saviour complex
What I worked on today.
making art, making life.
The world is a very grey and dismal place at times. There are deaths, horrors. We are all alone in these little bodies, floating around, disconnected most of the time- from each other and from the ground we stand on. Most people DO live quietly, desperately, working and thinking and amassing a thousand new worries each day.
Most people walk around afraid, nervous. Or angry. Or just focused on the task at hand, which for more people all the time involves merely surviving the vicissitudes of economy and thrift, of bad jobs or no work. Of struggle. Life is mostly struggle and concern for most people on earth, and for the rest it can be even worse.
It’s our job, as artists, to show people that there is more. I am not a religious person, nor even a spiritual one. I do not believe that there is a sky-man or any kind of conscious entity watching over us carefully, or interested in our problems. I do not believe. BUT- I do believe that the world itself is a being of grace, and by truly seeing it, and being within it, we can lighten our weight. This entails details.
When one is in a chain gang, there will be a beautiful weed sprouting in the ditch. When one has lost hope and is starving, there will be the smell of dry morning air, and the sunrise. When the worries about the future become too much, there is still the present.
I know this doesn’t make up for any of it. I also know that there are times for all of us when we realize our solitude, when we are alone and in pain, in the dark. Cold and possibly hopeless. In those times it is art’s job to expose the alternatives, to bring the world into us and that way bring us out of ourselves.
Art doesn’t have to be “good” or skilled or perfect or even beautiful to do this. It will be a different view for each artist and a different piece that speaks to each viewer. Sometimes the crude and the ugly do this much more effectively than the pretty and the sweet- actually for me, when I am alone and in pain in the dark, it is the reminder that others have been there as well that helps. And art that speaks this way is often NOT beautiful to look at.
I need to sell art to live- to pay rent. To eat. If I could give it away and not be homeless I would. But the necessities of the world insist that my work must be valued at a number. I know that for some the value of their work is low and their hours are long and hard; that they must do work which is difficult, upsetting, dangerous. I am lucky to be an artist, I am privileged in ways not many are. I love my work. That alone is a stroke of fortune.
People who hate their work but must do it deserve my best efforts, because I know that at times my work, seeing my work and interacting with it, is their release and their reminder. Artists have an obligation to try their damnedest to do that, and to do it as best they can every time.
no sopa no!
I am totally against SOPA, therefore I have contacted my government reps to shout about it. I suggest you do the same. I’ll be adding this little plea to all my images today—but I won’t black out.
Content is king- and if someone reading this happens to like my picture and read it, so much the better. SOPA would pretty much put me under. I post my original works to sites which sometimes include violating images- while my work doesn’t violate any copyright law, shutting those sites down because of other people’s sins would punish ME, an innocent bystander.
I also feel that there are enough and proper copyright laws right now to defend original works. If someone “steals” my image and uses it commercially, I can right now, without any additional laws, stop them. Legally. SOPA is good for huge conglomerates who don’t want competition, but would absolutely DESTROY the small, lone, artists, those of us who toil away in relative obscurity.
It will take away the venues we use to sell our original works, and it will destroy our ability to self-promote. It will make us vulnerable to any jerk that wants to take us down- and enable censorship by the few. If someone finds a work online offensive, right now, they can flag it or ignore it. Under SOPA, they could report it as a violation, and it would be immediately removed.
The burden of proof is on the person accused, not the accuser- and this is contrary to ALL previous law and statute in the US.
If you are not from the US, imagine all your US viewers GONE. Unable to see you. As well as the sites you use that are from the US- GONE.
For our sakes, and for your own, stand against this utterly stupid law. You can contact your representatives through this site:
https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173
and let them know how wrong they are about what the voters want.
on learning to tattoo.
I get a lot of people asking me how to get started, wanting to show their art and find out if they should try to be tattoo artists.
They will ask about apprenticeships, teaching, equipment, schools, kits, “practicing at home”, “teaching themselves”, and all kinds of other stuff. I took the time a while ago to write up an article explaining how to get into tattooing the right way, how to learn without fucking people up, and how to find a decent place to learn from.
I hope this helps someone decide to go the right path to tattooing, and helps others decide it’s just not worth that much to them.
If you really are dedicated and persistent, if you really, really mean it, then you will eventually get there.
Unless you take shortcuts. Don’t take those. Do it the right way, even though it’s harder at the start.
I don’t review portfolios or teach anyone; but if you have more questions after reading this article, feel free to email me.
“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”
– Leo Tolstoy
banned on etsy: her roses
human arm bone articulation. banned on etsy!
Apparently, despite many other listings of legal human bones, THIS one is unwelcome on etsy.
Their explanation? “Despite the fact that it is legal in your locale, etsy considers it to fall under the “illegal animal parts” clause of the TOS.”
In other words, the law is what etsy says it is.
Update: etsy has now included human parts as forbidden items, along with any thing that has “health claims”.
kafka
When I die, please pile all of my creative work high on the pyre.
Burn it all down.
Please don’t go through it all, re-edit and assemble it for sale,
and then make a million dollars from my sad,
overworked corpse.
