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studio34-artspace · 2 years ago

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DRAWING IS A VERB

Taney Roniger March 4 – April 8, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 4, 5-8pm

Artist talk: Friday, April 7, 6pm

Studio 34 is pleased to present Drawing is a Verb, an exhibition of large-scale drawings by Taney Roniger. Made over the last two years, the works explore not what drawings can mean or signify but rather what they can do to the body of the viewer.

Inspired by a book by Sarah Robinson titled Architecture is a Verb, Roniger began the series by thinking about how conditions of light can alter moods and states of consciousness. Soon she began thinking about spatial conditions as well, coming to focus on spaces that evoke our earliest ancestry as a species. Using charcoal because of the unique way it interacts with her paper’s surface, she began making drawings meant to evoke these earliest conditions. In the resulting series, settings such as the ocean, the horizon, and the forest become recurring motifs, appearing not in their literal form but by subtle suggestion. With their quietly rhythmic and luminous presence, the drawings communicate a deep sense of home.

For Roniger, the experience of the viewer is primary. “So much art these days is about the identity of the artist,” she says. “My work, by contrast, is all about the viewer. I want to make things that eclipse me altogether, things that speak of – and to – the body experiencing them.” In conceiving of her work as speaking to the body, Roniger’s ultimate aim is to create a physical experience of our continuity with the natural world. “If I do my job right,” she says, “even the viewer will be eclipsed. Ideally, all that will be left will be a deeply felt sense of belonging to the world.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, the gallery will host a conversation between Roniger and artist, writer, and curator Daniel Hill. The event will take place on Friday, April 7th at 6:00pm.

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Taney Roniger is an artist and writer based in New York. A painter for many years, she has recently turned to drawing, finding it to be the most direct visual expression of the intelligence of the human body. Her work has been shown in a number of venues here and abroad, including: Robert Henry Contemporary, Lesley Heller Workspace, Sperone Westwater, The Islip Art Museum, and StandPipe Gallery in New York; the Contemporary Arts Center and The Front in New Orleans; and the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Her awards and honors in the visual arts include three Yaddo fellowships, a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and a traveling fellowship from the Stacey Sussman Cavrell Memorial Foundation. Since 2012, she has been a contributing writer at The Brooklyn Rail, for which she served as Guest Editor in December 2017. Her writing has also appeared in Interalia, Hyperallergic, Whitehot Magazine, Big Red & Shiny, Transverse, and On-Verge. In 2016 she was a finalist for the Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant in short-form non-fiction. Over the last ten years she has organized numerous arts-related symposia, among them Thingly Affinities: Rethinking Aesthetic Form for a Posthumanist Future, Beyond Kandinsky: Revisiting the Spiritual in Art, Strange Attractors: Art, Science, and the Question of Convergence, and Stop the Interrogation, a critical look at nonsense language in the visual arts. She holds an MFA from Yale University and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, where she teaches in the Fine Arts Department and Honors Program.

STUDIO 34 - 34-01 38th Ave Long Island City NY 11101

Hours Friday 11 – 6 and by appointmentFor appointment contact Eliza Barnes at [email protected](607) 435-6908.LOCATION Studio 34 is on the fourth floor of the Pierce-Arrow building in Long Island City, NY. Any of the following trains will get you there:

- R/M trains to 36th St stop, exit at 34th St stairs and cross Northern Blvd. Pierce-Arrow building behind 7-11/Shell.-

N/W trains to 39th Ave stop, walk one block to Northern Blvd, go left to 34th St.-

E train to Queensboro Plaza stop, exit at 41st Ave stairs and walk east four blocks.-

7 train to Queensboro Plaza stop, walk south to Northern Blvd, go east four blocks.

#taneyroniger studio34artspace longislandcity fineart studio34gallery studio34lic gallery

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out-of-the-loupe · 3 years ago

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same hat! I have a bfa in writing and am seriously considering horology school. If I may ask, what was your experience in getting into horology? What made you think of it?

Hey! I'm so glad others are getting into it, it's a dying art and we need more (properly educated) horologists around.

I'd always had a very casual interest in watches and clocks growing up, but I didn't decide to really pursue it until I got my first job out of college. It was mind-numbingly boring, and since I was the only person in the entire building, I bought some watches for cheap on ebay and started just tearing them apart to learn how they worked during my downtime (which was all the time).

I made the decision fully to go to horology school in the middle of my first semester of grad school--I was going for a master's in business, specifically human relations, but realized I'm not heartless enough for the business world--and honestly it was the best decision of my life. I never knew I could actually make things, fix things, with my hands. I'd watch YouTube videos of people fixing watches or doing other mechanical stuff and thought I could never do it; now I watch them and think, "Yeah, I can do that, no problem. Did that last week."

I'm working now in the only clock repair shop in the northern part of my home state. It's not an easy job, but it's fun and it's so nice to be able to see clocks go out that I've worked on, that I've fixed, and know that what I'm doing is having some kind of impact.

I went to Gem City College, which is an old-fashioned school for watch and clock repair. If you want to specifically work for like Rolex, Omega, Swatch, any of the big name brands, I would suggest going to one of the specialized schools for that. It will cost more, and be a much longer program, but you'll be Rolex or Swatch certified by the end, which I am not (nor do I want to be).

TL;DR horology is fun and you should def do it. Feel free to message me if you want more info!

#i apologize that i'm just now seeing this #i've been busy moving into the new apartment and getting settled #i hope this answered your question!#watchmaking is fun and i wish more people did it #then maybe tools and parts wouldn't be as expensive

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correspondencearchive · 4 years ago

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2. Natalia Nakazawa & Nazanin Noroozi

Natalia Nakazawa and Nazanin Noroozi discuss their use of archives and photographs, creating hybrid narratives, cultural transmission, and the formation of personal and cultural memories.

Natalia Nakazawa, Obtrait I, Jacquard woven textile, 71 x 53 inches, 2015, Photo credit: Jeanette May

Natalia Nakazawa: First off, Naz, how are you doing? There has been so much going on - it is far too easy to forget we have bodies. We have families, we have things we need to do, and we need to take care of ourselves. As they say, put the oxygen mask on first, and then help others. Can you maybe start by just telling us what your day looks like? What are you doing to take care of yourself?

Nazanin Noroozi: I’m doing ok. I have to balance my day job and my studio time. My day job is working in high-end interior design firms in which our clients spend millions and millions of $$$ on luxury goods. It is very interesting to look at the wage gap especially considering the pandemic. When someone can spend 40k on a coffee table for their vacation house, and you hear all the issues with the stimulus checks etc, it makes you wonder about our value system and how our society functions.

As for self-care, I guess just like any other artist, I buy tons of art supplies that I may or may not need! I just bought a heavy-duty industrial paper cutter that can cut a really thick stack of paper! I needed it! I really don't have room for it, but I bought it! So that is my method of self-care! Treat myself to things that I like but may be problematic in the future. ;)

Natalia: I recently re-watched Stephanie Syjuco’s Art21 feature online where she talks about having to actively decide to become a citizen of the US, despite having come to this country at the age of 3. One of the poignant points she brings up is how we are all reckoning right now with what it means to be “American”. She also brings up the iconic photo taken by Dorothea Lange of a large sign reading “I am an American” put up by a Japanese American in Oakland right after the declaration of internment - thinking about how citizenship can be given or taken away. This all feels very relevant right now. What do you think about these questions? How do you use archives and photos of our past to engage in these issues of belonging, citizenship, and the precarity of it all?

