lil bit o barry

I drew this comic in 1991. It wasn’t until I scanned it some 18 years later to stick online that I could see I’d been under the influence of Lynda Barry when I was putting together this pastiche of faces.

I’m not sure how it happened. I don’t remember ever having read Lynda Barry prior to living in NYC, and I drew the frontmost character based on a couple of photographs of my sister um a close relative who shall remain nameless as she no longer wears glasses and does not like to admit to freckles.

I do remember looking at Ernie Pook’s Comeek in the Village Voice early/mid-90s, and being alternately irritated by/interested in Marlys & Co. And slowly, over time, becoming very fond of of not only the characters and the writing, but also Barry’s drawing style, with its lovely flowing lines. If it were a sound it would be Janice Joplin—melodic, but gutteral. It was the beginning of a slow dawning of an idea….which didn’t really rise and shine on me until today.
Yesterday I picked up a copy of Barry’s latest book, Picture This, in my local comix shop, and tonight finally got to sit down with a nice cuppa and page through it and … (insert sound of mind blowing).

I really really love it. It’s so interestingly coloured and textured and drawn, and it’s about life and comics and drawing! And it is still comics-like here and there, which is one of the reasons I like it so much. I love black and white comics, but sometimes I feel they could be so much richer: more layered and complicated. (I know some people like them because they’re simple and straightforward…but…well…I just think they have miles to go before they sleep.)

And this book just takes them so far down the road, I can’t believe it. (You can download a PDF sample here from the publisher, Drawn & Quarterly.) This is inspiring. I am so looking forward to working my way back through Barry’s work now. It’ll be quite a trip.

So on the second Monday, having learned my lesson the previous Monday, I literally threw together the following muffins out of stuff from the fridge/pantry in the 30 minutes before the school bell. And they all lived happily ever after.

2:45 pm: Aaagh! It’s almost piano time! Spring into action:
1) Assemble gear: sifter, bowl, small spatula, muffin tin and paper liners.
2) Chuck into bowl: two eggs, 1/4 c. olive oil (or whatever you use for cooking), 1/4 c. plain nonfat yogurt, 3/4 c. dark brown sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste, 1 1/2 cups combined fruit (Today I used canned peaches, roughly chopped, and frozen blueberries — if you have time to chop up fresh fruit, go fa ya life)
3) Into sifter: 2 c flour (half each wholemeal/plain is good), 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, pinch salt if you remember (I ususally don’t)
4) Sift dry into wet. Stir carefully w/spatula JUST until all the flour is moistened.
5) Glob the mixture into muffin cups, bake 20-25 min. at 180°C/350°F. Tidy up while baking, then…
6) Hope traffic is in your favour as you dash out the door at 3:10 for school pickup. Don’t forget the muffins…or the piano books…

Well, about 20 years on, I finally thought — yes, indeed, I might be wrong, and often am. And hence, Issue #1 of I might be wrong…, a limited edition of 60 copies, each with a unique, numbered silkscreen / collage print inside. Maybe that’s an optimistic print run, but … feel free to prove me wrong. (grin grin) The whole shebang is based on my contribution to the Arthouse Co-op’s Sketchbook Project 2011.

I might be wrong in printed form is available online at Made It, in-store at Format in Adelaide, Sticky (in the Degraves subway underpass) in Melbourne, and perhaps someday from Bird in the Hand in Newcastle, when they get around to it. I still have a few copies too: drop me a line at b a r b [at} littleredhen dot calm dot au.

I’ve two things going: one is the Art House Co-op’s Sketchbook Project 2011. Working on the theme ‘It must be…’, I’ve dismantled a cute little Moleskine (red cover of course) and refilled it with drawings, anecdotes and embroidered truths, and hand-stitched it back into sketchbook form.

My sketchbook will be on tour (how cool, I’ve always wanted to go on tour) beginning 19 February in Brooklyn and continuing through the US til mid-2011. See here to find out more about the tour (and where it stops).

If you can’t get to the sketchbook, the sketchook can come to you (and here’s where the 2nd thing comes in), I’ve redeveloped it into a limited edition zine, which contains most of my Sketchbook Project material plus some extra fillips and filigrees such as a silkscreened collage print, all signed n numbered and everything. It is nearly done now and will be available soon. Which means I’ll probably be posting again soonish, rather than later. Here’s a page in the meantime.

I will be writing, drawing and making prints and paper things, plus also, too, knitting, and communing with friends and family, live and out loud, for the foreseeable future. (Is any of the future foreseeable? Does foreseeable contain too many vowels in a row?) These and other questions will have to be left hanging…no answers here for the time being!

Ohhh, this is going to be good. And the sturdy triangular package shape: how clever!

Even the ‘take care’ labels are awesome. And lookit what’s inside: the proverbial brown paper packages tied up with string!

And inside that: pretty pretty washi paper tape, and still more cool wrapping! (I think I might have to save that little red label for another use…)

Ahhh, finally the raison d’order: the tapes I bought with a specific project in mind. I’m a wee bit doubtful I can make something as pretty as the tape is, all by itself…but I’ll have a nice time trying!