The Pufflebug

Kerry Guinan

Artists, 2019

Series of six blank canvases (70x70cm) signed by the factory workers that made them in Daler Rowney, Free Industrial Zone, La Romana, the Dominican Republic.

Images: Photograph of 3 canvases from the series in the solo exhibition 'Our Celestial Sphere' at Pallas Projects, Dublin, 2019.

Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Limerick Institute of Technology, and Fingal County Council. Images: Pallas Projects/Studios & Kerry Guinan.

(Original caption from artist’s website)

And after contacting the Irish Museum of Modern Art and being referred to a curator (!), they provided me with the caption information that was used when displaying the work for the Staying With The Trouble exhibition in 2025 (thank you so much IMMA staff!!)

Artists is a series of blank, square canvases, each signed by a staff member in the manufacturing facility that produced the canvases in the La Romana Free Trade Zone, the Dominican Republic. The manufacturer, Daler Rowney, is a popular supplier of art materials in Ireland. The artist coordinated the project remotely by contacting the facility manager. The signatories volunteered to take part in the project upon invitation. They are Johan Rivera, Carlos Roa, Aneury Rondon, and Orlando Saldivar.

Filippo Palizzi (Italian painter 1818–1899)

Excavations in Pompeii, 1870

Oil on Canvas

119.5 × 86 cm.

Just. A fun thought idea.

Grace calculating the distance between him and Rocky’s spaceships when they part. Grace shuttering and sighing with relief when they finally reunite!!

Grace having to be taken to a special recovery environment when he gets to Erid and when he wakes up he realises he can’t see Rocky. There’s no camera to check on him, he has no idea where he is and promptly loses his shit in the span of five minutes.

The Eridian medics and scientists not being able to go into his environment because the xenonite suits haven’t been finished yet and Rocky’s xenonite ball doesn’t fit in the elevator with being disassembled so no one can get to Grace.

Grace on some kind of pain medicine and isn’t fully there when he starts screaming and crying and no one understands what he’s saying, meanwhile Rocky is also freaking the fuck out and wailing incoherently because Grace is making those horrible choking sob sounds and he can’t do anything about it. He can’t fix it, he can’t go in and comfort his saving grace.

“Rocky?! Rocky where are you?? why aren’t you watching?! Rocky????” Rocky is “watching” Grace on some kind of hearing monitor scream himself hoarse.

Rocky is always there to watch him sleep, Grace is thinking. What happened to him?! Is he hurt?!

A couple hours later when they finally make a suit Rocky can’t get it on fast enough, he scrambles in the room where Grace is still crying, soft sobs that barely make any sound. Neither of them have been without the other for that long in four years.

Grace: hi! It’s so nice to meet you Adrian, I’m Grace and I’m 38!!

*Adrian goes very still.*

Adrian: Grace be behind Adrian.

Grace: uhhh.. *thinking this is some kind of greeting he doesn’t know about* okay!

Adrian: *very slowly raises back leg in scorpion like fashion at Rocky*

Based on @ hoeuilonja97125's writing on X about Grace's last wish when he's terminally ill after a long life on Erid

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Project Hail Mary (2026) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Ryland Grace/Rocky Characters: Ryland Grace, Rocky (Project Hail Mary) Additional Tags: Fluff, Miscommunication, Journey to Erid (Project Hail Mary), idiots to lovers Summary:

Grace is a well-schooled man who loves learning. Surely he can accomplish his goal in fifty-six days.

He creates a calendar on his whiteboard. Fifty-six days until his ship reaches the Blip-A.

Fifty-six days in which to learn how to say Rocky’s name—his Eridian name.