Looking back, looking forward

Brain Frame 5 blew my mind in March, particularly Sara Drake's performance The Romance of the Tiger Lady. Kelly Parsell's review on Make-Space says it all better than I could. Well said, Kelly! Prior engagements kept me from Brain Frame 6, but I'll be at 7 even if I have to drag myself on my knees.

My first two-color linocut workshop was a dream. Look at that awesome registration! Way to go, ladies!

Evanston Print & Paper's Eat Your Words Edible Books competition was a pun-filled delight! My contribution: Les Miserapples.

SPACE, the Small Press and Comics Expo, in Columbus Ohio! I debuted a new mini-comic, Mare Cognitum, and offered digital prints of illustrations from In the Sounds and Seas for the first time. It was an awesome show full of genuinely talented and friendly people. Would that this group of folks could get together more than just once a year. Since that isn't the case, I'll have to settle for returning next year. 

STILL UP AT THE CHICAGO PRINTMAKERS COLLABORATIVE: the annual $20 print show! You want high quality, affordable prints? Stop by before June 16th! 

Photo c/o this excellent review in TCJ. NATO hype had me paranoid at home during the awe-inspiring Comics: Philosophy and Practice conference at the University of Chicago, but I watched it eager-eared while taking notes at home--so grateful they offered a live stream! The whole event was great, but the panel shown above was gobsmackingly inspiring. Lynda Barry is right: everyone loves a fucking monkey.

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COMING SOON:

This is the big one, y'all! Be sure to visit me on June 16 & 17--10 days away!--at CAKE, at 1104 S Wabash on the 8th floor. No new work to debut (darn!) but I'll be there, trying not to geek out with paralyzed excitement by the talented people in the same room. Seriously, check out the panel list and the other exhibitors. How I snuck through the gate on this one is beyond me. 

ALSO, keep your eyes peeled here for information on a new 2 Color Linocut workshop that I'll be offering soon this summer, date (likely in July) TBD. 

New Year

I have been hiding out in my "creative cave," as a friend put it, powering through the illustrations for In the Sounds and Seas Volume II. The social sacrifices are paying off: after I finish the spread I am currently on, I will be at the half-way mark. Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, I might well be ahead of schedule!

In my hours hermiting away in the cave, the year changed around me. Rather than look back at the year concluded (and what a great year it was!), it is more exciting to look forward to 2012. Here are a few events I am eagerly anticipating:

• Saturday, February 18: I will be teaching a one-day 2-Color Linocut workshop at Evanston Print & Paper Shop in Evanston, Illinois. Registration is open now!
• March 9 & 10, Chicago Zine Fest in the South Loop of Chicago: Reading events and panel discussions on the 9th, and zine & small press folks tabling their work on the 10th, I will be selling the first volume of In the Sounds and Seas, and a few other smaller projects that I've got up my sleeves. (My wildest and most ambitious dreams allow me to debut ISS VII at Chicago Zine Fest, but let's be honest: I also have to sleep, y'all.)
• April 21 & 22, Small Press and Comics Expo (SPACE) in Columbus, Ohio: I will be tabling this event, selling the first volume of In the Sounds and Seas and debuting Volume II.
• June 16 & 17, Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE): This is Chicago's first official alternate/small press comics expo, and I couldn't be more exicited. Word will get out in February if my application to table the event has been accepted, but I will be there, either selling my wares or chatting with and admiring the small press comic work of my Chicago bretheren.
• September 15 & 16, Small Press Expo: This is my first year attending SPX. What a dream! If you are attending as well, drop me a line.

I am also excited to be working on three (count 'em!) hand-printed wedding invitations this spring, all featuring multicolor linocut illustrations. There are also schemes and applications and plans a-plenty, which I will write about in more detail as news and details become less abstract.

Happy 2012, friends!