ila as in i lav you

it's 1pm at the marsh! come on down, we've got

dont even joke lad

build community, always

be personally kind every day, with every action, to everyone including people i don't like and myself

graduate with my BS!!!!!

get into law school

excel in my first semester of law school, treat it like a job

care for myself and surroundings through my actions

routinely eat well, cook more soups and stews

get better at guitar, ukulele, and piano with regular practice

make art more often, for myself

keep in touch with a loved one every day (text, call, letter)

get better with my camera and post my photography here more

swim at least once a week, walk every day (something something trapping yourself inside is unironic torture)

buy a c*r 🤢🤢🤢😭😭😭🤢🤢💀😫😫😫😫🙃🙃🙃😰😵😵😱😱🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

make sure the car is cute and old and reliable, to soften the blow

be present and grateful every day

community- like I'm doing my best, sort of an ephemeral goal

working towards this....

graduated magna cum laude (don't tell me about the volume you cum at)

got into law school 👍🐎🎊

caring more this year for sure

working on the eating thing, big plans for this summer

been playing my instruments, favorite recent song is Morning, Evening (Tom basdens version)

been making more art on the smaller scale, with plans for bigger stuff this summer

been pretty good at keeping in touch, will see how moving changes that lol, need to write letters

ok so I lost the camera battery in January

ok so I didn't do that, I'm only human (I've been doing yoga guys please)

bought my car 💃💃💃🤢🤑

I like it

sort of a day to day thing but I stopped smoking which is like a good step right?

you should also never ever unplug the air conditioner and stick a flashlight in the vent that blows air to see if we're in there. it's very bad, that place should not be checked

and whatever you do, if you've already made the mistake of unplugging it, don't remove it from the window for cleaning if possible. and whether it's possible to remove the unit or not, don't carefully disassemble the front panel, document where the screws go and plastic bits go, and open up the vent more to be able to get into it easily

as black mold, i'm an expert on this. you should heed my warnings: now, if you've somehow made the mistake of doing all of the above, you should not use warm water and dish soap to CLEAN the inside of the vent thoroughly. DON'T ever use a bottle brush to get into the hard to reach places. and certainly don't rinse and dry the cleaned area before carefully putting it back together

there's nothing wrong with us, black mold. we don't cause or exacerbate breathing conditions like asthma or other illnesses. it's cool, we're cool

furthermore, if you're capable of removing the window unit, DONT take a hose with the same soapy water and wash the portion of the window unit that sits outside the window and is therefore weatherproofed.

whatever you do, don't allow the air conditioner to dry before plugging it back in and turning it on again

and if you have a central air conditioner, you will definitely never ever consult a manual or sources online to perform a similar cleaning procedure on the cooling unit outside.

It is a lot of elbow grease and definitely not just spraying a can and waiting. Especially do not use the ones that are self rinsing via the natural condensation of water around the coils where all you have to do is let the foam settle a couple hours before turning the unit back on. These foaming cleaners are also terrible to use on the removable air intake vent covers. You definitely do not just have to spray the opposite side of all the trapped shit on the plastic mesh and let the foam push it off. Also that stuff on the cover is great for you and your air conditioner.

so I've spent the past three years being crazy, insane, obsessed with car dependency from pretty much every angle (physical, social, economic, cultural). It has made me think a lot about space, identity, and relationships (i know very vague). I've been busy and moving a lot, so art has fallen out of priority but going forward Id like to recommit myself and make some more polished and cohesive pieces.

I'm going to use this blog to brainstorm, post updates, seek feedback and also still share other art that I like or draw inspiration from. It will be largely unpolished and experimental, with the goal of dusting off my technical skills and starting to create again (and doing the scoping and planning for future projects that I can work on incrementally once I'm back in school)

broad themes to potentially explore:

spatial value vs discard

locational memory (change over time, spatial dynamics, grief)

identity as intertwined with movement/ transportation

structural, mental, social isolation (been thinking about framing the body, mind, and soul as physical/structural, personal, and relational)

not limiting myself to these, my interests might change, but this is what has been bouncing around in my head. Not everything will be directly car related either lol

formats and mediums to expect:

textile (i lurv quilts, especially as an exploration of place. I have a few in mind and would like to make at least one completed quilt if small)

sketches, notes, poems (ive been sketching but I want it nicely cataloged online. Pen, colored pencil, normal pencil, and then screwing with it with a paintbrush.)

digital (I use firealpaca and ms paint. my glorious return, im getting my monitor back soon. I have a fun comic drafted so look forward to that)

oil (omg! i used to paint a lot in high school, but havnt touched them in years. I have some paints still and if they are in decent shape, I have some ideas for paintings. There are also a lot of classic car paintings and I think it would be fun to explore satirizing them.)

zines (id like to make some informational zines about my city, which is a little less conceptual and more practical information sharing, but still adjacent to this stuff. Process stuff will go here and final printable zines will be available both here and @i-am-your-neighbor)

I am a mixed media demon, though, so we'll see where the wind takes us.

I dont really need a portfolio im not a professional artist but I feel so strongly about a lot of these subjects and I want to express myself. I have a lot of ideas and now that I have some time, I want to refine them a little and talk about it into the internet void. I also love the process but will not do it if I'm not sharing it, which is what happened when I stopped taking art classes and hopefully a void this blog will fill :P