a version of pointing, writing is
a typewriter interview, an audio interview, and a comic about patriarchy
Greetings, earthlings.
I’m back from a little vacation!
The last several months were, gratefully, riddled with big trips, small trips, and little adventures. I’ve loved every minute of it, and I’m also so excited to be home with nothing major on the calendar, indefinitely. I love being home.
I write this email from my studio which I deep cleaned this week in anticipation of riding out late winter and early spring here, sinking my teeth into new and ongoing projects, uninterrupted. I’m excited to return to routine. I’m excited to give my brain time to compost everything I’ve been putting into it.
Anyway, here are three things I loved this week:
1. An interview that was a visual delight: Austin Kleon and Ross Gay’s typewriter interview
Two of my favorite artists conducted an interview via typewriters and the USPS.
Here’s my favorite exchange:
2. An interview that made me cry: Sam Sanders interviewing Caroline Rose
I shared Caroline Rose’s new album, year of the slug, a couple of weeks back.
Last week Sam Sanders interviewed them about their new album, being a working class artist, the state of the music industry, their grief, and how Caroline’s last album, The Art of Forgetting, helped Sam process his own grief and heartbreak.
I listened to the podcast while I cleaned my studio, but you can also watch it on Youtube:
3. A comic I want to talk about with someone: I Quit the Patriarchy and Rescued my Marriage
Liana Finck’s work inspires me to get looser with my pen and be more vulnerable. Her single-panel comics are frequently in The New Yorker, and I love this longer format piece in The New York Times.
I’ve been known to be a bit of a man-hater.* I sometimes tell the story of breaking up with my last partner. It was a good, mutual break-up, and we weepily shared what we were grateful to be taking away from our time together. The first thing that came to my ex’s mind was, “I… hate men now. You opened my eyes. I can’t unsee it.” We laughed through the tears.
It is the patriarchy. This comic illustrates how patriarchy can play out in a marriage, but then it suggests a different perspective. I feel challenged by it. I’m not sure where I land afterward.
The comic made me think about Anne Helen Petersen’s more sociological, data-riddled piece, What Makes Women Clean.
A favorite panel:
*If this confuses or challenges you, I need you to understand that I didn’t see a man wash a dish until well into my 20s.
Earlier this month, I organized a “zine bee” at NOFA-VT’s annual winter conference. I sat at a big long table with a bunch of chairs, and in between workshops, panels, and sessions, conference-goers saddled up for a few minutes and learned how to make one-page zines.
It was so cute and fun! Did I take any pictures?? No!!! Of course not!!! I am dumb!!!!
I made an interactive zine that prompted folks with questions about themselves and the future of agriculture in Vermont, but I knew folks would have limited time and mental capacity to draw and write in between sessions.
I wanted to make some zines that folks could cut-and-fold and take away, so that in just a few minutes they could experience the simple-yet-magical experience of turning a single sheet of paper into an 8-page mini-book.
So I used the zine bee as motivation to finish some half-baked work hanging out in my drafts for a long time.
The origins of these zines largely lay in my artist residency at Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park last summer. I was there for two weeks and I spent a good chunk of my time immersing myself in the books, ideas, and frameworks that undergird my work, trying to connect the dots.
They’re all available for free download in my online shop here.
The third one in the series is a primer on the work I want to do most in the world:
Thank you for being here!
Christine Tyler Hill
Website: tenderwarriorco.com
Email: tenderwarriorco@gmail.com