#tara wray

[leterrainvague]

#13 - El Dorado Freddy's - Tara Wray, 2020.

[petitepluiedemai]

Tara Wray

[sapphiccharacterstournament]

Canon Sapphic Characters Tournament Round 1 (Bracket 6) Master Post

Meh Yewll (Defiance) vs Amae Rali (Vagrant Queen)

Yuri Han (XO, Kitty) vs Leighton Murray (The Sex Lives of College Girls)

Delia Busby (Call the Midwife) vs Carina DeLuca (Station 19)

Nova Bordelon (Queen Sugar) vs Tara Thornton (True Blood)

Anissa Pierce (Black Lightning) vs Queen Maeve (The Boys)

Bernie Wolfe (Holby City) vs Kerry Weaver (ER)

Naomi Pierce (Succession) vs Camille L'Espanaye (The Fall of the House of Usher)

Susan Ivanova (Babylon 5) vs Camille Wray (Stargate Universe)

Kat Edison (The Bold Type) vs Lauren Heller (Younger)

Fleabag (Fleabag) vs Shona O'Keefe (This Way Up)

Josephine Barry (Anne with an E) vs Babs (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

Aline Penhallow (Shadowhunters) vs Tamsin (Lost Girl)

Wendy Carr (Mindhunter) vs Hayes Morrison (Conviction)

Chanel #3 (Scream Queens) vs Winter Anderson (American Horror Story: Cult)

Maya St. Germain (Pretty Little Liars) vs Veronica Lodge (Riverdale)

Sterling Wesley (Teenage Bounty Hunters) vs Bess Marvin (Nancy Drew)

[wobnebmag]

Tara Wray captures emotional complexity of the pandemic in ‘Year of the Beast’

Year of the Beast is a photo diary of 2020 featuring scenes from life in rural Vermont, under a looming specter of doom. It isn’t a book about the pandemic. It’s a record of a specific time and place as seen through the eyes of one photographer, but with universal themes and universal appeal.

“I can’t put this work out without first acknowledging that this has been such a difficult and tragic year for so many people, and yet I’ve been fortunate,” Wray says. “The people I love are healthy and our lives, though cloistered, have remained stable. But it’s still been an incredibly difficult, emotionally challenging year for myself and everyone I know. The pandemic, the state of our country, loneliness, gave me so many sleepless nights, worrying about loved ones, the future, the world. During this year, more than ever, photography helped me process fear and uncertainty; it’s a release. For one such experience I visited a local swimming hole, watching people enjoying a sunny day, but I felt so many powerful emotions—the beauty and joy of a summer afternoon mixed with an intense sense of foreboding. The title refers to holding these conflicting feelings together in one place and allowing myself to feel gratitude, guilt, and grief simultaneously.”

Wray’s images are understated in their masterful ability to capture the essence of a place in time she has inhabited. Her work is poetic and easily surpasses her own summary from her Too Tired for Sunshine project statement: “My work is rooted in documentary surrealism. I’m drawn to intense natural light, small details, and use color to evoke mood, atmosphere, and emotion. I’m especially compelled to document to the mundane and absurd aspects of life, and animals, especially dogs.” Wray’s work often comes across as a form of visual diary, communicating her own experiences through her photographs. Wray’s photographic choices suggest emotional states to the audience, often drawing power through the ways in which light and composition evoke feelings that the viewer is not fully aware of. I firmly believe there is something smart yet disarmingly approachable in Wray’s oeuvre, she avoids the appearance of perfectly planned and composed shots in favor of the conceptual — and she truly and expertly presents the ideas behind the images. In the book’s layout, Wray makes wonderful use of pairing images on facing pages, both for their thematic (often humorous) and visual compliment to each other, and single images facing a blank page to heighten the impact or give the viewer a visual resting place.

Year of the Beast is a photo book made during the pandemic in 2020, not of the pandemic. The book is a visual stream of consciousness. As mentioned at the beginning, it is a chronological diary featuring dogs, twins, and domestic scenes from rural Vermont, under a looming specter of doom. Many of the situations or encounters Wray experienced are surely a shared experience with millions of others. Discovering a new-found sense of what it means to share almost every minute with your family for weeks or months at a time; staring with wonder at the way sunlight bounces across the room (because you’ve never stood in your kitchen every weekday afternoon for a month), or experiencing feelings of isolation that swing into thankfulness which turn into fear, and back again.

