More! Topped with mortadella, red onions, a pepperoncini pesto, three kinds of cheese, and lots of basil. Crazy!!!
3. Reading: The ‘Busy’ Trap by Tim Kreider
I really enjoyed this older New York Times essay about being busy! As someone who often self-describes as being busy I think it was a much needed reminder that it isn’t something to aspire to. Here are a couple of quotes I liked in particular:
Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet. It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.
Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day. I once knew a woman who interned at a magazine where she wasn’t allowed to take lunch hours out, lest she be urgently needed for some reason. This was an entertainment magazine whose raison d’être was obviated when “menu” buttons appeared on remotes, so it’s hard to see this pretense of indispensability as anything other than a form of institutional self-delusion. More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary. I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.
4. Shopping: Miyazaki Quote Print
An incredible riso print from Goodbye Press!
5. Watching: Yorgos Lanthimos Movies
I fell down a bit of a Yorgos rabbit hole this month and ended up watching several of his films, including Kinds of Kindness, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Dogtooth. I’ve also watched Poor Things and The Lobster previously, though I didn’t realize he had directed them. It’s fun to watch through a director’s filmography and see how the movies develop stylistically over time! I think my main takeaway is that I’m so so scared of him!
Monthly Inspiration Dump
That’s all! The next time I see you it’ll be a whole new year which makes me feel SICK to my STOMACH! Wishing you a wonderful holiday season nonetheless. Bye!
