jd-finch

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 16: 9/27/22

Free write

I forgot to post all my drawings for DCP. Usually I post immediately because I have to transcribe it in case people can’t read my handwriting. It was really nice to just chill out and draw whatever I felt like with no expectations. I need to learn to let go and stop worrying about whether my art looks good or not because art doesn’t have to be good. I enjoy shitty music and ugly art, so it’s fine for me to make those things. I’m not feeling good about myself and my future yet, but I’m trying to open myself up to it. I’d like to see what I end up doing.

[jd-finch]

DCP Days 12-15

Free draw

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 11: 9/13/22

Free write

I fell behind in school over the past week because a week ago I got roofied at a concert and I’ve been trying to deal with what happened. I haven’t been able to focus much on my assignments. I don’t know what changed — in the past, shitty things would happen to me and I’d be inspired to create to work through them. Now I don’t feel like creating anything. I don’t feel like doing anything. My grades are dropping and I don’t know how to fix things. I told a good friend what’s been going on and she called me a fucking idiot and asked me how I could do this to her, because now she’s going to worry. Maybe I could’ve used art to deal with all of this years ago, but I seem to have lost my artistic spirit.

[jd-finch]

Text ID: DCP Day 10: 9/5/22

Free write

Today my friend and I discussed writing as an art form. I call myself an artist, and I call myself a writer — because even though I view writing as its own kind of art, I consider those skills to be very separate for me. But can I really call myself either of those things? All summer, I only wrote a few chapters of fanfic, and I didn’t draw anything for myself; the only drawing I did was tattoo designs for my friends. But my friend’s writing, or at least what she read me today, is art, plain and simple. Her writing is beautiful, and she creates such vivid imagery and strong emotions with her poetry. She reminded me that writing is art by proving it to me. I consider her more of an artist than myself, and I’m the art major. She really impressed me.

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 9: 9/4/22

Free write

I feel very stuck as an artist because I’m simply not very good, and it totally bums me out. I was browsing Tumblr today, and I got a sudden need to draw Gerard Way in that cheerleader dress from the MCR show in Nashville. So I got up, grabbed my sketchbook and a pencil, and sat back down to draw. But then I remembered I suck at drawing, and if I tried to draw ai would just end up feeling bad about myself. So I didn’t draw. This happens to me all the time. I always get in my own way and ruin things for myself. The problem is I’m a shitty artist, and I’m going to continue to be a shitty artist if I don’t keep making art. But all the art I make is also shitty. So I’m stuck, and not getting better. Maybe I’m not cut out for art.

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 8: 9/2/22

Free write

I don’t think I’m smart, creative, or deep enough to be in art school. I don’t have much to say with my art. I make jokes. And occasionally I make jokes in my art as a way to deal with the dark and macabre, and I got an award for that, but that doesn’t mean I’m saying anything worthwhile. On the other hand, I don’t think I’m far enough up my own ass for art school. I know I have nothing to offer with my work. But I keep encountering people who think they are so brilliant and profound and that their art is going to change the world. And I know it’s wrong of me, but I can’t help but think, “Well, I’m a useless artist with nothing to offer, but at least I’m not like those people. At least I can acknowledge that I’m a useless artist with nothing to offer.”

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 7: 8/31/22

Write about a time you were lost

Around this time last year, a friend from my home state came to visit me here at school. While she was here, we went for a drive and got lost. We ended up at one of the school’s other campuses where we discovered an abandoned housing complex. We got out to look around and discovered signs that said the area was deemed uninhabitable due to building and fire code violations. The whole place was empty and kind of creepy — an overgrown playground, smashed in windows, and not a single other person in sight. We explored all the buildings we could get into, and we felt like we were being watched the whole time we were there. I am going back this weekend with some other friends if I can find out how to get there again.

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 6: 8/26/22

What are you obsessed with?

I am obsessed with the band My Chemical Romance. I listened to them for the first time in probably 2007, when my dad played the album The Black Parade in the car. His favourite song was “Famous Last Words”. I only really listened to The Black Parade until I got to middle school around 2014, when I began to develop a personality and my own interests. I fell in love with the music, and I used it to channel all my pre-teen angst. Every album was amazing and Unique. Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge was my favourite album back then, but now it’s their first album which came out a year before I was born, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. Their sound in this album is so raw, and they were just beginning to find themselves and their sound. My favourite member, Frank Iero, wasn’t even playing for the band yet at that point — he was just smoking weed on their couch. I run a fanblog for them, and after being a fan for like 15 years I am going to see them in concert in Denver next month, which I have always dreamed of but never thought would be possible after their breakup.

