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Aranea Push
777 Plays2 months ago
Aranea Push is a digital illustrator and comic artist living in the PNW. Aranea blends rich illustration with sharp attitude, creating a style she lovingly refers to as ‘Effin’ Adorable’. In 2023, she published her first graphic novel “Coffee & Wine” which you can read in its entirety here!\
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Transcript
Introduction and Main Topics
00:00:28
Speaker
Hey, thanks so much for having me. Yeah. treat to be here it is It's been nice to chat a little bit about podcasting and learn about your art. um Everybody on the show, I often mention browser's bookstore in Albany, Oregon.
The Artistic Journey of 'Coffee and Wine'
00:00:46
Speaker
and the bookstore in there, Abe talked a lot about art and local artists and stuff and have a local artist and I encountered your book, um Coffee and Wine, and I just want to talk about it just like for a bit. um a beautiful volume and it it it compiles ah material that you've had online and it's still accessible online. I gotta to tell you, I was most pleased to hear about that history but also to see the option in in print form, you know, for the for the tactile.
00:01:23
Speaker
um So i was um I was just really moved by the book and in the two facets would be would would be the art and the illustration in and of itself. But also um the storytelling, which of course is like such a crucial part of comics and graphic novel of a really rich story of ah you know about yeah just like regular humans and like relationship and interacting and living. um Subtle and just really noticeable ah piece. So everybody listening, I highly recommend it. We'll get into the details.
00:02:05
Speaker
Um a little bit later, but um Tell us about coffee and wine. Tell us about this is a long trajectory I've seen as far as putting it together a long project that takes its form Uh in the book, but tell us about tell us about this this this work of art coffee and wine Yeah, uh, first of all, thank you. Thank you so much for for reading it and all those kind words It's very sweet um Coffee and Wine started as, um I don't know if you've heard of NaNoWriMo before. No. a national National Novel Writing Month, which is a fun little game that people play in November where they try to write 50,000 words of a novel in one month. ah And I have ah some family members who who were big into that project.
00:02:58
Speaker
um when i when I wrote this about 10 years ago. So it started as just a National Novel Writing Month entry. um And its it's initial kernel, like the initial idea um comes from, it comes from Three Dog Nights song, Joy to the World. Hell yeah.
00:03:23
Speaker
So like the main character's name is Jeremiah. She loves wine. um That was like the initial the fun part that got me into it. um but as ah So I finished it in that month, and then I put it away for a long time. And then I pulled the edition back out, the the draft I had. And I read it, now and I felt like there was a lot of of stuff that I wanted to keep exploring with it. and I also wanted it to become a graphic novel because I was learning about the art form of graphic novels and I was just completely enamored with it. yeah um And as I was writing it and rewriting it, it became ah lot like that that initial kernel idea. It's almost nothing like that now. And it became a lot about
00:04:14
Speaker
the the quiet conversations we have with each other that that teach us more about ourselves, like that that in encourage us to be vulnerable, and encourage us to ask for help, yeah and encourage us to help others.
00:04:31
Speaker
um And all of those those things came out in the book, but I didn't realize it until it was halfway done.
Pandemic Challenges and Inspirations
00:04:40
Speaker
um I didn't start making the finished pages until January of 2020. I started like you know the first week of January 2020 and I was like, this is going to be the project for this year. Yeah. yeah And what ah what a silly idea that was because a few months later it became almost impossible to work on anything for a long time for me, for obvious reasons. So it took about three years to to actually finish it, which is why i I posted the pages online as I was doing it. yeah
00:05:16
Speaker
um
00:05:18
Speaker
And now it's a book and i still it's it's been a year since I self-published it and I still can't believe it. That is like in this physical form. You had been putting it out for so long that it's it's that it's that it's all right there. What about the graphic about the graphic novel you mentioned as far as the form and what attracted you to it? How did that happen? Have you been reading a lot? of Yeah, you been yeah at that at that time, which is about 2016-2017, my brother was sharing a lot of graphic novels that he was reading with me. Graphic novels like Johnny Wander by Yuka Oda and um Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol, who's another like- Oh, that's a That's a beauty. She's an incredible comic artist. um And I was so impressed with
00:06:11
Speaker
Because i i I'd read comics growing up, like, you know, comic strips and and and like, I'd read some superhero comic books, but ah this was the first time that I had really seen long form comics, like and comics that were full stories, telling telling deep, complicated stories with yeah these beautiful pictures. And I wanted to be a part of part of it.