Nazanin: What I try to do with archives is to question them as modes of cultural transmission and historical memory. I think many artists deal with archives in a more clinical and objective manner, whereas I like to add my own agency to these found photographs. When one looks at a family album or found footage, one is already looking at fragmented narratives. You never know a whole story when you look at your friend’s old family albums. I truly embrace this fragmented, broken narrative and try to make it my own. I also constantly move back and forth between still and moving images, printmaking and painting, experimental films and artist books. So there is this hybridity in the nature of found footage itself that I try to activate in my work. In these works handmade cinema is used as a medium to re-create an already broken narrative told by others, sometimes complete strangers to tell stories about trauma and displacement. That is what fascinates me about archives. The fact that you can recreate your story and make a new fictional alt-reality.

Nazanin Noroozi, Self Portrait

Natalia: But who is to say these if fictional alt-realities are less important or less serious than purely “art historical” narratives? One of the things that I am exploring in my work is giving space for slippages in memory, rearranging of timelines to accommodate a lived experience. What happens when we look at collections - even museum collections - with the same warmth, tenderness, and care that we would an old friend? What possibilities are dislodged there? What benefit is there to towing the status quo - which is built on white supremacy, stolen artifacts, and other types of lying, exclusion and dubious authoritative storytelling? Also, there are so many family histories that often become reified - being told and retold with certainty over and over again. How do we claim agency from that oppressive knowledge? The things we tell ourselves about our families may not be “true” so what do we risk by revisiting our archives and re-telling those histories through our current eyes? When we re-examine the history - we may discover new ways of seeing and being with ourselves.

Nazanin: I like to think of photographs as sites of refuge. When you look at a photograph of a kid’s birthday from many years ago, you know for fact that this joyous moment is long gone. These mundane moments that bring you “happiness” and security won't last. It’s like “all that is solid melts into air”. In a larger picture, isn't everything in life fragile and fleeting and there is absolutely no certainty in life? For example, look at how Covid has changed our “normal everyday” life. A simple birthday party for your kid was unimaginable for months. In “Purl” and “Elite 1984” I mix these mundane moments with images of flood, natural disasters and other forces of nature to talk about fragile states of being and ideas of home. I digitally and manually manipulate footages of a stormy Caspain Sea, Mount Damavand or a glacier melt to ask my questions about failure or resistance, you know? I let the images tell me the new narrative, both visually and thematically.

Something I find really interesting in your work is how you re-create these alt-realities by actively and physically engaging your audience into participating in your work, like your textile maps - called Our Stories of Migration? Do you have any fear that they may tell a story you don't like? Or take your work to a place that you didn't anticipate? How do you deal with an open-ended artwork that is finished but it needs an audience to be complete?

Natalia Nakazawa, Our Stories of Migration, Jaquard woven textiles, hand embroidery, shisha mirrors, beetle wings, beads, yarn, 36 x 16 feet, 2020, Photo credit: Vanessa Albury

Natalia: I am always stunned by the generosity of the people I meet - those who dive in and share their own histories - and I think it points to a universal need of ours to share and connect. There is always potential to create intimacy - even within the walls of large institutions, such as schools or museums - when our own lives are placed at the center with care and concern. I’ve never heard a story that didn’t make me pause and grant me more space for contemplating the complexity of being a human on this planet. We have all kinds of mechanisms for memory - archives, written diaries, photos, paintings, objects - but at the end of the day they are nothing without our active participation. Quite literally they are meaningless unless they are being interacted with. That has been the entry point for me, as an artist and educator. How do we take all of these things that exist in the material world and make sense out of them? What does the process of “making sense” do to the way we live TODAY? Or, perhaps, how we envision the future? It is almost like a yoga practice, a stretching of the mind, a flexibility to think backwards and forwards - that lends us more space to consider the present.

Nazanin: Yeah! I think you really are on point here! I think we really can't understand our existence without retelling the history and recreating new realities.

Nazanin Noroozi, The Rip Tide

Natalia: Thank you, Nazanin! Anything coming up for you that you want to mention?

Nazanin: Yes, I am actually doing a really amazing residency at Westbeth for a year. This is an incredible opportunity as I get to live in the Village for one year and have a live-work space in such an amazing place. Westbeth is home to many wonderful artists!

Natalia Nakazawa, History has failed us...but no matter, Jacquard textiles, laser cut Arches watercolor paper, vinyl, jewels, concentrated watercolor and acrylic on wood panel, 40 x 90 inches, 2019, Photo credit: Jeanette May

Natalia Nakazawa is a Queens-based interdisciplinary artist working across the mediums of painting, textiles, and social practice. Utilizing strategies drawn from a range of experiences in the fields of education, arts administration, and community activism, Natalia negotiates spaces between institutions and individuals, often inviting participation and collective imagining. Natalia received her MFA in studio practice from California College of the Arts, a MSEd from Queens College, and a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has recently presented work at the Arlington Arts Center (Washington, DC), Transmitter Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY). Natalia was an artist in residence at MASS MoCA, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Wassaic Project, and Triangle Arts.

www.natalianakazawa.com @nakazawastudio

Nazanin Noroozi is a multimedia artist incorporating moving images, printmaking and alternative photography processes to reflect on notions of collective memory, displacement and fragility. Noroozi’s work has been widely exhibited in both Iran and the United States, including the Immigrant Artist Biennial, Noyes Museum of Art, NY Live Arts, Prizm Art Fair, and Columbia University. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Artistic Freedom Initiative, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYFA IAP 2018, Mass MoCA Residency, North Adams, MA and Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Residency, NY. She is an editor at large of Kaarnamaa, a Journal of Art History and Criticism. Noroozi completed her MFA in painting and drawing from Pratt Institute. Her works have been featured in various publications and media including BBC News Persian, Elephant Magazine, Financial Times, and Brooklyn Rail.

www.nazaninnoroozi.net @nazaninnoroozi

#natalianakazawanazaninnoroozi #natalianakazawa #nazaninnoroozi

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spiritsonic · 5 years ago

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Hello, I'm an aspiring artist looking to make my way into the comics/animation business. I was wondering if it was alright to ask you the general courses you took that helped further your career? I believe you mentioned that you're in an art school in one post, would you say it's beneficial? (I hope this is alright to ask on tumblr, I'm just trying to gather some information about college)

Yo!

Sure, I can talk about my educational background. I attended my local community college (Cabrillo College) first, where I did my general education classes and got an AA degree in studio art-- basically a bunch of fundamental art classes trying out different mediums, and a smattering of graphic design. I also took as many screenwriting classes as I could. I think community college is a good idea, especially for general education: it’s less expensive, doesn’t require you to travel as far from home (usually), you can learn how to manage college-level workloads without the stakes being as high as they could be. And in my case, the general ed instruction was actually MUCH BETTER than the full-time university I attended next.

That said, when it came to my specialization (animation/illustration), the dedicated program at my university (San Jose State) was the first place where I received any meaningful instruction on visual storytelling, and experience working with other artists face-to-face. Going through their animation/illustration BFA program (and again, taking all the available screenwriting courses on the side) was incredibly important for me. I wouldn’t be the artist and storyteller I am now without it--not even close. But the thing is, you get out of it exactly as much as you put in. School provides a framework for education, but you still have to do most of the work yourself. If you’re very, very good at self-discipline you can do the same thing on your own; be aware of how you best learn, review the options for schools, and weigh the benefits of formal education versus the cost. This isn’t true for every field, but in art jobs, a degree and your GPA generally don’t matter to your hireability; it’s your portfolio and soft skills that matter. Do what works best for you.

(If you live in or near California, San Jose State’s Animation/Illustration program is one of the cheapest options available while also being legit good, and having a truly outstanding student culture. The only roadblock is that the GPA requirement is the highest at the school, it was 3.85ish when I applied).

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raselafsaofia · 4 years ago

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I was suddenly jolted to consciousness out of my sleep this morning with these ideas screaming at me from the foreground of my conscious mind. The ideas that I have been looking at and considering suddenly were aligning to a single thought.

