I need to coin a unique greeting for my blog posts, ha ha. My instinct leans toward either “Hello my lovelies,” but that really entered my vocabulary through Emmy Cho, who I love; or, “darlings and degenerates,” which I adore, but is one hundred percent the brainchild of Eddie Engels — speaking of, yes, I do still intend to round up my favorite trans masc creators for a Pride month post. Rest assured drling Eddie will one hundred percent be featured.
Anyway, this post is not that post, so in the interest of staying on topic:
My art can now be seen in three galleries across Massachusetts!!
We are in the last days for “Memories,” at Till Wave, but I am now currently exhibiting at CHALK in Newburyport as part of their Proud Out Loud exhibit, as well as Unfiltered Femininity at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery in Worcester:
…and of course, don’t forget that on July 12th, I will be exhibiting at Essex Art Center as part of their annual Salon Show and Art Sale, debuting at Fiesta en la Calle!! Fiesta is one of my favorite summer events, and I’m thrilled to be showing there again.
Fiesta and Unfiltered are both showing new work by me; Proud is two pieces that have been previously shown at other Pride shows, but remain two of my favorite (and most personal) pieces.
Lot’s of fun things coming up; I’m hoping to be more active on my socials, so please check those out, and while I’m going to be in three art shows concurrently this summer, I’m pretty sure Fiesta is going to be the last show I apply to before the fall, so I will have plenty of time to make stuff to scratch my own personal itches. Hope to share some cool stuff with you all soon.
Oh, I can smell summer in the air. I can smell it. And it smells like fresh cut grass, and basil, and cherry blossoms. Oh, man. I am so ready for it.
Kira and I spent last weekend in Concord, New Hampshire for art pick-up – my show at Teatotaller is wrapping up, and we were given a seven day window for pick-up, so we chose Saturday to take advantage of the nice weather and get some time alone to go to lunch and do some shopping.
We stopped for the second time at 603 Barbeque, which is honestly quite easily the best barbeque I’ve ever had. Their barbacoa is to die for, the mac and cheese is phenomenal, and literally everything else was just – ugh, chef’s kiss. We got the sampler platter, and let me tell you, for $42, it is worth every damn cent:
After that, we made a stop at the DIY Craft & Thrift which continues to be overwhelming in the best possible way – there is just so much stuff, so much ephemera and detritus, perfect if you are looking for vintage sewing patterns or scores of crochet hooks, or broken glass and porcelain for mosaic. I really need to go in there some time with particular projects in mind and just fill up a bag, but in lieu of that, I shopped their local art consignment booths and got a few really cute things.
First off, these mix-and-match pieces of pride jewelry. I got a non-binary earring that I’m intending to pair with my “THEM” pronoun stud (I love asymmetrical looks), and a genderqueer pendant, both by Wyrding Studio:
I also got this adorable 3×3 embroidery by Hilary Garofalo:
And this absolutely amazing 5×7” print called “Hand, Foot, and Mouth,” by Christina Jeck:
I love shopping small artists, and I always feel so overwhelmed by how talented so many of our locals are.
On that note, I just found out the Gggrimes is doing a show in Provincetown…!? Ahh!!! I don’t know if they are local or if they are traveling for this show – I also don’t know how feasible it is for me to make it there, but I would absolutely love to go. I’m still planning on buying at least two of their prints in the foreseeable future (likely in the next couple of weeks, if I’m being honest). But it’d be lovely to actually meet them in person and be present at the premiere of a brand new piece.
…relatedly, I follow so many amazing and beautiful non-binary and transmasc folk…??? I think I need to do a blog post specifically gushing about them at some point in the near furure.
In my own creative news:
I’ve submitted just two pieces to Unfiltered Femininity. The third piece I started absolutely has potential, but there is no way I, as a novice cross-stitcher concurrently working on several other projects, was going to finish my 10’’ embroidery in, like, three days. I am not abandoning said piece, but I am going to give myself grace to finish it competently and keep it on hand for submission to another show in the future. Honestly, I am making a lot of progress with regards to my cross-stitching, but I’m still having issues on how to finish them off (i.e, cover the back). Might want to figure that out before I submit one to a show.