00:06:38
Speaker
So it was that a big thing that i mean to see it in print right you had that impression i mean i've read comics that meet since i was in diapers so it's like just just a long time i'm in graphic novels net type of story telling a manga is it's been a glorious.
00:06:58
Speaker
development. But was that part of the thing seen in print form? Being like, hey, this is on the shelf next to you know like these these you know other these other like things that really um really and impressed you. um it feels It feels that way now. i When I got it printed, I was um so so burnt out on the project. I was just so desperate to have it done. yeah that And I had no ah had no confidence in it.
00:07:28
Speaker
i was so i was I was way too close to it and I hadn't had any feedback on it yet so I had I had no confidence ah in it as a project I was like I need to get the story done it needs to be out of my head and then I'll just put it away and I'll never look at it ever again. ah But luckily I had people in my life who.
00:07:46
Speaker
who basically demanded that I i get it printed. I got that impression in some of your notes and comments and the book itself. I like that, I like that. Yeah,
Support Systems in Art Creation
00:07:56
Speaker
yeah. So I have i have ah um an art out accountability partner who was basically encouraging me the whole time I was making this project. And ah my husband was like, I i don't care if we if we print 10 copies, we're getting it printed.
00:08:11
Speaker
going to make it into a thing. And then I have another friend in Portland who's a graphic designer who basically offered up her services to to lay out the book for me because I was so done at that point. And so it was with and a lot of help from other people around me that this even got printed. um But now that it is, I'm so proud of it.
00:08:33
Speaker
Yes, I'd like to hear that. you know It needs a push sometimes. you know I think ah you know when you're creating and you're talking about art and creation, I find that I've done the podcast ah for for for five years and it's been a very fertile and like great great thing for me. But as an artist, you know the space that you exist in. As a creator, you're in a It's quiet sometimes. and it's It's like, what is this thing? i Sometimes I ask this about the show. like What the heck is it? like what what's what's so What's it doing? It's like it's under my control. but um yeah I wanted to i wanted to to ask you um to to chat a bit about art.
00:09:19
Speaker
and you know um ah and and being and being an artist. is is Have you always seen yourself as an artist, a creator, or was there a point where it was like, damn? Now, wait a second. I'm thinking now, I checked out your website and I saw ah i saw a picture when you were quite young.
00:09:42
Speaker
And ah so I had the answer to my question, but um identifying as an artist, you were younger and in paintings, in the newspaper, I believe, but was there a point for you that you saw yourself as an artist?
Identifying as an Artist
00:10:00
Speaker
who i I think I've been an artist my whole life. I i think i think I've been an artist the whole time.
00:10:12
Speaker
ah Yeah, that picture was when I was i was five at an art festival in small town Nebraska and just like finger painting. um
00:10:26
Speaker
But yeah, I feel like I've always been doing art. I've always been been drawing in the margins of my my school homework and doodling on the back of any piece of paper I could get my hands on. um but i But I do feel like the the identity of ah of when I became a like a capital A artist ah wasn't isn't quite that simple because ah
00:10:58
Speaker
Because I think it it has to do a little bit with the the question of of, I don't know, what what is art or why why are you doing art? but when i um When I was in high school, I i think I really longed for... um I longed for for community ah in art. like I longed to be around other people who were also making art, but there actually they weren't that many people. I joined the the art guilds for the briefest moment of of my town, and it was all...