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 5: 8/25/22

Free write

I have this series I keep in my head titled “Finch’s Fuck Ups”. It is a collection of silly mistakes I’ve made. Today’s episode of Finch’s Fuck Ups includes me making 1lb of pasta. I live alone. What am I going to do with 1lb of elbow macaroni? 2/3 of it got alfredo sauce, because I made way more sauce than intended. The remaining 1/3 got put in a tupperware (which I often refer to as Delaware – thanks, Tumblr) and the 2/3 sauced did not fit in any of my remaining tupperware, but that didn’t stop me from trying and squashing about half a pound of noodles into a container. Last week’s fuck ups included melting plastic all over my mac and cheese, eating my mom’s expired leftovers, falling off my couch on more than one occasion, and hallucinating Samara Morgan from The Ring in my living room.

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 4: 8/23/22

Tell the story of your morning.

Every morning since I moved back to Arizona I have woken up with such intense anxiety that I launch out of bed and out loud say some string of panicked curse words. Then I calm down from my Major Cardiac Event and I lay in bed until the last possible moment before I have to get dressed and leave for class. Today’s morning class was anthropology. We discussed traits of various primates. After class, I stopped by Starbucks on my way home, but there were so many people there that I got nervous and just went home. I checked my grades — which are all 100% so far, by the way — and did some work for my online classes. And that was my morning.

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 3: 8/22/22

Teach us something. Anything.

Strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are not berries — but bananas, eggplants, and cucumbers are. The botanical classification of a berry is that it has a protective outer skin, a fleshy middle, and seeds on the inside. Strawberries have seeds on the outside and are a member of the rose family. Raspberries and blackberries do not have a protective outer skin. They are actually clusters of very small stone fruits, which means they are in the same family as peaches and nectarines. Bananas, which are berries, do not grow on trees. The banana plant is technically an herb. The artificial banana taste people know from candy isn’t really that artificial. It’s just the flavour of the Gros Michele banana, which was largely wiped out in the 50’s by Panama Disease. The Gros Michele plants all wilted and died, so they were replaced by another banana which was immune to that strain of Panama Disease — the Cavendish banana, which is what you are probably used to. It has a softer, milder, and less sweet flavour than the Gros Michele. The Cavendish has pretty much completely replaced the Gros Michele in North America, but you can still order in Gros Michele bananas from overseas. They’re just very expensive.

[jd-finch]

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DCP Day 2: 8/20/22

What is the story of one of your scars?

My knees are covered in scars from various accidents, but most recently I tore them up exploring an abandoned amusement park. Exploring abandoned places is a hobby of mine, and I convinced my mom and sister to join me this time. There was this super colourful painted building with a staircase going up the side. My mom said, “Go traipse through the bushes and I’ll get a picture of you on the stairs.” So I went marching through the overgrown plants, and I slipped but got back up, and eventually I made it to the stairs. The instant I set foot on those stairs, 50 FUCKING WASPS came flying at my face. I covered my face, and they stung me all over my arms and hands. My sister started screaming, “OH MY GOD, RUN!” So I ran, and I tripped on the street and ate shit and slid, shredding my knees on the broken pavement.

[jd-finch]

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Daily Creative Practice Day 1: 8/19/22

What is the story of your name?

I don’t go by my legal name, and I will not be telling you what it is. I go by Finch, which is a nickname that comes from my last name, Fincher. My full (chosen) name is Jake Daniel Fincher. I will tell you the story of the name Finch. It started when I was 14 and started at my second high school. I befriended someone on my bus who had the same first name as me. His last name was Phillips, so we got nicknames for our other friends to tell us apart. I was Finch and he was Phil. I ended up loving the name Finch and kept using it even after I transferred to my third high school, and I still use it now all these years later. My whole family hates it and still call me by my legal name. My sister says it’s disrespectful to have cut off part of our family name. My mom won’t call me Finch because it was my dead uncle’s nickname as well. My dad said that by rejecting my legal first name I am also rejecting him and that I may as well spit in his face and disown him as my father. Regardless of what any of them say, I love the name Finch and will continue to use it for as long as I like. I plan on getting my first and middle name changed legally, but no matter what my last name will be Fincher and I will be Finch.