Kafka was firmly of the opinion that if they don’t want it now,
while it can do me some good to sell it,
they can’t have it later,
the bastards.
He worked full-time, NOT as a writer, throughout his life. He would come home tired from long workdays and stay up all night writing.
I’d have been pissed too. They always blame his lack of confidence in his own work- but I think, deep down, it was his fury that he had had to work so goddamn hard all the time while lesser authors had the leisure and funds to write, and to enjoy their lives.
Every time you think “I wish he had written more” ask yourself- when is the last time you PAID A CREATIVE PERSON for something, and spread the word, so they’d have time to write or paint more? People didn’t pay HIM either, so there’s your answer. He never had time, because he had to pay the rent. That’s how most creative people tend to live- I am lucky because my day job is art too, but even so, it’s not free, it’s not MY WORK wholly. Even so.
skinny women are evil, fat women are lazy. (or, SEA CREATURES UNITE!)
I don't care if you're skinny and covered in shag rug. I love you anyway.
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of stuff addressing the lack of larger or fat women in advertising, as symbols of beauty. It’s good in a way to see more of this, because the focus on one body type in media can be really disturbing. The implications that anyone bigger than the models is sick, lazy, or unhealthy; that fat women are all ugly, these aren’t right and need changing. I really think it’s good to raise awareness about body image, and to show women of all different sizes as beautiful and feminine.
That said, I also find it disturbing that many of these essays portray thin women as “anorexic” “unreal” and “nonexistent”. Look, I do know that the use of photoshop and the like has made images of impossible women pretty damn common. And yes, a lot of celebrities have eating disorders. But this isn’t always the case. By portraying thin women as unhealthy, sick, or unreal, you are continuing body shame. You are doing the exact same thing to other women that media has done to you, and it’s just as rotten.You’re continuing the cycle of abuse. Yes, you. You were hurt, so now, you’ll hurt others. For shame?
just a grasshopper, that I drew for my dear, sweet mother.
You haven’t truly lived unless you’ve made your mother cry, worry that you’ve been arrested, wonder where you live for a while, and then cry some more. It’s just what happens when your life is full and exciting.
My mom likes grasshoppers, ducks, and flowers. Now that I’m not a teenage anarchist heathen in her house we get along really well.
We disagree on a lot but she’s one of those people that really does want to do good; her heart is in the right place, and I think mine is too. I miss her; my family is on the opposite coast so I don’t get to see them very often.
This is just a little prismacolor drawing.
feather and tar
human bones, on the other hand, are just fine. as long as you didn’t collect them yourself.
The most recent revisions to the migratory bird act can be found online; my favorite part, and the most useful, is the list of species NOT covered by the act. These are the birds I find, use, and adore (along with game birds, and pets). If you decide to scroll to the bottom (or actually read the notes, I don’t know what kind of sicko you are, after all) you will find quite an extensive list, many of which you will also find represented in my artworks.
I collect a lot at wildlife facilities, and the feathers and bone I collect there are from birds that do not inhabit north america or the US.
As for bones, skulls, and incidentals of mammals and reptiles/amphibians- I don’t use anything on the CITES list, I either purchase or obtain my pieces legally; sometimes through roadkill salvage where that’s permitted, by finding natural remains, or by beach combing.
It’s not hard to find beautiful natural objects. Simply taking a walk away from other people is often enough. I use plant materials, as well, and collect those in the same way. There’s something deeply fulfilling about walking, looking, and finding. I will use anything I find in some way, just about- whether for my private collection or for artwork.
I do have an artist’s statement hanging wherever these sorts of works are shown. If you’re at the gallery it’ll be right by the first piece you see when you walk in. I will probably post it up here this time too.
my daily routine.
I have two separate routines for work. it depends whether I am having a tattoo-studio day or a home-studio day.
if I’m working at the shop, I wake around ten or eleven and lay around like a slug until it’s time to rush to work. I arrive, drink coffee, plan out my hours. talk to clients. clean my inks off or monkey with a machine until “real work” shows up. I leave right after the shop closes for the day. I usually don’t do any other art on these days; working on commission is draining (satisfying though!)
if I’m not going in to the shop, I wake up late, noon or one. I have coffee and laze around a little.then eat, and start looking over the mess I left the previous day. usually I will have something drying and ready to be worked over a little more. so I pick up where I left off. at some point I’ll reach a moment where everything is tacky. then I start something new…I work a little, stop and stare. smoke, have a sandwich and more coffee.
a lot of times I’ll just get in the car and go exploring, searching for objects or supplies, detritus. things that make me feel creative. it’s a lot of walking along the river or the side of the road.
I work until very late at night when I’m doing my own art. I’ll stay up until the birds are talking. sometimes I work all night and into the next day. coffee is my friend. this happens a lot more in the winter. I tend to have a very hard time waking up in the mornings, it’s always been that way.
of course I spend about two months each year “on the road”; I can’t call it a vacation because I usually am tattooing just about that whole time- I don’t like not working anyway. but when I travel I have no routine at all, and when I return it takes me a while to get back in rhythm with my schedules and routines at home.
