The Things That Can Wait
Prepping for my first art show, June happenings, coming to terms with my pace™, and LET'S GO KNICKS!
Howdy from sunny Brooklyn! Hope you’re enjoying the late spring / early summer wave. It’s always around this time and then peak fall where I feel the most creatively inspired. Of course they’re the most fleeting times of the year…but alas. Excited to recap the month!
“We're cooking, despite dystopia” is an incredible Alex Laird quote I read from the Frog Farm Newsletter, and it perfectly encapsulates my general spirit this month. Times are heavy and things are really hard, and I am stressed just as much as the next person for sure; and yet, I am trying new things, meeting new people, and drawing more than I ever have.
Speaking of new things, I was invited by Another Corner to participate in their upcoming art show, with a theme focusing on video games. Another Corner is an amazing independent bookstore in Philly I found while looking for places to consign Whereabouts at. Beautiful books, magazines, objects… great sense of design… it’s a Suejee store for sure, and an honor to have a couple copies of Whereabouts sold there.
I’ll be making a 4 color risograph piece for the show, and I am pushing myself to do more detailed line art since this will be a single image. I won’t say which video game I’m paying homage to, but I am sure you can guess…
I’ve also been helping out Godspeed Arts build up their risograph program! Godspeed Arts is an artist collective based out in the Bushwick/Ridgewood border; they recently expanded and have artist studios, woodshop, silkscreen, photo dark room, and of course, their new RISO machine!
The RISO is an SF5130, a sweet, reliable single drum machine that prints up to legal! It’s been both a joy and a humbling experience to learn more deeply about the machine; we really are crazy for loving this stuff. Currently, we have a black drum, but we’re hoping to get more colors as the program gradually expands.
I’ll be teaching an Intro to Riso Workshop on June 20, so if you’ve been wanting to try riso or have something you want to print, please join us! Sign up link is HERE. :)
I will also be participating in Frog Farm Fair III this year! The LAST copies of Whereabouts will be sold here, and there won’t be any more until I reprint them. This fair is going to be excellent — Malt Adult is curating a series of loop for the fest; if you’re a fan of frog farm, local comics, animation… this is it for you!
So, what else? Well, the bigger long term projects have been neglected…the Korea comic has not been touched since April. Oddly enough I am feeling okay about it — I trust that I’ll do it in a good amount of time, but some more pressing stuff came up for June.
Balancing all these projects with work took a big toll on my body, and I had a big wake up call with what I can realistically handle as one person. I used to be able to push myself and execute at the level I wanted to, and it was great to work at a pace that felt as urgent as the ideas did.
But I wonder why the ideas feel urgent in the first place. Maybe its because I am excited about them, maybe it’s because there is a capitalist desire to produce. Regardless, it’s addicting to react quickly and look for the next thing to crash and burn on…and I was pretty close to doing that this month.
I am trying to remind myself that the best part of slowing down is to have breathing room to experiment and test out ideas. Why rush the Korea comic when it’s uncharted territory, when it’s so important to me? Why try and force things?
There is a mystery to when creative inspiration comes, when opportunities find you, and the choices we have to make. May wasn’t the right time for the comic, and June might not be either. And that’s okay. :)
Upcoming Events:
June 20 - Intro to Risograph Workshop @ Godspeed
June 21 - Frog Farm Fair III
May Favorites:
Dry Cleaning - Saw them live with a friend this month and it was such a blast! The new album is amazing :)
Happy Together - Slowly but surely getting through all of Wong Kar Wai’s work. Such a sad and beautiful film.
Tiny Furniture - Like every other millennial girly, I did listen to Famesick and then proceeded to watch all of Lena Dunham’s work. I can’t believe this is her debut.
Frances Ha - Such a comfort!
And that is all for May! Thank you so much for reading, and see you next time :)
~Suejee