Essex Art Salon acceptances have come in, and “#NoFilterII” will be part of the gallery salon and art sale this July!! I think I’m in agreement with the jury that this was the better piece for this particular show, but I’m kind of hoping to go and tweak “Six of Swords” for another gallery show in the future.
For what might be my first zine application for 2025, I will be applying to the 20,000 Leagues zine, dedicated to the wonder and diversity of undersea life.
And between a work colleague’s “thank you” gift card, and a stipend for a conference I participated in, I have $125 dollars that I’m considering put in part toward craft acrylics in order to paint a 12’ x 12’ mural on my studio wall (and in part towards hunting down and buying the goddamn “Psych” Funko! set that seems to be out of stock everywhere:)
Anyway. Lot’s of exciting things on the horizon, including personal projects and things I’m hoping to spearhead before the end of the year (nd some before the end of the summer). Hope all is well in your corner of the world.
It took a while for Spring to get here, but when Spring finally came, man, Spring came hard.*
It’s been in the high 70s and low 80s for the last couple of days; today is a more mellow 67, but still well within the purview of a New England spring. With the sudden burst of warm weather, and the forecast suggesting that while we’re going to dip back into some chilly weather in the days ahead, the danger of hard frost is past, we decided to start planting.
Kira had been wanting to get some fruit-bearing trees to more clearly delineate the boundary between our property and the neighbors — our thought is that at one point, one of our two homes was landlord-occupied, and the other was rental property, hence the lack of boundary between our yards, but that no longer being the case, we want to establish a clear boundary line without going through the trouble and expense of building a fence, so instead we’ve bought a few apple and sweet cherry saplings to do the job:**
Not the clearest image; didn’t account for how well-camouflaged they’d be against the grass, ha ha.
We’ve also finally supplanted our little windowsill herb garden into our standing planter, and sown seeds to get our peppers started (hence the two barren-looking troughs):
Oh, and the planter was a great purchase at Aldi’s, very afforadable if a bit on the plain/pragmatic side, so of course, I opted to paint it:
Not pictured (because I didn’t document them at the time, and it’s currently wet outside nd I’m not venturing out in my stocking feet, ha): the three berry bushes (blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry) that were also Aldi impulse purchases, and the two climbing rosebushes Kira and Bear came home with yesterday, as well.
I’m not complaining — I love the idea of fruit-bearing gardens and sustainable living, even on a small scale — but I do wonder which of us tending this garden is going to ultimately fall to…?
Other notable things in my life at the moment:
29 days of the standard school year left. Well, class days, not calendar days, but those are what counts, yes? I’ve put in for ESY work this year, which I’m excited for, honestly, as it gives me just enough external structure to grant my neurodivergent ass some structure without feeling stifling.
Finished the Murderbot Diary novellas, more or less just in time for the TV series, which I’m hype about. I’m taking a break before I start the Murderbot novels to read some other stuff (I’d like to at least read one of the Psych novels (yes, I bought them — did you think I was joking?) before jumping into The Locked Tomb series)
I’m taking a class called Disability in Media, which is very interesting, but I’m lead to believe that I might be the only neurodivergent person in the class…? Which is an interesting perspective. I’m also one of only three Student Services staff in the class, which is doubly interesting. This past Tuesday we watched 2024’s Ezra, which I really enjoyed.
The Big Stressful Work Event that consumed my micro-team’s time for the last several weeks happened on Thursday, and ohhh my God, the adrenal letdown was severe, ha ha. My coordinator took me and my deskmate out to lunch afterwards to celebrate/thank us, which was quite sweet.
I am waiting to hear which one will be on display, but I will be exhibiting at Essex Art in their Salon Show again in July. The two possible pieces are called Six of Swords and #NoFilter II. Whichever piece gets in (potentially (but unlikely) both) will be on sale for $75, with 50% proceeds going back to Essex Art Center.
