August flew by in a blink, and I can’t say I’m not glad about it. My month has been characterized by dogsitting, housesitting, reading a lot, generally hiding out being a little antisocial, and focusing on work. A few nights ago we had a blue supermoon and true to its Piscean nature, I felt as if I were in a fog all day. I woke up at eight, took a nap at 10am, fell asleep on a yoga mat at my studio for half an hour, then put myself to bed at nine, forgetting to even go look at the moon herself. Otherwise, I am finding the rhythm of creative work easier these days. I’m making functional ceramics for the first time and maybe (maybe?) doing a run of t-shirts soon. RE: tattooing, the ideal season for starting large-scale projects is rapidly approaching, which I’m here for! But I also have time for tiny tattoos and know that people are hesitant to reach out to book things that they worry are “too small.” This is me saying don’t be afraid, I always have time to fit them in. :)
Upcoming cancellation spots available: Monday Sept. 4th at 3pm, Monday September 18th at 11am.
Studio polaroids taken by my friend Julz this week.
⭐️ Portfolio reviews
Though I’ve offered this service for some time now, I’ve been shy about boosting it. It’s one of the things I’m enjoying most at the moment—sitting down with tattooers to review their work, both drawn and tattooed, and engaging in constructive criticism and discussion about their creative and technical goals. With over fifteen years of experience doing one-on-one studio visits, group critiques, and supporting other artists in their practices, I get excited about helping people strengthen their work from a compositional, conceptual, and technical approach. Hearing from solo private studio artists especially that they feel isolated from that kind of generative exchange, I would love to take on more of these sessions into the fall. Book here!
⭐️ Not to be missed - KING COBRA WITH HUE HALLUMS: CONJURING THE PAST, MARKING THE PRESENT: ANCESTRAL HEALING THROUGH SHAMANIC REIKI, TATTOO, AND SOUND
From Recess: Sculptor and Body Modifier KING COBRA and Reiki Master Hue Hallums are combining the sacred power of tattoo and shamanic reiki healing during this year’s harvest and initiation season. In 2018 COBRA launched INVISIBLE MAN TATTOO, a pop up tattoo shop at Recess creating tattoos that focused solely on celebrating Black history and the Black American experience. This year COBRA and Master Hue will create a womb-like healing space for tattooing, sound and energy healing. In addition to individual reiki tattoo sessions there will also be sound baths, curated projections, group meditation, shamanic journeying, a community altar, and scheduled programming that centers healing especially for Black and Indigenous individuals. Neurospicy Aliens to the front!
Opening Reception
Thursday, September 14, 5-8 pm
⭐️ Butch Blow Job by Jenny Johnson
One of my favorite essays I’ve read in a while. After being introduced to Johnson’s work, I’m adding the poetry collection In Full Velvet to my book list.
⭐️ Boundary Issues: How boundaries became the rules for mental health—and explain everything by Lily Scherlis for Parapraxis
An interesting read on the origin of “boundaries” language in psychiatry and mental health fields and its rise and fall in popularity alongside broader geopolitical shifts, including some observations on correlations between human individualization and territorial delineation and defense.
⭐️ Beautiful essay by Alexis Aceves Garcia “Alternate Clocks: Notes on Building a Familial Archive, Trans Time, & Refusal” for Arkive
⭐️ Loving Bethenny Frankel’s new era as a labor organizer
~💋~📞~☎️ Call Me: A Playlist ☎️~📞~💋~
Hang up and run to me
I’ve been having a lot of fun making playlists around a theme, and this month the theme is phone calls. Beepers, telepathy, pay phones, dialing sounds of all kinds. The end result is more melodrama than I anticipated and a real tour across genres, from the Backstreet Boys to X.
Mutual Aid:
Iris & Mercy have been living in New York under a tyrannical landlord for the past three years and they have finally found a place to move on! They need support to raise a security deposit and rent in order to secure their new place. Anything helps, and you can donate here.