Spoons, and Handmade Nation

one day a few months ago i was having lunch with a friend of mine and she told me about an article she had read about depression. the author of the article analogized depression to having a finite amount of energy (spoons) to deal with the trials of daily life. so let's say you have six spoons on any given day: waking up and getting ready for work might deplete you of one, morning commute another, workload could take away two, the argument you have with your sister could take another two. suddenly you're left without the emotional capacity to take yourself home, make dinner, call a friend for a drink, or make art.

so. spoons. i have decided to put more spoons out into the world. this is the first piece in my spoon series. it measures approximately 22 in. x 26 in. this particular piece is already spoken for, but there will be more to come, and yes they will be for sale.



in other news, i have a new myspace page that includes some of my very short stop motion video, some blogg-age, and soon enough, a calendar of the craft shows/zine symposiums in which i will take part.

whatelsewhatelse? oh yes! i have some new exciting book love to spread around!

Handmade Nation: the Rise of DIY Art, Craft, and Design is a book that profiles people from different regions of the US who have influenced/taken part in the rising DIY movement. it also includes a timeline detailing when now-major players in the indie craft scene came to fruition, like Bizarre Bazaar, Venus Zine, and many many others. Bonus! it's also a movie!! that's right. a movie. find more information at the official website.
i love this book. it is my new best friend, my new lover, my new muse.
check it.

B I G F A T D E A L B O N U S:
there will be a screening of this film at the Mezzanine in SF, March 11th. all the details:

San Francisco Film Society Presents:
SF360 Film+Club: Handmade Nation
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Doors open at 7:00pm, show starts at 7:30 pm
Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street, San Francisco, CA
Tickets are $8 for SFFS members and $12 for non-members and are available here.

see you there!

100 Butches: welcome to crushlandia

Elisha Lim has a special place in my heart, partly for her self proclaimed experiment with "sustainable unemployment," but mostly for her comic series 100 Butches, where she details many influential lovers, friends, crushes, and admiration-worthy women from her childhood to adulthood. It's reminiscent of those crushed-out notebook scribbles from middle school, albeit a more detailed (and perhaps thoughtful) creative process is involved.

100 Butches is a perfect example of what inspires me: it's an artistic expression of the personal, handmade with lo-fi techniques (all elements of my beloved DIY movement) and thus necessarily frames the artist in a political context because inevitably, her positionality in the world is reflected in her art. (in this case, the paradigm is gender complication and women. butches - a personal favorite.)

you can read a short interview with her at the blog Art Threat.

Zine Sympo Debrief

i always enjoy a visit to portland, but tabling at the Zine Symposium two weekends ago was pretty much the best time i've had there. tons of queers, zines taking over as the main form of paper currency, and happy customers! what more could i have asked for? let's face it: i wanted to live there.

next year's plan...a cross-country diy craft/music/zine fair roadtrip!