IP Blog Marjorie

Hey y’all. This blog post is very late but yeah. Shit sucks! I live at home again and I can’t make this story the way i want to. I’ve been working on cleaning up my comic and putting it together and keeping up with the rest of my school work but it’s hard to like or be happy about it. And honestly??? I don’t want anybody to convince me otherwise!!!! Maybe I’ll be happy about it eventually but I’m still hella sad! And that should be respected. It’s not going to effect my output, I can be angry and draw at the same time I’m a multitasker. 

Speaking of facing the music, I’m angling to finish at least three short stories this month. Let’s see how that goes.

Edit: I forgot to add my exhibition details for this post! I’m thinking of creating a little reading room, but I’m trying to rethink the way I direct attention in my space and what I want the new focus of my project to be. I’m thinking of getting a chair and a small table for displaying and reading my comics in, and right now I’m trying to think of new ways to display all the excess work I’ve been doing for this project. 

I’ve also started working on designing blankets again, though I don’t know how they are going to factor into the design of my studio space for the exhibition. I’m still very excited to finish them, I’m just changing the way I think about where they’ll end up in my space. And it’ll be nice to get something done before I throw myself into finishing these comics. 

Hey! It has been a while since I last posted. Since then, I’ve gone through my IP review and I’ve began writing about my thesis. Leaving the December Reviews I felt a bit disappointed in myself re: my presentation skills but I was happy to feel like I had the support of my reviewer and a few more references to look at in regards to my project. I feel like just now I’m really reaping the benefits of my sources, I feel like only now am I really using them to their fullest potential. I don’t have concrete ideas for new stories yet, but I feel super inspired by what I’ve been reading and making in the last few weeks. I think I want to make a bit more iterative work, and really focus on how to connect the themes I wish to express through my work to a cohesive plot. Maybe I need to do some character building? If I want to focus on stories about queer folx how do I do it without telling the same stories over and over? I’ve been playing DND recently, maybe that will give me some inspiration re: the kinds of stories I can create. Additionally, I’ve been thinking back to the kinds of stories I clung to as a teenager and I’m wondering if some of that stuff is key to the kinds of plots I can plan now. I’m gonna keep thinking this out and keep an eye on my new studio calendar. 

This week was a lot more productive and exciting than I could have imagined! I FINALLY was able to print something on the riso graph, I’ve started work on my next comic project, and I’ve been feeling a bit more engaged with my working process and how I want to make things (I switched up the type of paper I was working on and it changed my life!). I still have a lot of adjustments to make to my presentation, and I have to make an effort to document my work tomorrow, but I think I’m on track to make some good pieces! The only other thing I have to worry about is finishing my comic before its due Tuesday evening, which will be a bit of a drag, but I think I can do it if I can focus on it over the weekend. I’m also going to be showing my work thru a student org over the weekend which I’m super excited about! It’s been a good week. 

I’ve started to dig myself out of the slump I got myself into lately! It helps that there’s a break coming up that will finally give me the rest I need, but it’s also been good to get some feedback from different people re: directions my project is going. I’ve started writing a new story idea about my grandmother that I want to turn into a more free form comic, and I’ve started writing some more poetry again! Writing is so fun, I should do it more often!!! I’m going to make it a goal to start trying to pitch my work places and put it into a greater context. I want to start using the riso to make work as well!! I’ve got a great idea for a print I can make in the meantime!!!! I can’t wait for next semester to start so I can direct more of my focus towards ip. And that’s that on that!!!

This week was really disheartening re: working. I was sluggish and unmotivated to a degree that me in a self-induced crisis situation, and when all of that cleared I faced personal and worldly disappointments. I still was able to accomplish some things (I have a script and a direction for the next piece/comic, I started on some clay figures, I received a grant to continue making blankets/tapestries of the characters I’ve been creating) which have left me less somber and more ready for action, but it’s been a hard year this week (if you know what I mean). Maybe I need to spend a few days in the studio without expectation and see what I create. I’ve been doing more reading and exploring of sources, I grabbed “Desert Hearts” off the shelves again and I’ve made my way through a very saucy cowboy book. Suzanne Lacy’s presentation was inspiring but I couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated while listening to her talking about the future of activism. It’s not that I don’t need a call to action as a young person to involve myself in activism, but when older generations tell the young that they’re “going to have to solve” certain problems on their own it feels less like a call to action and more of a trade off; I fought, now it’s your turn. What’s needed is solidarity. Greta Thunberg, the seniors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schools, Little Miss Flint, yes they’re doing amazing things and yes they need to be praised and their message needs to be heard, but they’re children acting up because the adults around them act like it’s out of their hands. When Greta Thunberg talks about her stolen childhood she is talking about climate change but also about being in the limelight in the first place. Adults have the power, they were supposed to protect them. I don’t know, I know Lacy didn’t mean anything of the sort when she said this but I can’t help but feel robbed and scared and sad. Two children (14 and 16 years old) are dead today from the hands of another child and the pockets of a politician who sends thoughts and prayers. Adults could have fixed this. Now their children are left to die and fix the world themselves. It makes me so tired. 

I submitted for a grant to make more blankets (in this vein of making set pieces) but I’ll have to wait to see how that turns out. In the meantime, I’m going to keep looking carefully at my resources to find sources of inspiration for the annotated bib. due in a few weeks (also to find artists to be more directly inspired by). I’ve already found “Coyote Doggirl” by Lisa Hanawalt and I’m excited to dive into my other references! 

Midterm critiques were this week! I feel a little like I didn’t exactly ask the right questions but I got a lot of great feedback from my peers, and was able to give feedback that I think help me work through some of the questions I couldn’t voice. I’ve started writing a comic that I think I can build more stories off of. It will be about monster myths shooting the shit and reconciling with their violent, traumatic pasts. It’s kind of an old hat for me at this point but! I still think its gonna be interesting! I’m definitely going to have to finish this comic before next thursday (or at least get it to a good stopping point for Phoebe) so I’ll have more to post by then. 

I’m going to start making comics about some of these repurposed characters in the next week, I think that’s a good direction to follow. I also need to purchase some bolo tie kits, I think. I should also plan more ceramics pieces to make, i’m still interested in it and I’ve liked what i’ve made so far!

I talked with my mom last weekend and she pointed out that the popularity of Westerns were perhaps a push for “Western” culture in a time of global red panics. Westerns are so engrained in American culture because they were trying to be. I wanna think about that more. 

Some pictures from the studio, post 50 explorations!