When asked what the “Year of the Beast” means to her in an NPR feature, Wray says, “Photography helps me process fear and uncertainty. This has been such a difficult and tragic year for so many families, and mine has been very fortunate. I feel extremely grateful that the people in my life are healthy, that we have food security, and a safe, stable home. But it’s still been an incredibly difficult, emotionally challenging year. The pandemic, the state of our country left me with feelings of dread and sorrow and foreboding, and gave me so many sleepless nights, more this year than any other I can remember, even during periods of my life that were more personally challenging to me. I’d take photos of people at a local swimming hole, just enjoying a sunny day, and I’d feel so many conflicting emotions — the beauty and joy of a summer afternoon, but also this intense existential dread. That’s what the title refers to.”

Tara Wray has notably worked on the acclaimed project: Too Tired for Sunshine in 2017/2018 which documented the beauty, darkness, and absurdity of everyday life, as seen through the lens of her own struggles with depression. Wray received an overwhelming wave of support and she used her platform to help people with depression by offering a place for collective creative expression. She also hopes to reduce the stigma of mental illness and open a dialogue about depression and art with her site, Too Tired Project, and the Instagram account Too Tired Project. Year of the Beast is one of the first three books being published by her own imprint, Too Tired Press.

Layout from ‘Year of the Beast’, © Tara Wray

Layout from ‘Year of the Beast’, © Tara Wray

Untitled, from ‘Year of the Beast’, © Tara Wray

Untitled, from ‘Year of the Beast’, © Tara Wray

Untitled, from ‘Year of the Beast’, © Tara Wray

Untitled, from ‘Year of the Beast’, © Tara Wray

Layout from ‘Year of the Beast’, © Tara Wray

YEAR OF THE BEAST by Tara Wray 80 pages / 8 x 8 in. / Perfect bound / Signed /Softcover First Edition limited to 100 copies ISBN: 978-0-578-82459-8 Published March 2021

Tara Wray is a photographer, filmmaker, and founder of the Too Tired Project, a non-profit arts organization working to de-stigmatize mental health issues by bringing them out in the open through photography. Her most recent photo book is Year of the Beast, published by Too Tired Press in 2021. Other books include Too Tired for Sunshine (Yoffy Press, 2018), El Dorado Freddy’s (Belt Publishing, 2020, a collaboration with writer Danny Caine), as well as several limited run artist books. Recent exhibitions of Too Tired for Sunshine at Kunst Haus Wien, Museum Hundertwasser, Vienna, Austria; Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY; Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN. Personal work featured on NPR, Vice, Huff Post, Washington Post, Vogue Polska, and more.

[gorillaz-girl]

2D faces from The Gorillaz Artbook

[sandycarson]

Excited to share this collaborative project I was involved in recently with Shawn Records for Some Days Just Are, curated by Tara Wray.  Some of the pairings are uncanny. 

 Some Days Just Are is a collaborative photo series where time dictates narrative. On a selected day two photographers each make one picture per hour from 9:00am - 9:00pm. The results are combined to show the ways in which we're interconnected as humans, and how time is the equalizer. Each photographer operates independently, unaware of what or where the other is shooting.

[les-toupies-h]

---> Qui répondrait à toutes mes questions ?

> Proposition visuelle d'écriture > Photographie de Tara Wray

[oranbeg]

Oranbeg press is proud to announce the release of  NET 2.3 AutoCorrect Artists: Zach Fox, Ben Davis, Brenda Bingham, Robin Cracknell, TJ Elias, Tara Wray, Paal Williams and Evan Deuitch Cover Design: Split Graphics Make sure to check out the Slideshow, PDF and the printed publication which is soon to be released at the Philadelphia Art Book Fair! Also, You have until tonight at 11:59 pm to send in a submission for our current open call NET 2.4: Moments that stay!

[nevver]

Out of our heads, Tara Wray

[a-night-like--this]

Gorillaz announce art book with contributions from Jack Black and Robert Smith

Over 40 guest artists have contributed alongside Jamie Hewlett

Gorillaz have announced an official art book with over 40 guest artists teaming up alongside the band’s co-creator Jamie Hewlett.

Released April 2022 via Z2 Comics, The Gorillaz Art Book promises to give fans “new interpretations of 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs in one expansive volume”, with the likes of Jack Black, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Little Dragon all contributing. See the complete list of guests below.

