we kiss when we're alone in elevators

community parades, small acts of love, risograph prints, and bins

some woodcuts I made recently

Greetings, earthlings!

I’m running late to my intersection, so no meandering intro today.

Here are three things worth paying attention to in my humble opinion:

1. A video that made me cry: Spiral Q’s Peoplehood Parade & Pageant

The elementary school in my neighborhood is organizing their third annual “Trout Parade,” a celebratory procession in which fourth graders ceremoniously parade the dozens and dozens of little baby trout they raised from eggs in their classroom over the winter and spring. They march the little baby fish around the schoolyard before getting on a bus and driving to the Huntington River where they release the trout into the wild.

Trout Parade is all about celebrating the cycle of life, our local ecosystem, the reciprocal relationship between humans and nature… there’s music and puppets and dancing.

Anyway, I might work with the students and make a giant Osprey puppet, or zines about Trout FAQs, or something else… TBD.

My collaborator and head Trout Parade organizer shared this video of Philadelphia-based arts organization Spiral Q’s parade, which inspires Trout Parade.

It had me crying at my desk at 9am. This is the good stuff!!!!!!

2. A thing that put a soft little smile on my face: 100 Small Acts of Love

I was googling around looking for stuff to read about how love is all about the small gestures (more on why below) and found my way to this lovely New York Times piece that assembled tiny reader-submitted stories about small acts of love. It’s cute as hell.

3. Art I lusted after: these riso prints

Last summer I did a two-week artist residency at Directangle Press in Bethlehem, NH and I’ve been obsessed with risograph printing ever since. Directangle is two hours away and I love it there. I’ve gone back since to print some stuff (like this Borders are Lies print) but I desperately wish there was a closer printer that I could use, I’d be making prints like crazy.

In the meantime, I’m following several print shops around the country for inspiration and these two prints from Oddities Prints in Kansas City, MO knocked me out:

TIFFANY LAMPS: Risograph edition by Sophia Ren (this is only four colors!)

THREE BUTTERFLIES: Mark Pickman Risograph Edition

I made a comic about my first date with my sweetie.

He did this small thing that knocked me out. For a while I wondered if I was reading too much into it, but ultimately it did foretell his attentiveness, care, thoughtfulness… there is so much love in the small things we do for one another.

It’s personal, so I’m sticking most of it behind the paywall, but I really loved making it. I printed it out as a quarter-page zine for him and it’s cute as hell!!!