It began with the memory of what Dane Mitchell said to me last year. He said that there are three cultures present in the work. "The Pakeha world, the Maori culture, and my Samoan culture". I was thrown by his comment, whilst it was true I had not thought of, nor acknowledge this as least not in the way he pointed them out. This threeness threw the equation to an uncomfortable place.

I woke up with a sudden realisation that whilst I have not yet made anything I have been unconsciously trying to resolve this issue of three. This subconscious conversation that has been going on beneath the surface of my awareness were so loud and clear in my head this morning as I was waking up that it jolted me. I was troubled by this abrupt alignment of thought as I needed to fix this. This trouble or problem of three. Two I am fine with. Three is harder.

I was listening to Caroline McHugh's Ted talk yesterday on 'The Art of Being yourself' where she introduces two ideas which intrigued me. She talked about 'Interiority'. Interiority is her madeup word, she talked about the human ego living in two modes either inferiority, or superiority. She introduced interiority as a middle ground where one's ego can live in as a preferred alternative as superiority and inferiority two opposite ends of the scale are negative and toxic. This introduction of this seemingly third space took me back to Homi Bharbas introduction of the 'third space' or the hybryd space' in his book The Location of Culture.

The second thing Caroline McHugh said that caught my attention was when she said she was a 'womanist' not a feminist. I love this, though I don't yet know what this has to do with my work, still I wanted to tug that somewhere in here so I don't forget it.

The alignment that came to me this morning was triggered by this talk of Caroline McHughs. This interiority as a probable 'third space'. The existence of three cultures in my work as Dane Mitchell pointed out, and the equation being moved from a binary space to a complex politically charged space was not what I desired. In fact in my interview for my BFA entry where Noel Ivanoff was present I particularly pointed out that one place I did not want my work to exist was in the 'political' setting as far as Art goes.

However as these thought were firing up the aligning of these ideas, a statement Henry Symond made a few years ago now in one of his lectures came back to me. In his introduction statement he said 'everything is political from the things we buy to the food we eat'. This brought a sudden connection of my process to politics and it bugged me. I hate politics.

This 'hate of politics' alarmed me as I was waking up. This uncomfortable disturbing feeling in the pit of my stomach forced me to look at the idea of a binary equation. I like the nature of a binary resolution. The two opinions, the negative and positive, the left and right, the up or down. The introduction of a third voice, a third space, though it may be a comfortable solution to the tension that two opposing ideas can cause. I find it easier to work in this tension and creating my own third space hence the title of my show in 2020 're-tension', a three culture tension is not so easy to resolve.

The point of all this, was this. I woke up with this clear determination to push my thoughts and ideas and my making process past these binaries. And back to a place of origin. This is in a way, a form of displacing the third space as there is three cultures to consider. However in the politics of nations a nation is globally represented by its government. Its government speak as a singular voice of representation, this could be considered as a form of resolving the duality if this nations identity. Whilst this throws up alot of issues it is an option that is presented if I consider why and how I came to be in country in terms of its political history as a nation in the world among other nations.

Going back to this place of origin or birth place of emerging is where I want to speak from. I love Homi Bharbas third space. This new place that is created and was born out of colonial times. He himself was having to enter a place where binary definitions did not fit or give acknowlegdement to the real impact of colonialism or the plight of immigrants (as he had move to London to study). As they; foreigners enter a culture outside of their own. A place where the displacements forces readaptations of traditions thus creating new forms of identity born out of the need to survive and thrive in a new home of arrival.

These ideas caused me to think about the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty is to me a binary document. It creates and declares NZ to be a nation made up of 2 nations, everyone else who comes into NZ remains a secondary foreigner the Crown being the primary of course.

This triggered this thoughts that for the past few months I have been trying to resolve. This idea of being home yet a forever a foreigner. Everywhere I go in this land, I am constantly reminded of this status, of being a foreigner. This 'fireigner' identity. This 'home but not my land' place where I find myself in, also led to the need to resolve another politically created narrative.

Samoa was ruled by NZ. In 1962 Samoa was granted its independence, whilst NZ was in Samoa its colonial rule of Samoa gave way to the Mau movement, which was using passive resistance to oppose colonial rule and occupation of Samoa by NZ forces. And it led to the death and killing of one of Samoas prominent chiefs.

The day of his death in history is known as

Black Saturday, one NZ policemen and 11 Samoans were killed.

The NZ government after Samoa was granted its independence a 'Treaty of

Friendship' was signed between Samoa and NZ whereby Samoa was granted a quota where Samoans can immigrate to live and work permanently in NZ.

This treaty or agreement is the gate I entered NZ through.

This coming into a place where tension already exists and through a agreement that is politically manufactured where, I legally have a place yet in a national level am not really welcomed. This tension is what I woke up this morning, aware that I was trying resolve it. I wanted to push my ideas either forward to a contemporary space where the narrative it creates is in a manufactured or industrialised zone. To speak into the now of my existence in the land or to go back.

The going back to a place of origin. This idea that everything came from somewhere else. In the Christian understanding, humans originated from God. The human spirit existed with God before it embodied human flesh. This thought and idea of 'things having come from somewhere else, and that things had a life before' was so prominent in my thoughts this morning so much so that before I opened my eyes I was already fully charged.

While taking physics in high school. I was told that matter cannot be destroyed. It can only be changed in terms of its state. E.g wood when burnt turns to ashes, but ashes is a different atomic structure from wood, as well as in all decomposition when things die they turn back to soil therefore everything techniqually still exist but only in an altered state.

This chain of thought happened in my sleep. It was like I had been plugged into something whilst sleeping and I woke up with my brain completely conscious of the place I wanted to explore. The 'life before' the history of pre-existence' of an object or materials. I want to take a step back and look at the materials I use and consider what life they lived before this. This pre-encounter existence was so exciting that I sat up and started writing.

This jumbled up mass of entangled thoughts is so exciting yet so huge, so complex that it brought me back to my usual place of beginnings. 'The ideas are again too big, too conceptual, too in the air with no place to land let alone begin' zone.

One thing I can say though, this was such an exciting chain of thought that I am all fired up to go. This led to, what I now need to resolve, which is 'where am I going and what am I making?' What does all of this mean and with regards to what I am going to make? Where to from here?

Of course now I need to stop. Pause, take one simple part and begin with that. As the vast ocean that these ideas represent is too vague unattainable and are 'pie in the sky' unless I can connect them to the work. Which means already I need to edit, strip back somethings and simplify. But before I get to that.

There is one thing I know I need to look at and its this. The idea of a third voice, the voice of the foreigner, what is that? How does that look or what does it sound like? This is just a side thought.

I had mentioned Caroline McHugh's 'womanist' comment. I like this idea. The idea of the voice of a woman, not a female but a woman. The identity of a woman, as an art maker, a nurturer of families, of identities whilst she herself is an identity. This role or existence is charged with a different set of metaphors. The Maya Angelous 'Phenominally Phenominal Woman' and exploration of a woman as concept perhaps and her place in the work. And

taking this back to a relevant place in regards to where I am, or where I was placed after the 2020 show. The end of year show, connects to this chain of thoughts as it brings me back to the very basic yet profound place of 'woman's work'. The handmade craft, and the gendered allocation of such a practice. This handicraft, instead of handcrafted, and the unspoken yet present disrespect directed at this way of making is a tension I would really like to delve into this year.

I want to look at perhaps exploring the value systems of materials, and making processes. The handmade which is the handicraft versus the artisans, the handmade versus the handicraft, the manufactured versus the natural, the organic versus the raw, the found and the grown. Whilst these are presented as tensions and binaries at the moment, they are put only in this way to highlight and as a form of note-to-self to remind myself of the ideas I need to remember and keep in the forefront of my consideration once I start making.