00:11:34
Speaker
like i was I was, I don't know, 15, 16, and it was all retired people who were basically modeling for me that art was something that you got to do once you were done living a whole life of of doing a job that made money. ah okay Everybody's past different. so yeah yeah and that was ah And that they there wasn't really anybody modeling for me how I could how i could keep doing art sure without having to do something else during the day. um And so in high school, when they they demand that you pick a career, which is the silliest thing in the whole world, ah I decided that I wanted to be a graphic designer because I knew there was an industry for that.
00:12:21
Speaker
and that would be practical and I would make and I would survive doing that. I would make money doing that. And so that's what I like went to college for. And then when out I got out of college, I worked for three years as an in-house graphic designer, doing logos, doing package design, doing everything that a graphic designer does. And I hated it. ah I hated it so much.
00:12:45
Speaker
um to the to the point where they offered me like a raise. They offered me the the job of art director, and I didn't want it. I wanted nothing to do with it. And I basically quit at that moment. And then I started freelancing. um And that was only was only like six or seven years ago. OK.
00:13:10
Speaker
And I moved to Oregon and I found a lot of other artists, a lot of other ah community members, a lot of people my age doing art, which was that community that I was looking for, yeah but it was a different kind of vibe. And it was like, there was a lot of that energy that you were talking about with um people using their art during the protest 2020 and how like powerful art could be.
00:13:34
Speaker
yeah There was that vibe, but a little bit too far, where the idea was like, your art has to do something. Your art has to say something. If your art isn't saying something, if your art isn't changing the world, then what what's the point? you know And I think it's really impossible to make art with whis the with the concept of what you have to say going into it.
00:14:00
Speaker
um And I think it messed me up for a little bit and it and I actually like I burnt out on art and I because I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to say with it. um And so there was a period of time where I was like, well, I guess I guess maybe I don't make art. Maybe I'm not an artist. um And that was only like three or four years ago. So I feel like I feel like I'm getting there now, but like and I and I I feel like I can say that I'm an artist with a capital A now, but considering I've been doing it my whole life, it's it hasn't felt that simple.
00:14:39
Speaker
no and i think talking about that it's it There is such a vacillation, I think, you know for for artists. It's such a weird territory. I found myself in creating as... What I really enjoyed is that there's something different about being an artist of of a way of interacting, seeing what you're able to say. um it's It's a different territory that i really I didn't feel it in my bones existed until I was creating.
00:15:10
Speaker
um regularly. So just this profound attachment to the idea of art and the artist. But I do know what you say about, I'll give you an example of like around with, with, you know, that times when, you know, my art must be political or something's happened in the world. And it's like, I got a picture of a flower or something here. And I'm like, people dying, people dying, right? Like, so what do you do? But I remember that um The protests were going on. I had created some ah material that I pre-recorded. And in my head, with everything that was going on, it felt dated from like a week or two ago. I'm like, I don't know how to release this. And it was just all really in my head about that. But it's such a pervasive feeling when there's change and people are or things are going on where you're like,
00:16:06
Speaker
Am I contributing? What am I saying within it? What is this thing that I'm creating within this new context of the world that um is a challenge? Yeah, absolutely. really be i think yeah I think the idea that art has to say something is is the wrong way around. I think it's that art does say something, but you just don't know what it is until it's done. like You don't know what it is until it's out there.
00:16:33
Speaker
um yeah well and i yeah go ahead sir the The idea that you were talking about that there was some there's some almost ephemeral feal way that you interact with art, i really I really identify with that because I think that art is our way of of getting out this feeling that we don't have words for.
00:16:59
Speaker
because words are so like there's such an an abstraction by themselves. And if we if we could say it, we probably would, but there's all of these things that we just can't seem to say simply. And so we make art to to say it.
