GOIN' TO THE CHAPEL

Two of my dear friends are getting married and they asked me to design a Save the Date card for the occasion. I'm super happy with the final product. The flower bunch is made of peonies and hydrangea and was drawn/painted with watercolor pencil and Neocolor II; the type was drawn with Micron pens.

COLLABORATING WITH CARDIFF

Marshall, Jayme, and Aimee working on collaborative drawings

ON VIEW FROM APRIL 9 - 29, 2012

For the most recent show at Booklyn Artists Alliance, Stones in Your Pocket, UK collaborative printmaking group the Cardiff Sessions presented recent lithography work. While the show was only up for three days, the Cardiff Sessions also held a collaborative printmaking and drawing workshop on April 7, with New York artists handpicked by Booklyn's Gallery Director, Aimee Lusty. I was super excited to be one of the artists invited to participate, along with Aimee herself and a few other Brooklyn artists and friends I admire.

Wall of collaborative drawings, chairs of peoples' jackets

More about the Cardiff Sessions and the workshop:

Founded in 2009 the Cardiff Sessions is an artist collective dedicated to producing collaborative work through experimental drawing and stone lithography. The collective's aim is to develop relationships with international artists and explore the visual language of printmaking through collaboration while advancing experimentation in contemporary printmaking within Wales...

Coinciding with this exhibition Booklyn Artists Alliance and the Cardiff Sessions will produce a new series of collaborative linocut prints. These collaborations will be on view from April 9 - 29.

We started the day off making drawings that were passed around to at least 4 artists apiece. Afterwards, we each made linocuts and collaborated on the printing process, in effect making one-of-a-kind monoprints. For the last leg, we placed all of the linocuts together and made unique markings before printing, resulting in 4 large prints. The collaborations made in the Cardiff Sessions workshop will be on view at Booklyn Artists Alliance, 37 Greenpoint Avenue Floor 4, Brooklyn, NY, through April 29.

More pictures after the jump!

Remembering

Father Mychal Walk of Remembrance, 4 September 2011. Photos by the author.

Over a year ago I decided I would write something about 9/11 on the ten year anniversary. Over a month ago I started to write it. Unfortunately it is too great a task at the moment. I have spent a lot of time in the past few weeks grieving, and were I to articulate my thoughts on the day, it would just not be adequate.

Instead, here is a video of my uncle Steven (Detective Steven McDonald) closing the Father Mychal Judge Walk of Remembrance, which he has organized every year after the attacks, on September 4, 2011.

Father Mychal Judge Walk of Remembrance: Det. Steven McDonald from Kate Wadkins on Vimeo.

Thank you for your guiding light, Father Mike, it shines on and on.

27 YEARS

SUMMERTIME

FINDING HAPPINESS FOR REAL

APRIL SNAPS

Los Hermanos, Bushwick

PHOTO FAVORITES: JANUARY

(Kim Shattuck sings "Rock'n'roll Girl" with Paul Collins' Beat

at Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, January 29, 2011)

TRES BIEN

I am super honored to be featured on my feminist-librarian-hero-riot-grrrl-enthusiast-colleague-and-dear-friend Kate Angell's blog today:

This is only the second time I’ve written a post for this particular category, but it’s about time that I write more, as I’m lucky to be surrounded by many people deserving recognition for their accomplishments.

Today I want to write about a person with whom I share a name, neighborhood, college, and favorite band- Kate Wadkins. I met Kate last summer through Kathleen Hanna, as we both worked for her on various projects at different times. Over time Kate has become my research collaborator, close friend, and feminist inspiration.

Read the full article here.

Needless to say, the feelings are mutual, as I am consistently inspired by Kate's work, which involves radical librarianship and feminist community activism of all sorts. Please check out the rest of her blog for insightful posts and feminist/women's history resources abound!

UPDATE! JUST TODAY Kate's new article, "Feminist Archives: Archiving Grrrl Style Now," was published in the new issue of Feminist Collections! Congrats, Kate!

MOVIN' ON UP

While I was on hiatus, a few things happened. My friend Ben's zine Sick: A Compilation Zine on Physical Illness came out a few weeks ago. It's really beautiful and well-done, an articulate and necessary document which many of my good friends contributed to. I read the zine right after my friend had heart surgery and finished it while I was with my Dad, holed up at the hospital. It was really helpful for me during this whirlwind of a summer. If you or anyone you know is dealing with or has dealt with physical illness, especially within DIY/punk/activist communities, I highly reccomend this.

NEXT, in related news, some more of my friends re-released a documentary about the Long Island "DIY punk community" called Between Resistance and Community. I was interviewed along with a number of my girlfriends: Cynthia of Jettison Sister & Zombie Dogs; Carly of Slingshot Dakota; Krista of Carnal Knowledge & Zombie Dogs; Tia of Bridge & Tunnel & Fellow Project -- to talk about what it was like to grow up as a girl in that scene. It's a feature on the DVD. Here's the trailer:

Between Resistance & Community: The Long Island DIY Punk Community on Vimeo.

Next up, my review of the comic Jin & Jam #1, from this month's issue of MRR. The Jodi zines have arrived, appropriately in time with the 2 year anniversary of her passing.

10:39AM

[photo from Bedtime]

All these friends sending me photos of my work and getting tattoos of stuff I've done makes me so stoked! Totally re-affirms any reason for me to keep doing things.