Speaking about the project, Hewlett said: “Gorillaz have always collaborated with music but this is the first time we’ve done an art collaboration. I’ve really enjoyed working with so many of my favourite artists and the result is this amazing book.”

The book will be case bound at 12.6 x 9.2 inches and set across 288 pages of luxury art paper. It’s available to pre-order now from here and costs £68.99

The complete list of guest artists for The Gorillaz Art Book is as follows:

Ana Godis

Andre Carrilho

Andrew C. Robinson

Anna Cattish

Ben Bocquelet

Brendan McCarthy

Chloe Nicolay

Craig McCracken

Dana Terrace

Daniela Uhlig

Del the Funky Homosapien

EPHK

Erik Fountain

Glyn Dillon

Gregory Hergert

Holly Warburton

J.A.W. Cooper

Jack Black

Jared Cody Wolf

Jean-Baptiste Mondino

Jens Claessens

Jeremy Enecio

Kerbcrawlerghost

Kim Jung Gi

Laurie Vincent

Little Thunder

Marella Moon Albanese

Marianna Ignazzi

Miss Jisu

Nicolas Dehghani

Robert Smith

Robert Valley

Ruffmercy

Sainer

Tara Billinger

Taya Strizhakova

Tim McCourt & Max Taylor

Valeria Ko

Vanesa R. Del Rey

Venla Linna

Vincent Roucher

William Wray

Zeen Chin

[thelucidimageannakernahan]

Other Photo Books:

Too tired for sunshine by Tara Wray: documents depression darkness, absurdity and beauty in everyday life. Explores loneliness and isolation. Absurdist dark humour. 

https://www.tarawray.net/tootiredforsunshine \

https://tootiredproject.com/ 

Big Brother by Louis Quail: About his older sibling and his life with schizophrenia, and daily struggles. 

https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/photographer-documenting-brothers-life-schizophrenia/

Fade Out by Daniel SmithOwn personal experience with depression, inspired by music and TV, fully immersive

http://fragmentary.org/daniel-smith/ 

Decisions to be made and how to resolve

A decision I have yet to make is the sequence in which to put these images. Mental health is not a linear process, there are setbacks and victories and more setbacks. I think this is also an important message to portray to those who may not experience deep struggles with their mental health both on an educational and emotional level. It is important to understand that emotions change, feelings and ideas change over time and nothing is truly linear. So my challenge is sequencing and what is the best way in which to communicate my ideas. I plan to do further research into image sequencing and processes around experiences of mental health to help convey my idea to the best extent. Whether a more linear approach is simply just more logical for readers or whether a nonlinear approach is better for conveying mental health. Am I just thinking too much into it?

Reflecting on this after further research, I decided to go for a storytelling sequence as explained in this assignment. I thought this would be the most appropriate and easily understandable way for the audience to see the photo book. 

[dontsweatthefresh]

(DJ Tara)

Very Nice Mix!   Wakai& Emmavie - Starter Jacket, brought me here!

“various jams. assorted flavor. easy Sunday morning energy - DJ Tara”

tracklist:

Liv.e - bout it Cruza - Lost Soul feat. Mick Jenkins Sam Wills - Traingazing Jjahz - Tango Bonobo - Fram You feat. Joji Elujay & Serpentwithfeet - Luvaroq Lady Wray - I Do Dal - Those Days feat. Leah Yeger Jacob Banks - Black n White SiR - Teach Me Cyanca -PB&J(Jammy Jam) Silas Short - Queen of Paisley Contour - Labor Of feat. Blue November Patrick Paige III - Red Knife Boogiemonsters - Music Appreciation The Pharcyde - Otha Fish Benny Sings - Look What We Do feat. Jones Nick Hakim - JP 1981 Tokyo - Serious Drug (a Wildcookie flip!) Ash - Jacuzzi Rob Milton - Let Me Down MMYYKK - Reminisce Wakai& Emmavie - Starter Jacket Sade - Feel No Payne (Cutso Backup) J.U.S. - A Tribe Called Bruiser feat. Bruiser Wolf, Apropos, & Trpl Blk MadeinTYO - Throw it Back (J.Robb Mix) Ol’ Burger Beats - For Ras G Radio Galaxy - YU feat. Carl Thomas Future Rare #7 - Supah Mayne Lovah Marcus Miller - Rush Over feat. Meshell Ndegeocello Alice Smith - Mystery Ruby Francis - Jasmine Jordan Rakei & Kiran Kai - Maya Human Bloom - Capillary Ma$hup Puthli - Space Talk feat. Alex Phountzi x Hiedi Vogel Saturn Never Sleeps - Hearts on Fire Lex Amor - Rocks