00:17:13
Speaker
I really love that. My my goodness, I i think I didn't even ask the what is art, but my gosh. that no got It's too late. It's too late, you're running. um No, that that that the the language, a lot of times I ask the question, it has to do with the language, it has to do with um yeah There's something inside of you or some weird vision or something and you put it out there and it doesn't have the purpose. it's ah Where did this come from? I don't know, but it's there now and I think that's part of... um
00:17:47
Speaker
that whole creative realm where you're saying as far as, you know, people can create art for a purpose. Like I'm going to create, I'm going to do this. I'm going to create this in order to make everybody upset and bring into question this type of thing, which is deliberate in what you're doing. But, um, which is fine, which is an approach. But, um, I think, uh,
00:18:07
Speaker
I yeah ah English lit major way back in it English in philosophy words. How do you say things right? Like in languages always language and stories are so um Important to me and I really sync with that idea of How do you say the thing if not, but for art like how this is this is the realm in order to Put it out or say the thing Yeah, yeah. um Role of art, we've we've definitely been bumping around in in that. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit more about maybe the role of art for you or the role art of art overall, if you have a he was thinking about that. Oh, man. Do people really have ah an answer for the role of art overall?
Art's Complexity and Expression
00:19:00
Speaker
millions of answers millions of millions of answers i'm always further away to the answers to the questions that i ask by talking and more which i think is philosophy i think it's an un oh absolutely yeah yeah i that and makes a lot of sense to me i am part of ah a graphic novel book club this is a tangent but um and every month i read the graphic novel and i have an opinion about it and i have a way i feel about it and i have critiques and things i love about it and then i go into the group to listen to everybody else's view on it and I always feel I always if I hated it I always like it more if I loved it I always have more criticism for it I always feel less sure leaving the discussion and I love that I want to pause right there I love that as well and in loving in that is a weird territory you know it's it's just a weird territory to
00:19:56
Speaker
I don't know, like Hunter S. Thompson used this all the time, like, queering things up, right? And it just, you know, like, new ideas and, and you know, your opinion changing. um Graphic novel, book club, holy crap, that sounds fun. That sounds fun. Every month, every month tell me about it. Every month you do a... Yeah. It's it's at the it's just at the library. It's at the library in Corvallis.
00:20:22
Speaker
and Yeah, they they pick out like six books every quarter and it's it's just a regular old book club, but it's the only one I've ever heard of doing graphic novels and I love it.
00:20:35
Speaker
I love the graphic novel book club. but Yay on Corvallis Library. yeah Everybody, if you don't know libraries are actually where it's at. And librarians are our greatest vanguard of of yeah love, our librarians. a I find an alarming a little bit of attention on myself. I represent librarians in some of the union work that I do. And my gosh, those jobs are just like Disappearing literally disappearing and it's the most one the more alarming ah trends that I've seen to see whole um campuses ah schools high schools and there's just this cursory attention to
00:21:20
Speaker
that the the literacy or what the library can do for research and I just humbly say that that Google has not ended the library like there's some and there's a trail of thought out there if you talk to people it's somehow that like ah kids can just Google it now and be like can Google a lot of things and I can get a lot of things and it's the the the skills of of ascertaining in in separating things that, my gosh, I think we're losing out on losing it over time, but
00:21:57
Speaker
Ye to Corrales library libraries in general that um I get to join this book club maybe steve It's it's fun to get pushed to read things I think with book clubs to like, you know, yeah, absolutely. You don't pick what you're reading you're like, oh, okay i'll um Yeah, yeah, just I'll let I'll answer I'll answer your question for what um yes what was What is art to me? but What is art to you? The role? The role of art for me.
00:22:27
Speaker
um
00:22:30
Speaker
So we've sort of been talking about this a little bit ah as we've been chatting. But ah one of one of my favorite aspects of life is the the complexities of life, the nuance, the gray areas, the things that people aren't 100% sure about. um And so I feel like one of the things that I keep coming back to is those juxtapositions.