A final thought. My interest at this point is purely not so much to consider an identity of sorts with regards to my place and role as a foreigner, my only desire is to find a way of discussing and voicing my ideas that are purely my own, informed by my place of origin and speaking into/from my now space of existence. I want to come to a place where a singular material or two can be utilised to speak as a representation of a single voice, my own.

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pythosart · 5 years ago

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A big ol 2019 end of the year update

I felt somewhat compelled to write my end of the year/decade thoughts, but a warning before you read: This one’s going to be heavy, intensely personal, and long. If you don’t feel up to reading that, it may be best to skip it. I promise I’ll go back to shutting up and posting art afterwards. I’m profoundly incapable of being concise, ever, so apologies for the length of this.

2019 was a nightmare.

Some background: In mid 2016, my mother was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. She was given a few months to live. She was given weeks or months to live multiple times, for almost three years. In that time my mom was in and out of the hospital, but spent all her good days living life to the fullest, starting and finishing dream projects, and keeping all of us going despite her own situation. Even when she was bedridden, hooked up to tubes and bags and god knows what, she found time to prop up her loved ones and pursue her hobbies. She even managed to develop new hobbies and interests while otherwise imprisoned by her physical state, something I struggle to do at the best of times even in my young and relatively healthy form. If there’s anything I can make of this experience, it’s that I hope to grow into even half the woman my mother was.

I ended 2018 with my final quarter at SCAD. I spent the entire quarter terrified my mom was going to die while I was away from home. It was horrific, I barely scraped by my last few classes (bless my professors’ endless patience), and immediately left Savannah for home as soon as the quarter was up. I never had room to celebrate finishing college. Any other year it would be a huge milestone, but I barely even care.

This past May, my mother passed away, after three years of petrifying suspense. It happened in the dead middle of the night, while my best friend was visiting for a con, and it still feels like a bad dream. It’s also one of the only vivid memories I even have of this year.

I wish I had more to say on that, but I genuinely think the drawn out suffering and fracturing of my whole world left me unable to fully unpack everything that’s happened. It’s hard to even think about for long, and at times I even half-forget she’s gone. I think of things I want to show her, or tell her, or cook with her. Just the other day I kept thinking I’d tell her how much I liked endive after she showed me how to make it. I found a historical Italian cooking channel that, every time I see it, I just think of how much she’d love it. I knew she’d love Hot Fuzz but never got to show her. Little, stupid things that shouldn’t matter, but they do. They just do.

My mother and I were close, much closer than I am with my dad. Especially towards the end of her life, we had gotten closer, and I felt like I was only just really getting to know her as an equal. I still want to share my life with her, but that chance is gone.

This holiday season has been especially rough in her absence, because not only was my mom the motivational and creative force behind a lot of holiday activities here, it’s the first everything without her. We had Thanksgiving with friends and a catered dinner, instead of spending several days cooking and polishing family silver and setting the table. I won’t be making handmade tortellini with her for Christmas like we did every year. It’s the little things like that.

We’re a tiny family, with over half of us in Italy and lacking much communication due to the language barrier. Family holidays were always small, but there’s just a huge hole how, much greater than the cold numeric value of “one fewer participant.” My mom was always a driving force and a keystone in our support networks, not to mention the main line of contact with the Italian-speaking side of the family, so now the family feels so much more scattered and isolated than ever.

My girlfriend was close to my mother too, and as she’s been living with me for years now and is practically part of the family, I think she took it just as hard as anyone. Cel saw everything I did, and dealt with many of the same uncertainties and traumatic experiences I did.

A month after I lost my mother, I lost my cat too. Galileo was twelve years old, a spry old man who yelled instead of meowed, and just a wonderful cat. I got him when I was in 7th grade, after begging my parents for years to get me a cat. It was my mom who eventually overrode my dad’s hesitations, and from then on Leo was part of the family. He went through a very sudden decline over the course of a week or two, and we learned it was cancer. Feline lymphoma, I think. I had to make the call to put him to sleep, and it ripped what was left of my heart out.

Not that it needs stating, but fuck cancer.

A few too-short months later, I cut ties with a “friend,” which despite how fucking much it hurt, was really for the best. At a certain point one simply can no longer afford to waste energy on a certain kind of person. Unfortunately I’m a persistently optimistic idiot, and it took me too long to cut my losses before deep damage was done. Done to me, my close friends, and even barely involved acquaintances this “friend” dumped on relentlessly and tried to harass into spying on me. Really, if any part of this is unforgivable, it’s that.

All this was, however, a valuable reminder that it’s no good to have any tolerance for habitually dishonest people, even if they think they’re doing it to look “nice.” Chronic liars will gaslight you whether they know it or not, and trying to navigate that in an already damaged mental state is inadvisable. It was an important lesson in picking one’s battles, albeit one learned too late. I’m still holding out hope I can find it in my heart to forgive this person, if only for my own selfish sake so I can move on. I have a lot of experience living on spite, and I don’t want to make a further habit of it.

Naturally all of the above did little to curb my already inflamed pessimism about the state of my country and the world at large, but I need not expand on that, I imagine.

I suppose it would be unfair of me to leave it all at that and only mention the negative, though admittedly positivity is hard to muster these days. A few bright spots of note:

Graduated from SCAD with my BFA in Sequential Art (technically last year, but I did the ceremonial bit this year)

Tabled at Animazement with Woods. We barely broke even, but it was a great time and I plan on doing it again in the new year.

Spent literally an entire month hanging out with my two best friends, which was amazing and exactly the kind of healing experience I needed around that time of year.

Properly did Halloween for the first time in years. I made a costume I’m proud of and we went out on the town… for like an hour, because it promptly started pouring. But fun nevertheless

Started therapy. As of writing this, I’ve only had an introductory session, but it’s a start. Should have started six months ago, but didn’t for reasons to be addressed...in therapy

Started volunteering at the local natural history museum, where I spent like half my childhood. I’ll be doing data entry in collections, but that’s still cool as hell

Got a start on figuring out what I want to do with my life. It’ll involve going back to school for science within the next five-ish years, but it’s nice to have a goal. More of a goal than I’ve ever had, in fact.

Played some extremely good video games (shout out to The Blackout Club and Control)

Made a shitload of unnecessary yet endlessly fun and good AUs with my friends and my one (1) OC

Got an iPad Pro and started learning Procreate, which has gotten me drawing more

Learned a bit of needle felting

2019 was a year of getting much closer to my two best friends, and I genuinely owe them my life at this point. I don’t know where I’d be without them. Nowhere good, certainly.

Woods and Dross kept me talking to people, kept me creating, told me when I was being unreasonable or needed to cool it, heard me out when I needed it but always kept me honest. They helped me keep some creative juices flowing when otherwise I’d have been at a frustrated loss and might have given up for good. If it seems like I’ve kept up my usual art output at all, and if you’ve enjoyed the Lou content (or not, whoops... apologies to everyone who followed me for monster content) you have both of them to thank.

Even moreso, I owe my girlfriend a great deal for being there for me through all of this while she herself was suffering similarly. She and I have had our ups and downs, and been through a lot in the five-ish years we’ve been together. We aren’t the most outspoken couple, but I think our mutual understanding and pain mitigated a lot of the damage this year has done. I don’t think I could have handled it alone.

Furthermore, I really need to thank a lot of other friends and acquaintances I’m not quite as close with, but still talk to. These people especially were willing to call me on my bullshit when necessary, or just talk to me at all, about anything. Even if these acquaintances didn’t know it at the time, there’s a good chance they were dragging me out of one of my frequent existential despair spirals.

I also, weirdly, owe a lot to helping my hen Julia recover from her dog attack. That was around the time that my mom’s health was in its final decline, when I felt the most helpless and despairing. I think having even some tiny something I could do to help was like, the only feeling of control I had in life for a bit there. Julia’s fine, by the way. Still queen of the yard, top chicken boss bitch, etc. Julia was always a kind of kindred spirit with my mom, in a way. Little but not to be underestimated, gray, big personality and commanding presence… Not to mention, she was one of the first in our flock and was always my mom’s favorite.