[forestgreenlesbian]

EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME NEVER ENOUGH - TARA WRAY

[chiseler]

Trauma-Toons

A shortish documentary called Cartoon College, directed by Josh Melrod and Tara Wray, celebrating  the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, left me thinking about a bunch related or semi-related things. The (unaccredited) Center offers a two-year course leading to a Master of Fine Arts in cartooning.

First of all, is such a curriculum necessary? In the  applied-arts sense, probably not really, but as a supportive place for artists doing something that, the film proclaims, society at best ignores, or at worst sneers at, it shines. Kids and adults – including a man in his late 60s – act as though they are finally being allowed to crawl out from under the carpet.

Which by the end made me uneasy. The presumably self-selecting group projects a stereotype of cartoonists as universally depressed dweebs with godawful childhoods – salvaged suicides or serial killers in waiting. Somehow, I can’t believe this is a broadly accurate cross-section of those involved in an admittedly wacky profession.

Which then led me to recall how much the newspaper comics meant to me growing up, and to a lot of kids of that era. And it wasn’t just kids reading the “funnies”; consider the sophistication and  orientation of “Winnie Winkle,” “Brenda Star,” “Rex  Morgan” – these were works written with an adult audience first and foremost in mind.

They were the static YouTube of the time, and their hold on me has never relaxed. Will Eisner and his seven-page Sunday adventure  "The Spirit" were the highlight of my week. In the ‘70s, Eisner’s boundary-breaking foray into the “graphic novel” made my liver quiver.

Try reading bio-bits by and about Eisner and his studio  (which produced Jules Feiffer and Wally Wood among many others), and you don’t come away with the idea that the comics artists of the '40s and '50s  worried much about making a living, what their work “meant” or whether it reflected their traumatic youth – even though many of them went totally unrecognized. Carl Barks, who drew the iconic Scrooge McDuck comic  books, was not identified as their author until after he retired, all original  credit going to Walt Disney, whose talent was business and hype, not drawing.

I’ve always taken cartoonists seriously, in a way that, I  think, Eisner did. They aren’t little laugh generators snickering off to the side, but unleashers of big guffaws at what society is and does, as were Rowlandson and the political cartoonists of the 19th century. But somehow, along about “Superman,” we began to separate “serious” words from “frivolous” pictures in published art – a highbrow-lowbrow division and a reversal of the Renaissance, when painting and drawing ruled as the ultimate expressions of what the artistic mind could produce.

The aspiring artists at the Center for Cartoon Studies see  cartooning as a particularly personal form of expression, neither social commentary nor kiddie trifles, but the key to the release of their inner demons (or at least their under-the-bed monsters). Yet they fear, one and all, that they will forever be viewed as warped outsiders.

I don’t think that’s anywhere near true in the wider world. But then, we’re very confused these days in how we approach art: We don’t know how to look at it, don’t have any definition of what art is. We don’t need academic definitions, certainly, but we do need social definitions. These were assumed in past ages but are now fluctuating and scattered.

Science fiction author J.G. Ballard foresaw this social-aesthetic removal in his Vermillion Sands stories, where art of the future becomes something we cannot keep hold of. In the half-mad art conclave of Vermillion Sands, statues whisper meaningless phrases and poetry floats on the breeze, not because it’s all ephemeral, but because no one can pin down what it might or should proclaim.

Graphic novels and higher comic book prices, better digital  graphics programs and Art Spiegelman’s Maus have together given comics a more upscale image while removing them from  their common ground. That holds largely true of most public art. Is this a wonderful thing – art set free from relevance, to be whatever we say (or fail  to say) it is? Or have we sliced it off from life, made it an "other,“ a separate thing to worship like modern religion (or laugh at, given your inclination), to appreciate without underlying humanity?

by Derek Davis

[littlebrownmushroom]

Just received: El Dorado Freddy’s by Danny Caine and Tara Wray