00:22:58
Speaker
um
00:23:02
Speaker
i have I have a series ah illustrations of illustrations of birds who ah are like beautiful, full illustrations. I think they're beautiful. And they are saying very sharp and harsh things. And I call them my rage quit birds.
00:23:19
Speaker
ah because like birds are these these beautiful creatures, but also the the ones that we are most attached to. like Everybody's drawn pictures of crows and you know these but beautiful birds. They're very aggressive. like they're very they're like They're beautiful, but they're a part of nature and they are they can be vicious and mean, and we still find them beautiful.
00:23:44
Speaker
And so I have this like series of of birds, like I have peacocks. i've but I've been told are very aggressive. I have a peacock that says leave me alone. um I like and like finding those nuances yeah in stuff.
00:24:01
Speaker
i yeah So maybe that's the role of art for me. No, on that point too, I um and that space, some maybe the border or like between two type of things, I think um that's where a lot of philosophy happens. And in talking about my general idea, it's no put down on any of the almost 300 guests that I have on that I'm not closer to it. It's that that this great comfort in being like,
00:24:32
Speaker
Knowing many ways to talk about it and getting closer to the experience of you know, so maybe it's true It seems like a strong word but of like of ah what it what it is or or what's happening i am I found overall that um for me, the example that I would think of ah is is the border, right? Like whether it's an intellectual or physical border, I'm fascinated by the border because you know you're in this state or this country and you're there and not there. And that's where it's so interesting because you're like,
00:25:09
Speaker
What am I supposed to be doing? What codes are of behavior? What has changed from this space to that space? So I always like the you know, I'm big Cormac McCarthy fan and the novel is the border trilogy, right? And you're the language is Spanish and English and it's it's the border and um ah that territory It's not easy territory for many people to exist in. As a matter of fact, they run from it. like the questions like The questions on this show are people like get weird reactions because it's like, I don't want my life complicated by being confused on this. Who wants to spend their life not knowing?
00:25:55
Speaker
Who wants to spend their life not knowing where? Apparently artists do. Artists, yeah. yeah um But I think the ability to experience discomfort is is is something you know within ours to exist for a certain amount of time and in an area that might not be fully comfortable, not in a dangerous way. but maybe would have an element of that, but just um not feeling so comfortable, right? Not feeling so comfortable. yeah and And that's what I like about ah thinking in in philosophy, in these type of questions. Let me ask you a big one, just so we can get out of the way. We could talk about um some more birds that you've drawn. um
00:26:41
Speaker
it's It's the title of the show and it's it's the big question. Some say the biggest question possibly to be asked, the divinity, God or not or whatever.
Philosophical Musings on Existence
00:26:53
Speaker
Why is there something rather than nothing? Do you have a do you do you have a dispositive answer or something that I'll just, you know? I knew the question was coming.
00:27:06
Speaker
There's nothing you can do about it. You just have to watch it. There's going to be an episode. of I've been, I've been, I've been, I've been, after I've asked the question, two of the more memorable times was, um, fuck you. And i you're a bastard. So and those are acceptable too, but yeah, it's weird. Yeah. yeah Um,
00:27:31
Speaker
man it really it is the big question but it it might be one of those that i spend a little bit less time thinking of than well that's not true i was about to say i don't spend that much time thinking about it but i know that that's not true um so like i'm not a religious person i i'm an atheist and i i think our existence on this earth is a confluence of a bunch of of random elements and i think that the Coolest thing and I think it's beautiful. Yeah um It doesn't it doesn't fill me with a with this sense of defeatist nihilism that like, ah, well, we're just here. So what does it matter? um I think it's great that we're here. I don't I think it's completely random and so ah I think it's it's the most human thing to to ask why why we're here but um
00:28:30
Speaker
Oh, who is it that said this? I think it was ah Victor Frankl said something like, um the ah he he didn't say it quite this way, but the the meaning of life is that life has meaning.
00:28:43
Speaker
yeah The meaning of life is that that we make meaning out of it and that we get to decide what that is. And um there's there's another quote ah from a TV show I haven't watched. I haven't watched, it's from Angel, the the spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But the quote is, um if nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do.