Today’s backyard bird report, according to my Merlin:
Happy Spring. Glad it’s finally here.
Take care of yourselves, and each other.
*Typing this line immediately put me in mind of When the War Came, by The Decemberists:
**I’m very certain the neighbors, who have kids, will likely plunder the fruit trees when they bear fruit. Let them. There will be more fruit. That’s the beauty of planting the trees.
I hope all those who celebrates — be it as a strict religious observance, or a celebration honoring time spent with loved ones and the impending Spring — had a lovely Easter. Greek Orthodox Easter and Catholic Easter happened to fortuitously fall on the same Sunday, so we spent the day at our friend Brandon’s house with his family (he’s the one whose youngest son was the subject of my latest gallery entry!). He and his brother and dad spit roasted a whole lamb, and there was spanikopita, stuffed grape leaves, baba ganoush, meatballs, and of course, lots of Ouzo. It was a gorgeous day, and it was wonderful to watch our kids play together. Brandon used to live in the apartment below my parents, and his kids were really — along with his cousins — my son’s first friends, and vice versa. They’re an absolutely integral part of my son’s childhood, and it was nice to give them a fun day together.
Anyway, I’m on Spring break until next Monday, and I’m thrilled. So far this week, I’ve done two sketches and two junk journal spreads (not quite finished with them, but close), and I’m once again so, so happy to be making stuff for me.
Having time and space to create has certain buoyed me up, but beyond that:
I cannot explain to you how addicted I am to video essays and deep dives into the best of Lost Media and Internet mysteries. I love the concept behind things like r/RBI and r/tipofmytongue, but I just don’t have the time and patience to slog through those subreddits to find the “good” stuff. Thankfully, Kylie is happy to do so, and to bring to YouTube some of the best, both solved and unsolved, for her audience to enjoy. If you are a fan of lost media and internet sleuthing, I highly recommend her channel.
This is her latest video as of this writing, and it’s the one that hooked me:
So much of my last two spreads were inspired by this book, and I am utterly in love with it. What I really love is the (relatively) matte finish on the stickers, which is nice and very different from a lot of the other scrapbooking and junk journaling ephemera I buy, which tends toward glossy paper and vinyl. I am especially fond of the (sadly few) pages that are all monochromatically themed, it really helped carry several of the last several spreads.
Oh my God. Oh my God. I love the raw visceral feel of basically everything Gggrimes does — a lot of their work is NSFW (and is great… but NSFW, haha), but even their SFW stuff has that same feel to it, and I absolutely adore it. Gggrimes depicts folks from cross the racial and gender spectrums, as well as kinksters and folks of different body types, and I absolutely adore them. They have a ton of work, which is wonderful, but is also the only reason I don’t own anything of theirs yet; with a finite budget, I want to be very discerning about the pieces I buy. Which is hard, because I’m pretty sure I’d happily buy most of their portfolio.
I don’t know if y’all know how into the old USA TV show “Psych” I am, but oooh, I fucking am. And I literally today — as I was writing this — discovered that there are five novels based off the TV show, and if you think they aren’t going directly into my cart, well, I don’t know what to tell you. I haven’t dug enough to see if I can still buy them new or if it’s going to have to be second hand for me, but if I haven’t place an order for them by the end of the day, I will be shocked.
Ok… cautiously optimistic, but also just really interested in seeing how they handle this, since so much of the charm of the novels is in Murderbot’s internal monologue — from the trailer, it seems like they’ve retained that, which is great. I do like Skarsgard, so I’m not mad about that, and I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen of the rest of the cast as well. But we all know that book-to-TV adaptations re sometimes… eh. So I will reserve full judgement for sometimes afterwards… but that doesn’t stop me from being pretty pumped at the prospect right now.
Anyway, hope you all are doing well. Take care of yourselves, and each other.
Before I started blogging again, I knew one of the things I wanted to do on a semi-regular basis was plug things/acknowledge things tht brought me joy. I think conscientious gratitude is important, and sharing the things that make us happy is importnt, especilly in the midst of a social media landscape that focuses so much (not without reason) on the negative.
