Autumn 2024 Update
AKA how is it September already?
Reading time: about 5 minutes
It’s September! Already! Despite a lot of this year going a bit sideways for me, it has been extremely rich and full. The summer was one of time spent in community, playing in the river, and riding my bike so much it sparked the nostalgia of being a kid and bicycles being the best and first choice for getting around.
Now the weather is turning and I am looking at what projects I can focus my energy towards in the coming months of darkness. As I was reviewing my plans and projects I realised there is a heck of a lot to update ya’ll on! So here goes…
The Coming Out Monologues:
My cohort is over halfway through our time in preparation for the shows we will be putting on October 25th, 26th and 27th. It has been so good for my heart and mind to be part of this group of humans, which combines two of my favourite things: Creativity and community.
I do so love collaborating with others, especially when it comes to storytelling, and I am excited for what we will be sharing come the end of October—especially as it gets to be a tie in to the next issue of From the QILT2BAG+…
From the QILT2BAG+:
Issue 4 of the ‘zine is called Come Out! Come Out! and it will be the last I produce in 2024. But I am already thinking ahead to the next four issues to produce and publish in 2025. I’ve started connecting with folks to contribute to future issues AND I am seriously considering running a crowdfunding campaign to pay for it all. A proper one on Kickstarter.
I’ve worked it out, and for just $2,000 I can get four more issues published, including being able to pay all the contributors. I figure this isn’t a wildly huge target to hit, but before I take the jump, do let me know, would you be willing to contribute $10 to $108 to help produce a community ‘zine? Obviously a perk of contributing is being one of the first to get copies of the ‘zines we make.
My hope is to get all four issues produced before June 2025, so I will have eight issues total for Pride next year!1
Let me know in the with your vote below if this is something you think you could back. :)
Thangkas!:
My inner-circle folks know I am hanging out in not knowing now I’ve finished Avalokiteshvara. The completed piece has made its way to Davidson College, where it will eventually be on display. There will be prints available at some point in the coming months, as well as a booklet about the piece and all the ancestors I included.2 But that’s a project I’m still mulling over and there is a lot of time between now and when the piece will be officially unveiled.
In the mean time, I have been working on some thangka practice on and off, as my energy allows. I have another large piece I conceived of back when I was working on the initial sketch of Avalokiteshvara. It’s a general idea I’ve had for years, actually. I’ve been laying out the grid for that and hopefully will have something to share in the next few weeks.
Sacred Love/Sacred Lives:
I completed the collaboration with Ris Wong!3
When I started this project the plan was to make six pieces, each with one of the following lines:
Disabled lives are sacred
Disabled love is sacred
Queer lives are sacred
Queer love is sacred
Trans lives are sacred
Trans love is sacred
I have mostly stuck to this, aside from the one piece I made that reads: Intersex lives are sacred. This piece incorporates the Intersex rose design, and was one I made because I was hyper aware of the work of Intersex activists to protect the bodily autonomy of infants born with ambiguous genitalia.
I eventually want to make 108 of these pieces, and though that would be doable with my initial six phrases, I’m feeling called to expand them to include other groups. It being September and with the day of Truth & Reconciliation approaching, I got an idea to make a piece that says ‘Indigenous Lives Are Sacred’.
This whole series is a response to those who would put regressive laws back in place. All systems of oppression are interconnected, so there are many other sacred lives and sacred loves I can uplift with this work, as a reminder that any system that ranks some lives as ‘better’ than others, is a system we must dismantle.
We will see what unfolds!
As ever, I am always looking for folks to collaborate with. If you have a design that would lend itself well to embroidery, please get in touch. All the pieces I make in collaboration with someone go back to you as the original artist.
Eventually, when I’ve completed 108 of these, I intend to put on an exhibition and sale. My hope is to split the sales between me and all other contributors, and possibly a few organizations working for our collective liberation.
That’s the big stuff for now! Please do vote in the poll—it’s open for one week. Please also feel free to share your creative endeavors in the comments! I always like hearing about the art and writing and performances folks are working on.
K.
2025 is also the 20th anniversary of both the same-sex marriage bill passing in Canada and the founding of the Fake Mustache troupe—which happened in the same week!
Alas, I did not get the funding I apllied for to pay for th shiny idea I had for this, so now I am looking at how to develop it on a tighter budget.
Who also contributed to the first ever issue of From the QILT2BAG+.