It would be too much to say I have high hopes or plans of any kind for the upcoming year, but I do have a list of things I want to try and do. Some of which will involve art, and the posting thereof.

Big if on this one, but I’ve also recently started therapy (only took me half a year to work up to making a phone call after the first failed attempt took all the wind out of my sails) and I have…maybe not high hopes, but hopes, for that doing something to help. I should have started therapy two years ago, but the second best time is now, etc etc.

I have a lot of New Year’s resolutions, beyond the usual “get in shape, drink less coffee, blah blah” that I’ll try and write up a little list of separately. Most of them are art-related, so you all will be there to watch me swing and miss I PROMISED I’D TRY TO BE LESS NEGATIVE. New Year’s resolution #1: Maybe don’t make so many self-deprecating jokes.

Anyway, I don’t know how to end any wall of text, be it an OC worldbuilding screed or something serious like this, so... I guess, love yourself, cherish your friends, know when to put your own needs first and when to put your friends’ needs firster. One of the things my mom taught me in this past year or so is that relationships are what you make of them, and that it’s okay to be selfish sometimes. Be generous, be genuine, don’t be a doormat and don’t lie to people you care about, even if it seems kinder in the moment. Savor the time you have with those close to you, and spend time doing things you love. Cliché, maybe, but cliché can still be true. Happy new year, everyone. I sincerely hope it will treat us all better. 2020 may just be an imaginary change of numbers, but I like to think it really does wipe the slate in a way, and make room for all of us to do what we can to be better. Speaking of which, vote. For the love of all that is good, vote.

A little bullet list of New Year’s resolutions, because it’s nicer to look at

Try to get back in shape (of course) - That 30 days of strength thing was good while it lasted, despite my joints hating me

Learn some new recipes, preferably with fewer carbs, you Italian ass

Keep a physical calendar and stick with it for at least a few months

Learn at least one new skill by the middle of the year, whether it’s art-related or something else

Start writing more. Don’t have to share it, but try. Write down ideas somewhere other than Discord where they’re easy to lose

Either reopen Patreon or figure out how ko-fi works. Even if it’s for no money, just to have structure and goals.

Do Animazement again and try out some new product types

Go to SCAD career fair with a decent portfolio

Get better about spending, by whatever method works

Attend some art classes at the local collectives, doesn’t matter what

Play more video games. I swear I only played like three new things this year

Read more classic literature and nonfiction, at least one book per month. I’ve been really enjoying Agatha Christie’s works and am about to start Guns, Germs, and Steel

Read more comics. Basically just consume more media

Do Halloween again, better this time

See friends in person more

Practice accepting whatever shitty thoughts show up and then letting them go, rather than dwelling on them

#not art #text post #death cw

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sfaioffical · 5 years ago

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Kristín María Ingimarsdóttir (Stína Maja) and Jóhannes Eyfjörð (Jói)

When I came back to SFAI in 1986 after a semester on independent study, traveling around Europe with my dear friend Arngunnur Ýr, I ran into a new student from Iceland, Jóhannes Eyfjörð, called Jói. He had started at SFAI in the sculpture department while Arngunnur and I were away. We first met in the hall where the mailboxes and the pay-phones used to be, right in front of Studio 8. I could not resist this handsome guy and a few weeks later, on Valentine’s day party, we started going out. Within a year we got married and lived in San Francisco until 1994 when we moved back to Iceland. We are still married and have three wonderful kids.

In 2012 we spent the summer in San Francisco and of course, we took our kids to SFAI and showed them where we first ran into one another. So that Valentine’s day party was definitely a memorable party and the party is still going on.

Larry Andrews (BFA 1987) and Arngunnur Yr

When we got back to San Francisco we needed a place to live and convinced this nice guy on Green Street to rent to the two of us, although in his ad he had posted that he wanted only one, and emphatically so, ONE tenant and male... we promised that we would be most excellent tenants and besides we would hardly ever be home and he would not even notice that we were there. Well, things were about to change. When I got back to the Art Institute at the beginning of the spring semester of ‘86 my friends kept telling me about this handsome new guy from DC, stating that they are sure that “I am going to get him“. I remember thinking that was quite funny and wondering why, if they thought he was so cute why they didn’t go after him. But it turned out they were right after all. My first encounter with Larry was when we met in the photo lab where he was a monitor and he handed me the photo developing equipment I had requested. He reached out his hand and we realized we had the same golden nail polish on! So we figured this was meant to be.

On Valentine’s Day, there was a big party at school and we had a pre-party in our new apartment. I had been to a thrift store and was wearing a 60’s nylon pantsuit extravaganza with a fake blonde wig down to my waist. And that’s how I went to the party and met Larry there. We had a wild and fun night, which ended with friends, including Stína and Jói, at the Stud. 34 years later we have two kids, Daria Sól, 26 and Dyami Rafn 23, who are amazing and wonderful, fluent in both languages and equally at home in both countries.

Conrad and Willis Meyers

Willis and I were both class of MFA 2008 in Sculpture. In our second year, we collaborated on a Diego Rivera Gallery exhibition (photo above) and sparks flew in the welding shop and beyond. By the time we graduated, both of us knew that we had found lifelong collaborators.

In 2010, we found a derelict warehouse in West Oakland that we rented and eventually began to build out to fit the mutual vision of a sculpture shop and gallery. In the 9 years since Aggregate Space Gallery was founded, it has become a nationally recognized and Bay Area renown exhibition space in support of a diverse slate of installation and new media artists. In mid-2019, we were displaced from that space and set about finding a new home for our nonprofit. In February 2020 after months of satellite programming (including the Jefferson Pinder show at SFAI), we launched our first exhibition in the new Aggregate Space Gallery at 1255 26th St. in Oakland, 10 blocks from where we were founded. We are still working together on a daily basis and although now we spend more time planning fundraisers (like the huge gala for ASG on March 20th), then we spend making sculptures together, the wonderful collaboration is ongoing.

#sfai #sfaialumni #love #lovestories

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themodernman · 5 years ago

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First Post!

I wanted to start a Blog to help steer men in the right direction and pass on some of the information I have accrued over the last 36 years of my life.

First my background, I graduated with a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, (not the AI for profit schools, the institute founded in 1879 and located in Chicago's Grant Park.). After some work directing and producing some local commercials and music videos, a recreational drug and alcohol problem turned into a serious drug problem, this was the glory days of the Heroin and crack scene on Cicero St. in the 2000s that some people might remember, with a plethora of drugs and money my life spiraled downward, until I couldn't find any work and I started trafficking large amounts of Heroin and Cocaine up north where the ROI was 500-1000% after a year or two of dodging the police my lifestyle caught up with me and my door was kicked in by Chicagos finest and I lost everything. After a stint in Prison, I came out and started bartending, and playing poker online, this was during the glory days of online poker where if you had any clue how to play, your computer was pretty much a money printing machine. it started because in 2003 an average Joe named Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP (World Series of poker) in Las Vegas for 2.5 MM. He started his journey playing an $86 tournament on poker stars and won a seat to the WSOP main event, eventually winning the tournament. This rags to riches story blew up online poker, and almost minted a new generation of professional online poker players. I eventually quit bartending and just travelled around playing poker on my laptop wherever I went. I lived in Vegas and played sone LIVE games there, I was in NYC, playing at underground clubs and online, and for awhile it was a good run traveling and playing poker, but all good things must come to an end, “Black Friday” poker players call it, on April 15, 2011 the D.O.J. seized the 3 largest online poker sites, froze all of the assets, and essentially shut down online poker in the US for good. (until a few states legalized it years later). no one knows exactly how much money was seized but it was in the hundreds of millions, one pro player lost over 7MM himself, I lost a high 6 figures and it is one of the worst feelings you will ever feel, with the little money I had left I started playing in the underground poker clubs in NYC, between police raids, crooked games, and a few robberies, I couldn't get any traction going, I started painting again to earn some income, and had mild success, but not enough to live the lifestyle I had became accustomed to. about this time I had heard the Bakkan oil field was booming and it was a modern day boomtown, so I moved to ND and started working in there oilfield operating heavy equipment I had a little experience but since they needed so many workers anyone with a pulse could get a job and I picked things up pretty quick and the money was good, but hard work, and long hours, 90-100 hour weeks, not to mention 2-6 hour drive times before and after work just to get to the job site, it was wild there, a bunch of 18-25 yr olds all of a sudden making 200k+ I found some poker games and made extra money, but if you didn't carry a pistol you were just asking to be robbed, or beat, it really was a modern Wild West, I learned that quick. Like all booms there's a bust and that came in 2014, I had made enough money, so when my company started laying people off, I moved and started investing in blue chips, Crypto, and emerging tech. this is just the tip of the iceberg of my life, but it gives you a small idea of where I have been.