00:29:09
Speaker
i love And I think that's basically how i how I live my life. Like, yes, we are on this rock that's hurtling through space and we'll be gone in a blink of an eye. So I guess the only thing that matters is how we interact with each other and and how we take care of each other. From Viktor Frankl to...
00:29:27
Speaker
Buffy and Angel, I love it, I love it. That Victor Frankl, I, ah i yeah once in a while it comes up in a show and my gosh, Man's Search for Meaning, gender title, but what a beautiful, profound work. Just a really amazing ah thing. And I think it comes up.
00:29:53
Speaker
um And of course, um a colleague, not a colleague of mine, but somebody I learned from a philosophy a professor out in former professor out of Marquette University, James South, was an editor of a Buffy and Philosophy volume, right? So there's these popular culture volumes that are so um distinct volumes on a lot, but like it'd be like the Watchmen and Philosophy, Baseball and Philosophy, Red Sox and, well, I'm a Red Sox fan, Red Sox and Philosophy.
00:30:25
Speaker
Stimson's in philosophy. I think the first volume was Seinfeld in philosophy because that was just an absurdist philosophy show like forever and um So the popular culture and and but there was a great volume Buffy in philosophy and ah something' like ah ri that down Yeah, yeah, so you um, there's a singular publisher I can't I'll have it in the show notes, but um but so there's a surprising amount of um ah titles ah within this. And basically, um you know, from academics, some freelance folks, and you'd have really the kind of interplay of like classical philosophy a lot of times and in popular culture. And that's something that's always really interested me. And it's just like the way my mind works.
00:31:17
Speaker
um ah talking about philosophy where it's like real and isn't some, you know, you're looking at a picture of a white guy from centuries ago and you can't read what's there. I mean, it's great stuff. I mean, I'm not trying to say it's all the same, but, you know, there's philosophy and in in these interactions in in and in different places and popular culture is such a great. ah When I taught philosophy, I use that because I got a simple brain. I'm like, well, um
00:31:50
Speaker
My students are 18, 19, 20. The show's popular. How do I get them to read the damn thing? How do I get interested? I have to refer to something and it's not non-substantive. It's just a fun.
00:32:08
Speaker
Kicking off point. So, um, okay, so we we we we got some of some of the big some of the big ones there the something and Nothing, I do share your sentiment on There's something about if you think or you question or you believe that that there isn't you know one creator. um It isn't the the whole of nihilism that you talk about because you know like existentialist philosophy and other philosophies are like, okay, this is the fix we're in, folks. If it feels like a fix, it is.
00:32:44
Speaker
But what do you do? What do you do? And I think that's where there's this incredible opening. And I think that the angel quote there fits right into that. we're we're We're figuring this out. um I don't I wanted to jump in and have you talk a little bit about um ah where to find ah your art, like coffee and wine and um either physical places to your art or your website, so so make sure we get that in there about where where to find you and your art.
Where to Find the Guest's Works
00:33:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah the the best place to find me is my website, which is rnaapush.com. But if you have trouble spelling it, don't worry, so does everyone else. So you can also go to effinadorable.com, which is the name of my my store. But it's all connected. It's all in the same ah it's all on the same website.
00:33:44
Speaker
um
00:33:47
Speaker
And ah my my book is on there as well, Coffee and Wine. All of the pages are there to read, but it's also where you can buy physical copies from me. um ah As of right now, Browsers Bookstore in Albany is the only like physical place. Well, I suppose there's another place in Corvallis, ah the only physical place that is carrying my book right now. So it's mostly just me.
