Tatiana Gill’s Blog of Wax

marc ruygrok: typographic sculptures

Hello, friends of comics, Each year The Center for Cartoon Studies invites world-renowned cartoonists into our classroom.  Since September of 2009, I’ve been writing a weekly blog about these visiting artists (including  Seth, Alison Bechdel, John Porcellino, R. Sikoryak and Charles Burns, just to name a few).

I welcome you to visit the CCS Visiting Artist Blog at:
http://ccsvisitingfaculty.wordpress.com/

It is my goal to chronicle this vital aspect of the CCS experience.  I also want to provide valuable and informative content for comic enthusiasts everywhere.

I hope you enjoy the blog!  I recommend you start by reading about our recent visitor, Charles Burns, and his thoughts on Tintin, book deign and inking.
http://ccsvisitingfaculty.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/charles-burns-on-herge-book-design-and-inking/

Sincerely,
 
Robyn Chapman
CCS Program Coordinator
 
Exploring the medium’s past, present, and potential

The Center for Cartoon Studies
P.O. Box 125
White River Junction, VT  05001
 
WEB: www.cartoonstudies.org

Yesterday on the bus to work, I overheard a conversation between a young lady (maybe 20ish, with punk style) and two much older women. The young one asked the difference between knitting and crocheting, which one had two needles, which one had one. An older woman replied that knitting uses two needles while crocheting uses a hook. The young woman then objected to the very concept, who can just sit there for hours? Who has that kind of patience? The old ladies smiled. Then the girl contemplated how she plays guitar, which takes hours of patience, but at least she gets instant gratification of hearing her song right away. Then it was her stop and she left.

That started me thinking about the instant gratification of knitting. The soothing repetition and patterns. The feeling of nice wool running past my fingers. The feeling I’m a part of something greater than myself, a herstorical loom of skill that’s been woven for hundreds or thousands of years.

And then beyond, is appreciating the gratification that I did not learn to enjoy as a young person, but only in my 30s have I even begun to appreciate. The amazing feeling of creating something that DOES take time, that does take skill and discipline and patience, is so much more infinitely gratifiying than something you can make on the spot with little effort.

Yes, I like getting older. I’m looking forward to my 40s and we’ll talk then about my 50s

With a whole new direction…rather than trying to capture women I know and admire, I am trying to capture the essence of spirts I admire, inspired by real life women.

Inspired by my pal Lara’s incredible photography and fellow love of cupcakes.

Inspired by my friend Kim’s love of dancing and music.

This one is inspired by my inner cowgirl and my robot dinosaur Charlie the Pleo <3

I just surfed up this amazing performance. Tremble in textile awe!

”Mater Matrix Mother and Medium” is process-based temporary public art project created by installation artist Mandy Greer. It combines community action, site-embedded installation and a performance produced in collaboration between myself, dancer Zoe Scofield and composer Morgan Henderson, Summer 2009 at Camp Long in Seattle, Wa.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mandygreer/

Well they say the suffering artist is a myth…but I’ve been having a hard time recently and it’s coming out in some new artistic directions, which I love.

Here’s a self portrait of a newly-sober alchoholic (been almost a year now).

And here’s the start of a new series, bus comics! Scrawled out sloppy comics where I draw whatever I’m thinking on the bus.

When I was a little kid, my mom would take us to the beach each summer. She traded paintings for a room at the Seaview Inn, where the owners Les and Miriam lived. Les and Miriam were good friends of the family – Miriam taught me how to knit and Les loaned my brother and I his comics. Les had a giiiant stack of comics collected over his lifetime – 50s, 60s, and 70s. DC, EC, Strange Tales, Horrifying Tales, Tales of War and Violence, all things banned by the American Comics Authority. Walt Kelly, Harvey Kurtzman. My brother and my eyes grew wide and summer days slipped away as we dug through that pile. It changed my life to say the least, and a deeper appreciation of the power of comics was seared into my brain for a lifetime. Sometimes I think I should dump my giant collection of comics that I haul around from apartment to apartment, getting alternately warped, smelly, smokey, and yellow. But I never, ever will. Because one day some kids might come to my house and I’ll be damned if I don’t have a lifetime of amazing comics to lend em.

I first noticed this woman’s art b/c she took amazing photos of my friends Maxx and Kristan.

 So then I followed her flickr and Etsy store and started worshipping her eye for color, costume, people, and light.

Then I saw her in person at M&K’s wedding and was struck by her 4th-dimensional hair and awesome steampunk finery!

THEN her flickr linked me to her amazing blog full of organic whole foods recipies, beautiful sparkly people, and some of the most inspiring art I’ve been privleged to.

 Thank you Libby!

Dalton Webb writes:

Kitty Pryde at Floating World Comics
Floating World Comics in Portland, OR, is hosting a charity art show and auction called “Full of Pryde” to help raise funds for the hemophilia research dept at OHSU. The theme is Kitty Pryde, one of the X-Men characters.

The show is curated by Jason Leivian and Douglas Sherwood and includes Kitty Pryde art by a lot of cartoonists: Rob G, Brandon Graham, Zack Soto, Tom Neely, Becky Cloonan, Chuck BB, Bryan O’Malley, Hope Larson, Farel Dalrymple, and many more! Posters will be available of each piece of art. The show will be on May 7th, in Portland Oregon at Floating World Comics.
And here is my piece:

SWOON. I want to be Ellen when I grow up. This is the coolest, most beautiful, most inspiring book of art ever. Her brushwork knocks me over with a 2×4. The beautiful paper used makes her formerly-newsprint-published work gleam like the magnificent museum-quality specimen it is. ALL HAIL ELLEN FORNEY!

I Love Led Zeppelin: Panty-Dropping Comics By Ellen Forney

Several of Forney’s strips fall into the “How To” category, although this is not your standard advice column fare: topics range from the practical (”How to Smoke Pot and Stay Out of Jail”) to the whimsical (”How to Twirl Your Tassles In Opposite Directions”) to the fascinating but hopefully impractical (”How to Sew an Amputated Finger Back On”).Other strips include “The Final Soundtrack,” a death fantasy involving blood, glamour, and Led Zeppelin; “How to Be a Fabulous Fag Hag,” an illustrated interview with Margaret Cho; “Seattle’s Erotic Landmarks”; and “Memories of Love,” a graphic tour of Courtney Love’s rise and fall of celebritydom.