Future blogs will be about advice I wish I would have known earlier in life, or tips on building a solid wardrobe, new tech, some reviews, anything I think that a modern man should know. Questions are welcome.

#themodernman #poker #bakkan #bartending #gambler #investing #cryptocurrency #drugs #heavyequipment #pipeline #wsop #theArtinstituteofChicago

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boredliondisorder · 5 years ago

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I am still struggling with jealousy.

I hope it’s not forever. I’m really trying to get past it. I’m in a situation right now where a lot of artists are sharing their work and I think if I could just figure out what’s wrong with my art, I might be able to improve and get a bit of attention, too?

I’m resentful at my past self for deciding to go into art at all. I’m not fishing for compliments here when I say I’m definitely not cut out for it and that I can’t really stand up with some of the amazing art I see. My art isn’t bad, but it’s only average, and there’s something missing from it that I can’t put my finger on. It’s frustrating.

I should have gone into science. I knew I should have. But I loved (and still do love) animation and I SO wanted to be an animator for Disney. It was stupid. I was too poor to go to Cal Arts in 1999, so I settled for a school in my home state that had no post-grad job hunting assistance, and with art being non-existent as a career here (unless you want to go into advertising, which I do not) my career choice was doomed to failure.

I think that’s why I’m so jealous and angry. Because I know these kids with such incredible skill will go places, and I wasted my chance at a career I could love by pursuing a BFA and I feel like I’ll never be anything.

If I could afford to go back and get a computer science degree, I would. But I can’t afford it.

I can’t go anywhere. I’m trapped. I wasted my life and I’m trapped.

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gardeniaresilia-archive · 5 years ago

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Thanks for the reply! I’m planning on studying art in college so I’ve been asking people about their experiences. Have you done many traditional art/graphic design classes yet? What kind of classes have you taken? Do you enjoy the way art classes are in college? Sorry if I’m bugging you or asking too many questions

No, no! You’re fine! I’m gonna put this under a read-more because this is super lengthy (don’t worry I put a TLDR at the end to spare you). And...my university is not an “Art School”, it’s a US State-Ordained-University with Liberal Education and all that shiny extra stuff that just happens to have a Bachelor-in-Fine-Arts program.

***I should start this by putting a disclaimer that these are just experiences I’ve had that are exclusive to me and my time at my specific school, and that this (hopefully) isn’t the experience around the globe.***

At my school, the Art program is super underfunded. In the entirety of the Bachelor of Fine-Arts (to be referred to as BFA) before being divided down into the emphasis studies, there’s 120 of us, and half of those students are pursuing Graphic Design, including myself. A measly 10 students of that 120 are pursuing Art Education.

To get in to the program at my uni, you need to finish some prerequisite courses then do the “Post-Foundation Portfolio Review”, where you submit twelve works, six of which were from these courses and six more that you’ve done during your time at college (high school work is not allowed), as well as a sketch book. You hang up the works on a wall, and you have a talk with two professors in the program about your work, what you wanna do with your time in the program you choose, your interests in the field, etc. Make sure to study some terms and be able to answer questions using art terms (you’re allowed cheat-sheet notecards and they have a pamphlet available beforehand so you’re prepared). I’ll leave this at this for now, but if you have deeper detail questions about my specific experience doing this feel free to ask!

To put it into perspective, we had two Graphic Design professors for 60 students, but one just took an Administrative position as of this past spring and can only do one class/semester starting this fall. However, between the two, a lot of people disliked him so it’s not a huge loss to the students in terms of personality. He was a stickler and it was his way or the highway in terms of grades so...nyeh. It’s just unfortunate because the other Professor is a kind soul who doesn’t deserve potentially putting on the full classloads every semester, and I don’t know if we’re getting another professor.

Anyway, my school has the following emphases/focuses under the BFA: Art Education, 2D Studio, 3D Studio, Graphic Design, and it used to have Interdisciplinary Arts (AKA “other”), but that didn’t have enough interest so that went away, but they still offer the oddball classes like Animation (which I’m taking this fall!!) and 3D-Printing.

To sum each Emphasis:

Art Ed is exactly how it sounds. Learn to be an Art Teacher, learn crafts to do with kids, learn how to make lesson plans.

2D Studio is your traditional media that includes Drawing (which charcoal... personally bleugh), Painting, Printmaking, Figure Drawing, etc.

3D Studio is the Pottery and...whatever else those funky 3D Studio people do. They’re all cool people though.

Graphic Design, my area of study, is things like Typography, Package Design, Logo Design, Photography, etc. That’s almost entirely on a computer and making a printed finished product.

As a BFA at my uni, you’re required to take some history classes, and if you’re not an Art History Major/Minor (which doesn’t fall under the BFA I think) you’d have to take classes from the other focuses to make you, and I quote “a more well-rounded student”. Which, for me I don’t mind. I like drawing, and I can get headaches from working on my devices all day. Therefor, staring at paper absentmindedly laying down hues and shades can be really cathartic and good rest from those harmful blue lights and whatever. I’m also not required to take a language because the BFA credit load is massive compared to a lot of the other non-fine-art or art-related Majors.

To get down into my studies even farther, we’re required to take classes around Typography and doing letterwork type things, as well as classes just titled “Graphic Design I/II/III” which is just doing random graphic projects. Some of these have included making paper booklets, posters, decorative-yet-working UPC/barcodes, etc., and I’m moving into the higher levels, which means I can kinda take what I want. In it’s higher levels, my university offers Package Design, Company Identity/Branding (IE creating your own brand 101), and a few other ones.

Critiques I’ve had with my Graphic Design classes include putting up proofs on the wall to talk about, then open floor with the rest of the class and Professor to talk about and give advice. Then when the final is due, you generally mount it and submit your process book (a binder that you keep all semester with all your WIPS/proofs and studies and inspirations from all the projects), put it up on the wall again, talk about it sometimes, then turn the mounted project in and move on to the next thing. There isn’t much actual homework other than the projects themselves and the prep assigned with it, but some professors assign extra busywork, some don’t. Critiques aren’t also super formal either.

My traditional art classes range from working with charcoal to working with ink, paint, whatever else. You can either be working on a flat table at times or with an easel, and the projects can be either really specific or really random. I’ve really only taken drawing-oriented classes up until this point, and I have a love-hate relationship with most of my professors. They know what they like and know what they don’t, and they generally dislike the “anime” artstyle. I’ve developed a slightly more cartoony looking style for when I am allowed to not try to do realism. Realism and still-lives are going to be a prevalent thing. Especially in the lower level classes. From what I understand you can get jiggy with it in higher classes kind of, but I don’t know.

