back

note: information about titles & artists of pieces shared can be found in the title attribute, revealed by hovering over the image with your mouse or by looking at the source code

i’m trying to calculate/decipher/put my finger on how much i’m willing to share about what parts of my life, here. i find the way i inhabit online spaces now a bit odd; it’s not fully ‘irl’ and not fully ‘online.’ i know some people i go to school with (or went to school with— wooh graduation!) will read this for whatever reason they choose to, and i know plenty who only know me from neocities or tumblr or wherever else will read this, too

there’s no real way to separate the two at this point, nor do i want to, but i don’t know what to do with this space i’ve created. do i speak frankly about my daily life at school & in the world knowing some of the people in my daily life will read it? do i only explore my values & beliefs & passions, and craft some kind of artistic persona? do i write to an audience that doesn’t know me at all? do i write to anyone at all?

this thought spiral began because i was trying to decide how much to share about my feelings surrounding graduation. i think i’ll share a medium amount. it’s exciting, and nerve-racking, of course, but it feels a little freer than i thought it would

i’d been telling myself that i wasn’t excited for the end of high school because my parents already gave me so much freedom; i told them where i was going instead of asking (except for car logistics & the like), was left to my own devices with schoolwork, and more. i didn’t have that feeling of wanting to get away from the constraints of my household or anything like that

i just didn’t realize, i guess, how oppressive the air of all the drama had been, how much it was affecting me, or how exciting it’d be to release it. i can begin again, hopefully with a wider community of people like me or willing to love me inclusive of all my intensity, and hopefully while keeping in touch with the teachers & few friends that have made this community everything i could’ve needed

it’s exciting, too, to be connecting with friends & communities that really value art (& my art, & our art). i’m going to see jeffrey gibson’s the space in which to place me tomorrow with the same gallery friend as last time, and i can’t wait (i’ll update you all, i promise). i’m going to be a featured poet in a little reading series later this summer. i’m going on a road trip with my girlfriend and i feel boundlessly excited to photograph all the state/national parks & museums & more that we visit. i’ve been learning to love art and imbue every part of my world with it for the last few years, and now i’m really watching that come to fruition. i’ve even been seeing that with how i look at everything around me— taking more photos and trying to be more present & in love with everything around me. for example, these lovely flowers i saw at the farmer's market that now adorn my phone gallery:



also, speaking of art galleries, here’s a couple photos from the last one i went to, at the pit art gallery:



i’ve been finding even more beautiful artists, too! ones i love & think about regularly. i’d learned about faith ringgold a while ago from looking at dancing at the louvre from the french collection, but she’s only grown on me further with pieces like the incredible tar beach #2



also been falling in love with two artists on tumblr— who actually feel quite similar to me, come to think of it— fox/kitty and max rue. both are wildly talented and shock me regularly with their work

fox has a more consistent style, though they occasionally wander away from it a little (the first piece i’ve shared being more in line with their usual)



their art has such a personal voice, and i love it. it’s soft, tender, yet defined. a lot of it actually feels like it could be quilt-work like that of ringgold’s, though she’s obviously not your standard quilt artist. i love the explorations of life, community, birth & rebirth, and death in their work, though. it echoes some of the things i talked about in my last blog post, specifically surrounding the roadkill i keep seeing

in fact, i actually wrote a piece inspired (?) by their work. it was for the little digital writing club i run on neocities, muse ariadne, guided by the following prompt i created: 'translate' the style of a visual artist (painting, collage, photography, ceramic, etc) you enjoy into words, and write in that style

here’s the piece, though i ask that you don’t judge it too harshly :] it was only a quick exercise!



on the other hand, max has a very impressively varied style. i can’t get a handle on it, though i wouldn’t say it’s less put together than fox’s. i can still feel the thread of the themes he works with, and the heart he clearly puts into it all. it still feels imbued with his spirit— something i feel all good artists’ work is (hold onto any thoughts; i’ll come back to this)



i’m amazed by it. the last piece is particularly striking to me, though i love them all. i love the collage element, but especially that it’s a collage of their own work. it feels both cohesive & fragmented because of that. and the puppet-mimicking art is such an incredible idea! it’s all so fascinating and gorgeous, and i really do love it— i want to break it open like a pomegranate and explore! take seed by seed out & examine them all

back to my previous little about good artists— i pretty immediately took that back, but i also wanted to leave it in so i can talk about it because i like to blab. i don’t like to use the word ‘good’ to describe art because i deeply hate how describing art as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ attempts to disguise subjective, personal preferences as objective truths. what i truly meant to say is ‘the art i find the most successful’ by nature of being striking, thought-provoking, interesting, etc (or at least that i can appreciate would be those things to others, even if it didn’t personally affect me all that much)

a little separate, but i’ve also personally come to believe (mostly through conversations with my girlfriend) that anything that is created with the intention of being art is art, and anything that is viewed with the intention of viewing art can become art, too. i think art is already so wonderful, and only becomes more wonderful as we expand what it can be. can a farmer worker’s dedication to their fields— the curation of beauty through creating food— be art? can constructing a home be art, even if you didn’t design it? i think they can be, though maybe they won’t all feel they are or want to be or whatever else

anyway, i think that’s enough art talk for one blog post. i have more thoughts brewing, but it’s late, and i’d like to put something out into the world now, more for my peace of mind than anything else, so i’ll end this soon. i hope you’ve enjoyed my art & everything else thoughts for this post. i’ll share more soon— hopefully very soon. feel free to share any thoughts you have, of course