Why We Love Maine, pg. 2

Why We Love Maine, pg. 1

Why We Love Maine

This November 3, Mainers who are equality-minded had a major blow. Marriage Equality was voted down. While I'm not strongly for the institution of marriage, I do see it as a piece of a puzzle that leads to a fuller-equality for LGBTQ citizens in the United States.

What really got deep into my heart was seeing my fellow queers completely distraught--and to feel like the Proponents of Yes on 1 were more than just moralist, more than just fundamentalist, and more than just "protecting the children." The language they were using against my peers and I was more than hurtful. It was violent.

The work I do is all about language, and all about creating a visual and visceral culture... Does this make sense? That which we surround ourselves with (i.e. the media) is consistent with how we feel as whole... So having the radio waves, television screens, and print media full of hateful, violent language and imagery is damaging to us. Especially those of us that this hateful media is aimed at.

In the weeks following the Yes on 1 Win, out-of-staters started blasting the online and print communities with the concept of "boycotting Maine." Boycott Maine? Really? So, you're going to hurt our economy because approximately 290,000 Mainers don't like the idea of LGBTQ folks gettin' married?

Whether this "boycott" has any staying power or not, I posed the question to my friends and family about what they love about Maine, as a way to take what has become MORE hateful language and turn it on its head. I received 20 answers in an hour, and am looking to solicit more.

I've compiled the answers, and am starting to illustrate them in the hopes that it will inspire those of us fighting the good fight to remember why we love Maine, despite this emotional and political set-back. I'll be posting the finished drawings on this blog, and will have them available as a book once I finish a healthy amount of them.

So, what do YOU love about Maine?

The Femme Show and What Does it Mean to be an Ally?

This past weekend was the third Boston incarnation of the Femme Show. I've been participating in the Femme Show goodness since its first run back in 2007, when I was just attending as an artist-vendor. Upon arriving in the basement of the church where the performance was to take place, I felt an immediate sense of community--I helped move chairs, clean the stage, press buttons on machines, help move props... Even though I had just met this group of performers, we gelled immediately. Kinship, respect, validation... It was wonderful.

So, when I turned to my good friend Amy, and said "Lets bring the Femme Show to Portland," it was a natural next step in my mind. I wanted Portlanders to experience what I experienced. I wanted to share the art, the community, the passion of the Femme Show with Mainers.

The Femme Show is now a performance staple in Boston and Portland, with an increasing number of tours around the East Coast. This sort of slowly spreading Femme-Fire is really exciting to witness and be a part of.

I have to be entirely honest now: I have not, until this weekend, seen my participation in the Femme Show as anything but "what should be done." As in, I naturally aligned myself with the mission and purpose of the Show, and haven't really delved deeper into the implications of my involvement. As someone more masculinely expressed, as a Butch, what does it mean to me to participate? This question hasn't really come to my mind as anything except the occasional reminder to myself that it's really important to make sure, as a masculine person, to not take up too much space that is meant for the wonderful Femmes in my life.

But the definition of a true Ally is a lot more conscious than that. Right?

When the Artistic Director and Boston Producer of the Femme Show, Maggie Crowley, wrote me a lovely thank-you note that thanked me for being the "right kind of Femme ally" and then elaborated in-person about what it means to her to have such a clear, well-meaning ally involved, I started thinking deeper thoughts about the word.

To some degree, it's good that I didn't consciously have to "become" an ally. It was a natural concept. Just like I never had to "become" an ally for youth--I inherently believe that young people (specifically folks under the age of 18) deserve a platform for their passions, beliefs, and ideas... I feel the same way about my Femme counterparts.

Queer Femme gender is more than just a sexy concept/actuality to me. It is a delicious queering of that which is feminine. There are tons of critiques about what it means to wear heels, a skirt, make-up, or any combination of these things, etc... The difference, the major difference, between Femme and femme is the *conscious-decision-making* that goes into Queer Femme gender.

The Femmes in my life are *actively* thinking about the decisions around their gender. They *have* to. As queers (whatever that word may mean to who chooses it), we need to stop and consider all our movements through the world. The Femmes I know have taken this a step further, and actively re-engage in activities and genders that mainstream culture has tried to deem *not for us.* There is something radical, ground-breaking, and shattering to look the mainstream in the face and say, "No--this *is* mine. I shall *make* it mine."

Advertising that's stuck in the past

So, in walking throughout South Station, I encountered this:

It's an ad for Makers Mark. Can't you tell?!