Critiques include putting up only the final, talking about the process and using art terms and trying to sound smart, and then open forum discussion about the piece. It’s not suuuper formal, but still.

Last but not least! Make friends! Because friends can help critique your work before formal critiques, help make your processes look good in the “formal” critiques by saying “yeah I watched them do this, it was super cool seeing it go from sketch to this!”, and plus you get into this hilarious relationship of going to art stores together and buying each other cute art supplies and paper for projects and it’s a good time.

TLDR; my school has my program severely underfunded, Professors are all generally also real artists pursuing jobs and freelancing outside of teaching, be ready to bow down to what your Professors want to get a good grade, and generally don’t draw in an anime-style. Also try to get good at faking being able to public speak because trust me, you’ll need it. And make friends, not enemies because these people will be your connections as well as people you’ll see a lot.

Aaaaaaaand yeah! Sorry this is super long! If you have any specific questions about experiences (I’ve had lots of good and bad times in my two years at uni so far) and stuff like that feel free to drop another ask!! I love asks!!!

#gardi asks #long post #art school #anons #asks

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freshlyjuicedbeetles · 6 years ago

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Drakgo Fic - Gap

Drakken feels weird about how much older he is than Shego when meeting her friends.

Drew Theodore P. Lipsky AKA the infamous Dr. Drakken had overcome many obstacles in his life. He fought Kim Possible more times than he could count (and he could count pretty high). He managed to evade punishment for his many dastardly deeds in the past. Even when he was captured, prison wasn’t that bad; a Hannibal Lecter-esque high tech cell that sounded alarms every time his back popped is quite cozy once you get used to the electronic hum. Although, meeting his wife’s best friends was one obstacle he wasn’t sure he could conquer successfully.

Drakken had already met Shego’s immediate family with mixed results within the first few months of them dating. Not that Shego cared if he met her family but she couldn’t deny how awkward it would be if the first time they met her husband was at the wedding (even if they did elope). Her brother Heath turned up the machismo and pulled the ‘if you hurt my baby sister blah blah blah…” Michael seemed annoyed that he was dragged into this and had better things to do. The twins Wesley and William didn’t care, just a quick hi and they ran off to play. Her mother, Kate, thankfully, seemed to be the only one with a good head on her shoulders and only a little intimidating. Her father, well, Shego hasn’t spoken to him in a long time. He was invalid in her mind. Drakken meeting her friends was an actual priority for Shego. It took some orchestrating since they went to different colleges and lived in different states but finally made it work for a long weekend together.

They were throwing a small housewarming party. For many years, home was a lab that happened to have living quarters for Drakken and Shego and barracks for the henchman. Now, the lab was across town. Global Justice didn’t like them on too long of a leash. They managed to get out many of their personal belongings from all the past lairs (after GJ checked them of course) before destroying the lairs. That didn’t stop Drakken from starting a new lab down in the basement…

He didn’t know what to expect at first. The Mothman? A Chupacabra? A pack of wild wolves? Drakken couldn’t imagine Shego having normal friends, especially when her life changed drastically at such a young age. So, he did some sleuthing. Okay, okay, he searched Shego’s friend's list on Facebook. If he had an actual lab at home, he could unleash his real computer skillz.

Savannah Coffman, 27, BFA in visual arts, working towards her Masters, both from CalArts; unemployed.

Jill Nesbitt, 26, BBA, owns her own business in New Orleans. One citation for yelling ‘come at me, bro!’ at a living statue street performer.

Okay, nothing too alarming.

As their arrival time drew near, Commodore Puddles was put outside in the fenced backyard with water and plenty of toys to keep him busy. He really did not like company. When the doorbell rang, he started barking furiously and running back and forth to each side gate and back to the backdoor. How dare those filthy humans not let him have his prey!

“Don’t be weird,” Shego whispered harshly, before opening the door.

“Stephanie!” Jill and Savannah screeched, excitedly.

They enveloped Shego in a tight hug. Drakken was surprised that Shego didn’t seem to mind, even reciprocated. She didn’t let just anybody touch her. There were times when she wasn’t crazy that he was hugging her.

Drakken stood there in awkwardly as they greeted each other, complimenting each other’s looks and remarking on how long it had been since they last seen each other.

“Guys,” Shego said, nodding her head towards Drakken.

“Wow, you aren’t what I was expecting,” Jill said.

“Thanks?” Drakken replied, not sure how to take it.

Savannah studied him, “Yeah, I guess I expected the tall and dark type.”

“Yeah,” Jill added, “You guys were evil and whatnot at one point. You kinda look like my dad, but on a bad day.”

“I mean, he has a scar…”

“He got it from shaving,” Shego said, barely holding back laughter.

Jill got very close to Drakken’s face, who tried to lean away “What’s with the blue veins?” She asked Shego.

“Okay!” Shego interrupted, “This is Drew.” She said as she pulled Jill away from him.

They exchanged awkward hellos. Drakken already wanted to find a cave and hide.

Shego quickly ushered them into the living room while handing Drakken the bottle of wine Jill had brought that was forgotten in the welcoming frenzy. He had always wanted to see New Orleans, he thought as he set out to make the drinks. Shego was more of a Jack and Diet Coke kinda gal.

“Shit Steph, you have an actual place. I practically live in a closet above my shop.” Jill said.

“Same. Student Housing.” Savannah added.

“Don’t follow my example,” Shego warned, throwing herself on the couch with her legs across it.

As Drakken prepared their drinks, the women talked hurriedly and loudly in excitement and howled with laughter. It sounded like a coven of crazed witches planning their next ritual. He was just really glad that Shego was having fun.

He brought in the drinks and sat down next to Shego, moving her legs. She scowled at him as he did so but ignored her.

“Steph, look what I found,” Jill said, pulling out a worn, furry blue photo album.

Shego’s nickname hit his ears. She was very selective with who she let address her by her real name or any part of it.

She gasped in recognition as Jill and Savannah crowded around them.

Drakken peered over Shego’s shoulder. There were pictures of the young girls at sleepovers with butterfly clips in their hair, first days of school on sunny mornings, them pulling faces in a school hallway in front of lockers (Shego had braces?!), a group picture of them at prom and at graduation. A picture taken of the girls at a dance in line for the Cha-Cha Slide with Shego dressed tight jeans, focusing on her footwork. Shego was blonde at one point!? Shego with a purple streak in her thick, raven hair, Shego and her friends scowling at the camera with thick black eyeliner circling their eyes. Shego with alternative, teased hair, sticking her tongue out.

“No!” Shego howled, covering her face in embarrassment, “Burn that thing! It’s too cringey!”

Damn. Even some of his teenage photos were in black and white. Was their age gap that severe? Some of the slang Shego used sounded like a foreign language to him. What if they had kids? Drakken didn’t want to senile before his child’s graduation.

Their age difference of ten or so years never truly crossed his mind until then. As much as they were opposites in personality, they agreed on many things. Just different enough to keep things interesting, similar enough to keep a relative peace. In fact, the only time age was an issue was with the radio setting, when Drakken wanted to listen to the 70’s or 80’s station and Shego would roll her eyes and call the music corny. That, or have no idea who was playing.

Drakken had long ago accepted the fact that Shego was way out of his league, that he was the picture of a flattered fool. Even though he was a scientist, and scientists are taught to question everything, he chose not to. He knew Shego loved him and that she was trustworthy. Still, things got to him.

“Hey, Doc, has Steph told you about the time she tripped during eight grade graduation and knocked down our entire line?”

“No, no, no,” Jill said waving her hand excitedly and putting her glass down on the coffee table. “Remember the time she projectile vomited all over Amberlynn in tenth grade and everyone called her puky-lynn until we graduated?”

“Well, she was being a bitch and I had the stomach flu. It was just good timing,” Shego replied casually, playing with her hair.

