brighton boobs
november the first be with you, my friends. i have done a lot these past few weeks, and naturally i have started to feel crushed by the five unfinished drafts of blog posts i've been writing on paper, screen and in my mind. i caught myself starting to feel really bad for not publishing anything since last month[1], so here i am 31 minutes before a zoom call sharing with you some of my bathroom art to push myself to write and publish.
in 2017 i spoke at a conference called ffconf. it's run by lovely people, and it had a lovely lineup and audience as well - it just so happens to be happening again a week from today, so if you're in the area i highly recommend. this was my first time in brighton and fortunately i was able to make time around the event to walk around the shops and shop for art supplies. i purchased a hard cover book of watercolor paper in accordion form, which i thought was novel but i just googled it and see that even blick sells them. whatever, i had never seen such a thing in my life. during that walk, i saw a bird steal an entire baguette out of a guy's backpack and his partner scold him with "i TOLD you not to put it in there." i am not going to victim blame, but i was also warned that the birds there were aggressive.
i painted 3 self portraits in pixel art with watercolor. i can't find the original files because i am so bad at organizing my digital art, but the watercolors are currently hanging up in our bathroom.
that bottom one of the two paintings is my favorite of the three. i gave it to andy as a gift years ago and i joke that i "finally let him move in with me" so that i can get my favorite painting back in my possession. i knew where he lived before, i could have just robbed him!
due to the nature of the accordion paper, each of these framed portraits are diptychs which is why you may find the spacing in the middle of each of the paintings weird - if so, you're right, and it's because they are technically two paintings framed as one.
fun, free, fact: the painting with the wooden frame is framed as such because i broke the original white frame when we were hanging it up. i won't apologize for exclaiming that custom frames are too fucking expensive. if you are looking for some affordable standard frames from a shop based in jersey (united states), though, let me know because i got a guy (legal).
i believe it was the two white-framed paintings that were up in the "women's future" art show at litm (rip) in 2018. the watercolors were i believe limited edition from case for making, "cobalt blue light" and "pinkcolor". during that show, andy would stand around and tell people "i heard that's what they look like" because a funny bit we have is that he's never seen my boobs.
okay, i'm going to publish this now, with only 4 minutes to spare before my call. every friday i connect with a dear friend who i used to work with - we never stopped our weekly 1:1s. i'll ask her if she's ever been to brighton or had a bird steal her bread.
xoxo jenn
[1] i really appreciate all the kind words and cups of coffee that came from that, thank you.