I remember watching Killing Us Softly years ago, when she was showing us ads from the 1980s. While the film looks dated, it is clear from this ad (and many many many others) that advertisers are still really enchanted with using blatant phallic imagery to sell products. Combine this with Burger King's blowjob burger ad, and it's a creepy advertiser's wet dream.

Okay, I lied, one more.

Because I love this page! Page 19, where EVERYONE is using gendered language to a frustrating degree...

Last one and then I go to bed!

Johnny's outrage at how obsessed we are with our own histories, rather than our present...

More comic pages for Gender Outlaws!

So, I'm not going to post these in order... But here's another page of the finished comic! Page 12, in the middle of "CHOOSE YOUR TRANSVENTURE!"

A young Johnny is harassed by a child in the playground for "being a boy with a flowered shirt"...

Two Loves

So I've been doing an awful job being regular about updates... I'm gonna work on that. I genuinely have much to share!

So as a way to break my own silence, here's a photo of the latest Bitch magazine: (anyone who knows me knows I looooove clay...)

And, a wonderful octopus gift from my friend JJ. This, besides being an incredible present, also speaks volumes of my art style/passions:

Final Page 3!

No words for how happy I am how this is turning out...

Today has been disgustingly productive

All pages are now penciled. I'm working on the final inking right now. Once this is done, the next steps are scanning and entering text. I'm also going to be creating a middle gray shade in Photoshop...

Johnny interrupts hir own questioning by rushing into the panels !




A sequence of annoying people continually refer to our protagonist as "she"




Lastly, here's some of the final inked pages. This is back on page 3, where Johnny realizes that there are other transpeople out there using similar language to hir.

Come to First Friday and see THIS COMIC PRO-GRESS!

Comic progress

16 pages penciled out of 23. Almost done! Next comes inking on high vellum, and lettering in photo shop. I'm debating whether to use my handwriting-font I created, or something else...


I'll post the pix in a bit! They won't rotate on my magical iPhone...

More of the Gender Outlaws comic process

Comix are hard.

There. I said it.

The new sketchbook idea!

So I finally found a weekly calendar that will allow me to do my Draw Daily idea... Check it out!

I also saw some pretty funny "not art" installations in Somerville... Also below!

Sketching in South Station

I need to learn to draw faster!

On my way down the street

I passed by this wonderful installation!

First Friday Sketches

why the boston women's rugby team loves me

I drew these for their 2009 t-shirts...!

Twittering

tweet tweet tweet...

Okay, I bit the bullet, and now I have a current and running Twitter account. Wish my too-many-applications-self good luck...

twitter.com/kmegaphoned

Wonderful Illustrator!

Check out this new school, old school illustrator... Some great themes running through here!

http://juliancallos.blogspot.com/

Pocket Zines and Octo-pulp

So, the octopus comic book has turned into a pocket-zine mini-comic sort of deal. Oh, and it's sci-fi poetry. Just thought everyone should know. A verse from the mini-comic:

"Thighs heavy with water, I trudged
Down the center of the street,
The crack in the asphalt widening between my strides."

Why has this become the structure, you ask? Well, I learned a long time ago that I really am not the best at sequential art that is very plot driven and/or paced in a certain way... My comix convey messages and have narratives that are short and to the point. So, I figured, I'll actually complete these mini-pocket-comic-zine things better and faster than other longer projects I do.

Whew! Anyway. Speaking of longer projects, here's a picture of Fuzz the Cynical Bunny on the computer:



And for giggles, someone has compiled covers of old pulp comix that involve OCTOPODES..... it's amazing.

Photo test!

Okay, so I don't know if this looks as awesome as I want it to, but it does do a good job considering this sketch is supposed to be rough anyway... I dunno. What're people's thoughts? iPhone photo uploads a no-go?

This is so meta.

So now I've got an app for my iPhone as a way to make it so I blog about art and politics more. It's probably just more clutter but I guess that's the point huh!

New comix coming soon!

So, there are a variety of new comix in the mix, coming on up! For one, I have a strip I've started that the first one is ALMOST done.

I know, I know. ALMOST done? WTF, Katie? But the truth of the matter is, I've been SO BUSY that I'm lucky I even drew it. I've been struggling to edit some of the imagery in photoshop... I tried this new schtick and it's the one thing holding me up. I promise it's coming soon.