00:34:13
Speaker
That's OK. That's OK. We know what we know what if a browser's bookstore in Albany. We had chatted a little bit about that and a bookstore owner and kind of a convergence point for interaction with art and um local publishing. I've had ah Craig Randall, a poet novelist um from Corvallis on the show. and um ah Beautiful writing beautiful poems and one of the more important things about Craig and my understanding is that talking about mental health males mental health um ah poetry expression and in in dealing with things and ah Just you know encountering this this incredible local art that you find here um and It's such a joy because I think the the bookstore
00:35:10
Speaker
ah A bookstore is is like the place and there's a lot of footage. Yeah, it's such a treasure. It is, it is. And talking about talking about art. So Browsers Bookstore in Albany, also ah presence online presence there and of course um on the website. And I had in quotes here because I didn't miss it, effin' adorable.
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah, adorable yeah and I had it in quotes. Yeah, it's effin adorable. I didn't know what the words were and that's why It's effin adorable Yeah, yeah I yeah I enjoyed I was very happy to ah encounter coffee and wine about your other um design work. I've seen some on your website what How that fit in? Do you do that on and off, discrete images? and I do it pretty regularly. I have a Patreon that I create, every month I create prints and stickers for. So I find that I am making illustrations pretty regularly, but it's mostly just for me.
00:36:25
Speaker
ah
00:36:28
Speaker
whatever Whatever I think is interesting, i might I might make it into a print. I have the luxury of having my own printer, so I don't have to go through the ah hassle of figuring out how many copies to make of something. I could make three and take it to a market. I love that. i ah um Patreon too. um Find it by by a name by your name? or just Yeah, just by my name.
00:36:54
Speaker
yeah yeah um Now, Patreon's ah great. I found one of the really cool things about the physical art itself. I'm a big fan of ah Mark Palm artist up in Burien, Seattle ah area, about once every month or two. um yeah Nice little booklet sketches and stuff. I think these things are just so like im like I can't believe I have it. I'm a big fan, you know, but like getting it in the mail, like U.S. mail, being excited about U.S. mail and getting
00:37:27
Speaker
Art in the mail is a really cool thing. So Patreon is a great place for that and I can if I if I search and then Join up your patreon. It sounds like I might be able to get my hands on some of the stickers then maybe Yeah, all right i go i got i got my um I got my profound ah got my profound plan.
00:37:49
Speaker
um ah um'm I'm glad, so website, ah Patreon, ah physical copy, browsers, bookstore, but ah folks,
00:38:00
Speaker
um Really take a look at at coffee and wine, even online. Get a physical copy if you can, because if you're like me, I do love digital. or i like I'll flip through things. but um having your hands on this, as you know. egg is Yeah, in the same way. I love having the book. It's quite the thing. um it it's it's been It's been amazing ah to talk to you. I'm glad um we've been able to to to connect and being like great ah in the same area here in in Oregon. I had one more question for you, if you if if you could.
00:38:39
Speaker
Um, yeah, sure you you mentioned uh You were you born and did you grow up partially in nebraska?
Impact of Oregon and Nebraska on Art
00:38:47
Speaker
Is that where you were? Okay. Yeah and coming to oregon. Uh, i'm originally from rhode island. Um, I lived in, uh, wisconsin for about 12 years wisconsin, um, and uh i've been out here in in oregon for about, uh 13, uh years i'm
00:39:11
Speaker
amazed befuddled confused in but I love Oregon and it's not like any other place and when it comes to creativity self-expression first amendment rights individual expression good and bad politically wild politically about the people and do and show and the things. As an artistic environment, what was it like to encounter these woods up in Oregon?
00:39:44
Speaker
ah
00:39:47
Speaker
That's an interesting question. I feel like moving to Oregon was was the best thing I ever did for for my art just because it put me around other people who were also making art.
00:39:59
Speaker
um like i Like I said earlier, growing up in Nebraska, and it it it wasn't just growing up in Nebraska, it was growing up in small town Nebraska. um ah just It's hard to find other people doing art. And ah my family was very, um ah a little blue dot living in a sea of red as far as politics goes. So like I spent a lot of my time in Nebraska sort of feeling on the outs.
