onomatoAWESOME

lately i've become interested in exploring different mediums of print publication through which to both express myself creatively and use as a means of disseminating ideas about social justice. fortunately i've undertaken two projects with just such a scope!

the first is an independent study in zine making. zines (derived from the word "magazine") are small publications typically conceived of original or appropriated texts and images. they typically have very small circulations and are self published. this blog for instance serves as a kind type of virtual zine. i can combine pictures of lebron james, pablo neruda poetry and sailor moon metaphor.

last summer i created a zine around the central theme of "why i am not good at being a girl." the scope of this particular zine was to explore conventional ideas of femininity and how i don't feel expressive of them. i used images from a variety of magazines and from a book on 1960s hair salons. i used an old type writer to juxtapose images with text. the final flourish was a photocopier which bound all the images and text together in a distributable format.

not only was i satisfied with the end product but there is something incredibly fulfilling about the construction of the zine. so, this spring i'll be conducting an independent study with emily tipps about the history/evolution of zines and contemporary styles of zine publication.

the second print publication i've developed an interest in is graphic novels. last spring yates and i read the watchmen in an attempt to start a book club. the book club did not endure but my interest in graphic novels did. it's a kind of mixed media approach to literature that allows a writer to tell a narrative in a kind of comic book form. one graphic novel, masterpiece comics (which i've just ordered), adapts a variety of classic literary works into a comic book idiom.

what's really freakin' sweet (pardon zee vernacular) is that a project i've undertaken with creative campus is going to allow me the opportunity to use graphic novel creation as a community outreach and education tool. and has already put me in contact with nick sousanis, a sequential artist out of new york who's currently working on a masters in education at columbia university.

i've always loved words and the way that they're used to tell stories and convey ideas. i like to crack open the spine of book three fourths of the way through, without regard for plot, and just luxuriate in the way a sentence is put together. diction and syntax are art forms unto themselves.

this is really up there with the sailor moon post and i don't even apologize for that.

bam! pow! oscar wilde!