Next, I have an IDEA for a comic book. Just one single comic book. No words. And it's about octopodes. So, I'm pretty excited about that. Soon as I finish writing this post, I'm gonna do some sketches and thumbnails. I'm thinking it'll be my usual dorky sea creature educational jazz. You'll love it.

Anyway! That's that for now. I'll try updating with something of more substance next time, you know, like an ACTUAL COMIC.... :)

Awkward kiss...!

condoms condoms condoms condoms condoms condoms...

Safe Sex Supplies

Nervous?

"Because when you're 11, you don't care about the boy sitting next to you, you care about the fact that you feel funny."

"Gloves are sexy...!"

True Colours Presentation!

True Colours!

This weekend, Lyndon and I taught at True Colors, a wonderful LGBTQ youth conference in Connecticut. It went so fabulously! And it has inspired me to really get my act together--I need to obviously be more intentional about drawing more sex education comics.

Annnnd here are some pictures from the presentation!

Sarah Palin and the Feminists

(Disclaimer: I do political work full-time for the League of Young Voters. This is my own personal opinion of politics, not the League's. This is also pretty out of the realm of comix and art, but I figure rather than create a whole 'nother blog for my thoughts, I'll just go for it here.)

There has been much talk about Sarah Palin and her gender, just as much as there had been about Hilary Clinton and her gender. But there is something important to note here—these discussions, while to the naked eye are the same, are actually deeply, and inherently, different.

The common misconception amongst the “post-feminist” mainstream media is that Feminists simply want a woman in office. That, regardless of everything else that could make a worthy potential candidate, a female candidate is more important than the issues and ideologies that candidate may stand for.

This is a very misguided concept.

It is simply problematic to assume that simply being a woman brings with it the checklist Feminists want to see in a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate. It is, essentially, the flipside of the argument Feminists and women-alike are constantly railing against—that being a woman means very specific “woman things,” that there are certain denotations to being a woman (concepts such as being weak, weepy, talkative if you are white; or crude and loud if you are black; or saucy if you are Latina—etc.). Simply being a woman and simply being a woman in office does not a Feminist choice make, for it applies the same logic that those who wish to box in the concept of woman for their own anti-feminist, sexist, misogynist uses.

Does being a woman mean that you are more likely to understand a need for childcare availability for working, single moms?

Does being a woman mean that you are more likely to protect women’s right to choose, and proper sex education for your teen daughter?

Does being a woman mean that you are more likely to vote in favor of higher and equal wages for all?

No. No. No.

Lets get something clear: you have to be more than “female” to get my vote. You have to have a pretty transparent platform based off of my Feminist principles—and in an ideal world, you’re also a woman. But the two aren’t intrinsically connected.

Writing to show Sam blog RSS feed on facebook

This is a promise to myself to write more on this blog now that the election is over and it is SUMMER!

Wowza!

So it's been really hard to balance working full-time, organizing Dr. Sketchy's, organizing more art events in collaboration with other artists and performers, AND drawing comix. In fact, drawing sequential art has fallen totally off my radar. I can't even seem to muster the energy to THINK sequentially, let alone put the comix in my brain onto a page. It's a sad feeling.

I've been having a little bit of a blockage when it comes to my own art. I've begun to wonder if maybe I'm not supposed to be an artist who does work for herself... I've been definitely doing ART--but not a lot of work in my sketchbook, not a lot of life drawing, not a lot of painting... All of that art seems to have fallen to the wayside, while I heavily pursue my freelance and really rock out graphic design at work.

I don't think I'm willing to make that concession... I know this is a roadblock I've come upon before and it's really all about balancing. I've begun to run again--the first times since injuring my knee!--so if I can make space for running CERTAINLY I can make space for comix and sketchbooks... I think it's time to go back to a little old-school artistic discipline and actually give myself personal deadlines and timeframes for sketchbook/comic work.

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School!

Next WMPG design!

Whoa, it's been forever!

I know--it's been far too long. I do have a ton of new work, but since holidays and then starting my new job at the beginning of the new year, it's been crazy busy and I haven't made time for a website update. I also haven't done a lot of comix-specific work. A LOT of design, with ink-illustration, or entirely adobe-illustrator-done. But not a lot of sequential art. I think this is in part due to the fact that drawing a comic is HARD. I have a bunch of comix in the pipeline, half drawn, or sketched and in need of inking... I really need to sit down and dedicate time to them. I also have a ton of paintings I've begun, and not finished. I need to carve out more time for the more organic art. Anyway... Here are some fun designs I did for WMPG!