“You should have seen it! She looked like the kid from the Exorcist!”

“And she looked so proud of herself afterward!”

“I was proud of myself afterward!

They lost themselves in stories of teachers; the good, the bad and the ugly, field trips and other school memories. Feeling self-conscious, Drakken excused himself with little notice from the women.

Shego, however, noticed and could tell something was wrong. She gave him some time before slipping away while Jill and Savannah argued about who really stole Savannah’s rainbow gel pen in fourth grade. Spoiler alert, it was Shego.

She found her husband in the bedroom, “What? Do we have cooties or something?” She teased as she sat down next to him.

Drakken was lost in thought, not looking at his wife. “Am I really that old?” He finally asked, not exclusively to Shego.

Shego scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Are we really doing this?”

“Yes! I feel like I’m robbing the cradle!”

“You need to chill. Don’t put much stock into what Jill says. I’m not entirely sure she’s human.”

That got a chuckle from the scientist.

“Has anyone who we actually like cared about our age gap?” Shego urged.

“Well, Mother was concerned- “

Shego cut him of dismissively, “She doesn’t count. Look, we’ve been through a lot of stuff together. How many times have we been separated because one of us was in jail and yet we got right back to where we were like it never happened? Drew. I hate to admit these kinda things, but you are more mature and wiser than me. How often do I rush into something stupid and you pull me back, telling me to think?”

The time she wanted to spend a good chunk of her bank account on a new purse when what she really needed was a new pair of boots for her suit came to mind.

And the time she really wanted to go BASE jumping while she was recovering from a concussion brought on by Ron Stoppable.

And anytime she speeds or runs a red light.

Despite all the stress he felt worrying for her general safety, she did keep things interesting.

“Not just that, remember the time we decided we wanted to go see the Northern Lights on the spur of the moment and we just kept traveling for nearly a month? Or that mosh pit at the Ghost concert last Halloween? Naked Twister? What about Rex the crocodile? She wouldn’t have survived if we didn’t take care of her for that month after she was injured in that hurricane. Tell me, would some broad your age go for all those things? I’m even including the crazy and exciting things we did and still get to do as part of our jobs!” She said.

Shego sat down on Drakken’s lap, wrapped her arms around him and looked into his eyes, “You aren’t the type of guy I’d date, let alone marry, but those guys were actual idiots. I don’t know how they’re still alive, whether from forgetting to breathe or staring at the sun for too long. I found out that I want substance in a guy and to have an actual conversation with my significant other. I found out that that’s what I want.”

Drakken smiled contently, “Thank you, Stephanie. I love you.”

“I love you, Drew.”

They sealed their proclamations with a kiss.

“You’re still a doofus though,” Shego said once they pulled away.

Drakken groaned. She could only be so nice.

“Are we good?” She asked.

Drakken nodded.

“Great, because Amberlynn lives around here and we’re gonna go egg her house,” Shego said, grinning deviously.

“I’ll drive and get my bat to knock over her mailbox!” Drakken replied giddily.

“See? We’re still a perfect team!”

#drakgo #drakken #shego

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tosink · 5 years ago

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( XIAO DEJUN. CIS MALE. ) Rumor has it that ( SHEN KEUNG ) has been spotted skulking around New York City streets recently. ( HE ) is/are a ( 19 / 22 )year old ( LYCAN. ) They have a good reputation for being ( AUTHENTIC & EMPATHETIC, ) but have also been known to be rather ( RESERVED & APPREHENSIVE. ) They’re known for being the ( RETICENT. )

howdy ~ i’m effy. i'm twenty-four, trans masc & use he / they pronouns. uhm, i don’t know sleep personally & i probably died on the titantic. it has been a While since i was in an rp so i’m Nervous but please be my friend & feel free to reach out to plot via here or discord

here’s the TL;DR stats & run down on my guy shen keung.

FULL NAME: shen keung. NICKNAME(S): kee / key, keke, ken. AGE: twenty-two years old. DOB: march 8th, 1997. SUN / MOON / RISING / MC: pisces / pisces / capricorn / scorpio CHINESE ZODIAC: ox. GENDER: cis male. PRONOUNS: he / him / his. ORIENTATION: bisexual SPECIES: lycan. HEIGHT: 5'6½ FROM: london, endland. CURRENTLY: brooklyn, new york city, new york. SPOKEN LANGUAGES: english, cantonese, mandarin, some korean. very little ( mostly literary understanding ) french & japanese. RELIGION: agnostic. EDUCATION: completed high school ; some university. PERSONALITY TYPE: INFP ( the idealist ) ALIGNMENT: neutral good. NOTABLE: occasionally wears wire-rimmed glasses, small divot in right front tooth from long standing habit of holding a pen / paint brush between his teeth

a lil s'nopsis:

he is an artist & thus nearly always covered in some kind of art material, more often than not, paint

used to work part time with his mother while attending college to earn a BFA in the literal fine arts

a year into studying he was bitten

( by a rogue or non-pack unaffiliated lycan, perhaps but who’s to say really, he doesn’t remember the who of it. this is a wanted connection ).

he very nearly didn’t survived

( in fact, technically he died for several minutes before defibrillation brought him back to life. )

he’s got some trauma surrounding the subject & likely won’t talk about it.

subsequently to the attack, he quit working as an assistant for his mother & dropped out of college to come to terms with uh being a lycan & what that meant for him

during that time, whilst on a particularly chaotic full moon bender, he had come in contact with another lycan who helped him with his control & also informed him of the History of their kind / their war / the current tentative state of peace.

( this is also a wanted connection )

generally thinks that keeping the peace would be the best option for everyone & doesn’t particularly see the point of a war

nor feel as though it is really his place to be involved considering the nature in which he was turned

the above being said he does feel a sense of loyalty to the pack for ‘ taking care of him ’

dislikes being in the lycan form to be completely honest, there’s a sense of internalized fear & uh has a bit of a monster complex about it

currently works odd hours at an art gallery to pay rent & has moved into his studio now to save money

his parents’ have quite prominent accents when they speak english, which they used to do much more when he was a child but generally speak a lazy combination of cantonese & mandarin in the house

as a result he has a mishmash of english / new york accent when he speaks english

lil more history ( feel free to skip this bit, i suppose?? it’ll all be on his blog eventually if it isn’t already )

his grandparents immigrated to London, England during the 1950′s, had a single child in the 60′s ( his mother ) who married his father, a fellow Chinese Englishman who studied law

he only lived in london for about three years so he doesn’t have much memory of that but his grandparents still live there & he used to visit every summer as a child

his parents immigrated to New York City in the late 90′s just in time for the turn of the century

his father opened a small law firm

his mother works as a tailor, as stated above, keung used to assist her

they were very close until a few years ago ( after he was turned, he kind of became estranged from them for their own safetly & generally only joins sees them once or twice a month despite them all living in the city )

he used to get bullied as a kid in school for uhm ?? everything. ya know, the early 2000′s? when racism & the word ‘gay’ was tossed around a lot without much thought or consequence

his parents are rather liberal though & were supportive when he eventually came out to them ( there was a learning curve involved but, generally supportive ) before going to college

the only thing they ever had a big disagreement on was that he chose to go to school for an unstable career in art instead of joining his father at the law firm

mostly this was an issue with his father being Openly disappointed any time the subject was broached

this also manifested as a lack of interest in his art which still upsets keung

his dropping out of school has disappointed them further & put more of a strain on their relationship

considers going back to college but the near death experience has made him rather restless & uncertain about his future / what he truly wants

pinterest board for him if anyone’s interested in that.

#underworldshqintro #me: i'm dead please like me #tumblr absolutely ate the quality of my graphic but i am too !! anything to go resize it all #racism /#homophobia /#very little mentions but ya know #please plot with me

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