To that end, here are some silly things that have buoyed me along this week.
These somehow flew under the radar when I was talking about the queer-owned/queer-positive shops few weeks ago, because when I went bck to check, I was shocked I hadn’t mentioned them. I purchased several stickers and buttons from them, and I’m in love — the colors are vibrant, and they are really stellar quality — the pins are now on my backpack instead of my pinboard (because I couldn’t bear to be apart from them, lol). I got Lister against the Bi pride flag (because bisexual Lister supremacy, obviously) and Rimmer against the Ace flag (because irony/the bit, but also because there is no way, in my mind, that he isn’t a bi/homoromantic asexual).
Anyway, I love these pins and the matching stickers, as well as the chibi style stickers on my water bottle, they are adorable.
This is the kit that I and my guests worked on during the housewarming a couple of weeks ago. It hs since become the centerpiece of our Kitchen island, and it’s so bright and cheery and genuinely brings me so much joy to see it every day, especially this past week, where mornings were nothing less than dark and dismal:
3. ThinkStory’s Severance breakdowns, analysis, and theories videos
Anyone else obsessed with this show?? I binged both Seasons over the course of about two weeks (well, until I caught up, and then watched The After Hours and Cold Harbor more-or-less synchronously). I love having some videos to break down and discuss things that I missed in my rather frenetic watch through, talk about theories (without having to brave the wilds of Reddit), and just overall be really great background/passive listening for things like chores and cooking dinner:
J’s has been a favorite of ours since my wife took me here nearly decade ago for our fifth anniversary. Since then, it’s been our go-to spot for celebrations, milestone birthdays, and fancy nights out with friends. My wife and I just went there to belatedly celebrate our new house (and our tax return, which footed the bill, ha ha)
5. Aldi’s latest collection of spring items
Including but not limited to countertop compost bins (in lemon print!), huge ceramic planters, hammock chairs, and patio stools. Ugh, we switched to shopping at Aldi a couple of months ago and I have never fallen so in love with a store before. I can’t believe the time and money I’ve been wasting elsewhere. I’m in and out of there in 35 minutes now, and routine purchase six meals worth of food plus snacks and essentials for our family of three, and rarely spend more than $130. It’s sensational.
Hope you can all think of the little things in your life that keep you going throughout the week. This week has been utterly exhausting just on a personal level (work has been — absolutely bonkers. No other way to put it), so I’m grateful, as always, for small pleasures.
So happy to announces my second show of the year — one of my digital paintings will be included in the “Moments – Past, Present, Future” exhibit at the Till Wave Gallery in Watertown, Massachusetts!!
I’m excited; this illustration is of the youngest son of a one of my friends, a kid whom I, for all intents and purposes, helped raise, who still calls me “Auntie,” and when the exhibit ends (pending someone buying the print, haha) I intend to gift the portrait to his dad (hell, even if it does sell, I intend to get another one printed and gift it to his dad. It’s an adorable picture).
This weekend is going to be an art-centric weekend where I try to wrap up my assemblage and start in on the three other pieces I haven’t have time to begin this week. Hope you all are equally motivated for whatever your project du jour is.
So pleased with the turn out for our housewarming yesterday! We wound up hosting a total of seventeen guests, including five kids, which was a lovely time, but damn am I worn out now, ha.
This house is so much more conducive to hosting events than the other one; the open concept dining/living area is a revelation. I also go to finally show off my studio, because I finally got it cleaned and organized! I am both gratified (and a little sad, ha ha) that Aimee expressed jealousy of the studio space — she’s an artist by trade, and works in a much smaller space than we have. But instead of feeling vaguely guilty, I’m just going to make sure that I actually take advantage of the space and use it to create physical media, ha ha. I started in on that today, actually (my first mixed-media assemblage!), but that’s another story for another day, I think.