00:40:28
Speaker
especially being an atheist. I was raised Catholic, so there was a whole journey there of of not not feeling like I quite fit. And then we moved to Phoenix, Arizona to to try out a big city. We lived there for about five years and it just wasn't it just wasn't for us because we did still love the small town. I love the quiet life. I love the slow quiet life.
00:40:54
Speaker
um And we had some friends living in in Portland at the time, and we came to visit them. And it was just within within a couple of days, it was just that was it. We moved here, and that was about six or seven years ago. But a I don't feel I don't know if it's good to feel like you completely fit in. And I don't feel like I completely fit in Oregon. I mean, coming from Nebraska, I definitely have moments where I feel very conservative compared to the other people around me, even though I would never describe myself that way.
00:41:27
Speaker
um But ah I love living here because I feel like I can i can do whatever whatever it is that I need to, whatever whatever way I need to express myself, I do feel like there's space here to do that, which is important to me. I think there is the the space. There's so many contradictions in in in Oregon.
00:41:53
Speaker
And I think the space is the the number one thing in the sense of creatively there's a ah supportive spirit or or structure here it seems to be. um But it's it's a place of deep contradictions. I find it to be in spots, very xenophobic as far as like you're an outsider and You know, and and by not fitting, it's not like I i came here, I'll never fit in in Oregon. And that's cool. Like, I can't, like, edge I open my mouth and I get rambling and and that yeah and i from around here um yeah it's That's okay, because it's a, I don't know, as a creator, the way my brain works, I've never just kind of walked around and been like, wow, everything's fallen in place for me. And it's not a sad story, it's just,
00:42:44
Speaker
you know, how how we're built. and um And I did grow up Catholic out in Rhode Island, but if you're from Rhode Island, it's nine out of 10. You're Catholic. I yeah and met a Protestant when I went to ah high school, and I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what it was. Like, that's how Catholic I was. Yeah. Honestly, I was like, this guy just out himself as a communist or something. Like, what is it? I like ask somebody like I didn't know but he wasn't Catholic. Yeah, yeah. That's the yeah that's the Rhode Island experience and you're Catholic in Nebraska.
00:43:25
Speaker
Wow. yeah yeah um One of the one of the one of my great influences in me in philosophy is my friend, Andy Gustafson, who's from rural Nebraska, pig farmer. I met to him while studying philosophy at Marquette University.
00:43:44
Speaker
And um man, I learned so much ah from him about about philosophy, but about Nebraska. He was a member of the free church. I hadn't heard any of this stuff. So um really, I mean,
00:44:00
Speaker
the similarities, you know, like how do you put these two together but a great a friend of mine and I have a great ah appreciation for what I learned from him about about Nebraska and he teaches at Creighton over there. Oh, yeah. Is that in Omaha? I believe it's in Omaha.
00:44:21
Speaker
ah That's all right. I'm going to lose my Nebraska car. My brain broke. I'm like, oh, geez, I don't know. I mean, all of a sudden, he saw the notes for this that you made. You're like, OK, he got the Creighton, and I need to know what Creighton is. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Unbelievable.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:44:42
Speaker
It's been so wonderful to talk to you. Everybody get coffee and wine, or at least look at it online to get up. I'm holding up a copy now.
00:44:53
Speaker
I physically have it. I have my my notes in the back, but um it has been such a pleasure to chat with you. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This was a great conversation. It was lovely to meet you. Lovely talking art and ah ah recording from Albany, Oregon ah with home of many Many artists, I think a lot of them are hiding. ah Novelist, the person who created Jar Jar Binks from Albany. I'm a big Jar Jar Binks fan. I'm out myself right now about that. I love this story. But it's it's great to connect. And again, everybody, Browsers bookstore.
00:45:37
Speaker
support your independent bookstores, join a graphic novel, reading club, book club it or start your own or start your own. Yeah, absolutely. There's so much out there. All right. This is something rather than nothing. signing off