Back to simplicity

So I did a couple of highly detailed drawings in the past few days in brush and ink, like the stingray below... I started out using a hard tipped pen, and then moved into using a fine brush with india ink... I couldn't control the ink so well, and so I moved on to a brush-pen (specifically the Faber-Castell Pitt Pens) filled with india ink... The affect was similar, almost identical really, and easier to control.

However, just for kicks with these exercises, I chose to go back to the ol' brush and ink well method, and I think that the line quality is much better. I'm working on technical vellum, which holds the ink really well. I've been using cotton comp, trace paper, and a variety of thicknesses of technical vellum with the brush pens as well, so the paper isn't new. I'm surprised how well the vellum holds up to the brush work.

I think I might do the "Inconsequential" comic (my chosen title for the series I'm working on outside of my paid work) in brush and ink... I was already thinking I wanted to work double-size for the series anyway, but now I really want to go all out. The attention to detail returns when I work in a fine brush...

We'll see how that goes!

Fiction writing continued, last two characters for this piece

Fiction writing continued!

Here's the opening two paragraphs for this story...

"The leaves were crunchy beneath his wheels, but he didn’t care. It was a cool sound, like something out of the sound effects of a scary movie. Or a funny movie. He couldn’t be sure. Josh was far ahead of him, using his longer, more powerful legs to propel him across the neighborhood, over sewers. He was much more skilled at skateboarding than Carlos, and he proved this point again and again by swinging his lower body skillfully over curbs and steps.
The autumn air made Carlos’ eyes water. It was only his second fall in Maine, and he wasn’t quite used to the colorful leaves, the smell of the cold, and the itchiness of his wool sweater. It was all very foreign, and very exciting at the same time. He found himself purposefully forgetting to wear socks, so he could whip his shoes off when school was over, and charge barefoot across the tile and wood floors of his family’s third floor apartment. Bare feet just weren’t as exciting in Southern Texas. Hot tile was sweaty and seemed to gather food and grime much easier, thus removing anything remotely enticing to the underside of a foot."

Fiction writing

I used to write only fiction... Then I got into a huge non-fiction comic segment, and now I'm coming out of it. I think that having the ability to be semi-autobiographical AND pull from other people's stories, AND make shit up all at once is just...so much more fun. Plus, I feel better about how I draw the characters... It frees me up to do what I want with them, rather than attempt to even remotely cater to the features of an actual human being.

That being said: here are some character designs for a series of vignettes of intertwining yet unrelated characters. These guys are for the first story.

Trying to post more often, I promise

Life has just been crazy for the past few weeks. I haven't had much time for comix, and that makes me sad. So! I'm trying to set aside more time for comix, but also get sleep. We'll see which one wins.

Here's a detailed ink drawing I did earlier today.

Out of comission comic wise

So I've been trying so hard to get comic work done. It's been a real struggle. I have all these other jobs to do, website design, graphic design... I'm not complaining, but I miss drawing panels so badly. Here are some comics I never finished... The second is the beginning of a story I'm going to rehash, about my accident with my knee and surgery and my feelings behind that. (For the uninitiated: another part of what kept me from getting certain types of work done was the fact that I tore my ACL playing Ultimate Frisbee this summer, and subsequently became depressed, un-depressed, had surgery, am in physical therapy, etc...) Now some people would think this would be PRIMO time to get comic work done, but comics are, honestly, the HARDEST art for me. Therefore my most time consuming, and my most passionate. I draw, redraw, sketch, find references, redraw, ink, edit...and then some. I do this for my GD work as well, but the intensity is much different... Plus my comics tend to be deeply personal or intense, so spending hours fixating on them requires me to be in tip-top emotional shape. And to be honest--up until recently, I just haven't been because of my knee and a few other things going on.

But enough about that.

The first comic is the VERY beginning of my reflections on the very first comic class I ever took... Basically, it's just a cartoon version of Katie at age 9. Enjoy.

Full Retail Comic

For your viewing pleasure!

Last installation of Retail Comic

Third installation of Retail comic

I actually inked a comic yesterday... I should do this more often...!

Next installation of the Retail Comic

I'll post one with all of them together, because right now the story is jagged and awkward.

My Multi-Faceted Experiences in Retail, part 1

More to come! It's much more fun all together, but I am taking forever to ink this one...