Of course, our friends being our friends couldn’t resist ignoring our explicit instructions regarding “absolutely no gifts,” so wound up getting some beautiful tokens — a sweet plaque from Jo and Terry; a cute tchotchke, a super soft pillow, and truffle chocolates from Sarah; a beautiful crystal centerpiece bowl, a milk frother, and a coffee set from Sheryl; and a self-contained Hunt-a-Killer mystery game (eee!!! I missed Hunt-a-Killer!) from Aimee and Patrick (I already told Kira, that and some good Chinese take-out is our next stay-at-home date night).
Today has been spent recouping from the extreme socializing of yesterday. I finished up an illustration I’ve been working on for a little over a week (“working on;” as in, I started it a week ago and then came home every day and dicked around on my phone while I talked about how I “should” work on it), and started one of my pieces for my next art call. I took a little time out to finally pot the seeds for our starter window sill herb garden, and otherwise took it easy.
Anyway, hope all is well for you and yours. Here are some pics of details I’m working on for the assemblage — still in the experimental stages (it’s supposed to be blood; yes, I’ll be adding a gloss coat!)
While I was in Concord a few weeks ago for the art opening at Teetotaller, we made it a point to stop by CoLab and pop in on Queerlective before the show. I could sing the praises of a secondhand crafts and art supply store forever (and will!! DIY Craft and Thrift!! 46 N Main St, Concord, NH!!), but I was really stopping to check out the Queerlective space and the artists booths, and a linocut caught my eye that made me realize I’d never made this post–!
The linocut was by Coyotesnout, a New Hampshire-based queer artist that I recently recieved a large order from!! I meant to post day off, but things got a little crazy, so here I am now.
I bought some stickers, some pins, and some prints. The stickers are water-proof, and quite at home on my water bottle (a 64 oz. which I carry with me daily), the prints are beautiful and on heavy duty glossy cardstock, and the pins are gorgeous and robust — I wore “Live Queer or Die” to the Queerlective opening, forgot to take it off, and promptly ran it throught the laundry, from which is emerged, unscathed.
Seriously seriously seriously — I very much recommend this shop.
In art news, there are two zine apps I’m putting in for, a show I’m awaiting acceptance for, another show for which I’m awaiting submissions opening, and I’m currently in limbo about a possible commission from Planned Parenthood, haha. After a slow start to 2025, everything seems to be picking up all at once.
Hope you and yours are fairing as well as mine and ours.
A friendly reminder that this show — featuring one of my illustrations, “Rite of Passage” — is on display starting today at Teatotaller Concord. Opening reception is Saturday night, 6 to 8 pm, and is sure to be a good time. If you are local, please stop by!
Here are the next two shows (as of right now; there is enough of a gap between these shows that another opportunity might open up in the interim:
I am very excited to submit to both these shows; I have exhibited at both these galleries before and had wonderful experiences with both the patrons and staff.
As a sidebar, I am so thrilled that two of these three shows touch on issues of gender and sexuality, issues near and dear to my heart. I have never been shamed of my identity, but since really embracing and celebrating it, I have genuinely never been happier. Being able to create queer art and mingle with other queer artists in creative, supportive spaces is a unique joy that I am incredibly grateful to be able to experience.
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Take care of yourselves, and each other.
I am thrilled to announce that my digital painting “Rite of Passage” will be part of the upcoming exhbit “Queer Joy is an Act of Resistance,” being held at Teatotaller Concord, in collaboration with Teatotaller and Queerlective!
Via the Queerlective website:
Call for Art: “Queer Joy as an Act of Resistance” Hosted by Queerlective & Teatotaller Exhibition Dates: March 12 – May 17, 2025 Opening Reception: March 15, 6–8 PM
Queerlective is thrilled to partner with Teatotaller to curate Queer Joy as an Act of Resistance, an exhibition celebrating the power of queer expression, resilience, and unapologetic joy. This show invites artists to explore the ways in which queer joy becomes a form of defiance, a radical act of self-expression, and a tool for building community in the face of adversity.
There’s been no official kibosh on sharing the selected work, but I think I’ll keep in under wraps until after the opening reception anyway.
If you are in the Concord, NH area, please consider stopping by and check out the show!!
All Your Crooked Heart 