Category Archives: Art

The Play’s the Thing

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Me and Atlanta artist Nikita Gale, after Kianga Ellis’s Art Under the Influence show.

Ah, me. Am back from NYC and furiously trying to grade. I will be posting a recap of my New York trip in serial format this week, since I failed to do give updates while there. But let’s just say I had the adventure of my life, meeting artists, musicians, playwrights, and poets.

But first, some fun news: just found out my story, “Come to the Table” was accepted in Prime Number Magazine. And my story Merea was recommended by Lois Tilton in Locus. Scroll to the last entry and you can see a snippet of the story.

While in New York, I got the chance to see Cynthia von Buhler’s immersive play Speakeasy Dollhouse. If you are in NYC this summer or fall, you really need to go see it.

Alright. Back to grading–I’m racing against the clock with nothing but coffee, chocolate, and an iron will to finish.

Have Summer, Will Travel

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The semester just ended this year, and now I am in New York City to attend the Frieze Art Fair, see Cynthia Von Buhler’s wonderful Speakeasy Dollhouse immersive theatre extravaganza, and catch as many art shows and literary readings as I can fit in 10 days.  Will try to update blog with lovely pics and such but in the meantime, my latest article is up at Weird Fiction Review: “Wonders and Blunders”: The Transgressive Fantastic in Mark Hosford’s Art and my short story, “The Four Horsemen,” is live at Danse Macabre.

Reviews and News

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If you’ve not read a good novel lately that takes you out of this hectic, frenetic,  zombie-induced existence, then it’s time to order Maria Dahvana Headley’s Queen of Kings. Go read my review over at Fantasy Matters to hear more about this glorious story that I greedily gobbled up within a few days. And while you’re over at Amazon, do take a quick a peek at the newest issues of Bourbon Penn and Prick of the Spindle (Kindle version), which contain my stories “Merea” and “Evangelical Wonderland.”

Cover Art, Nervous Breakdown, by Julia Martínez Diana

Next week I’ll have a new article in Weird Fiction Review about the ghoulish and grotesque art work of Mark Hosford, and my short story “The Four Horsemen” will be reprinted in Danse Macabre, so check back. And the semester will finally, finally, be done (congrats to all my seniors who are graduating! You did it, my lovelies). Immediately after my last class I’ll be taking the red eye to NYC for the Frieze Art Fair, which starts May 4th; there will be tweets and pics and follow up posts, I’m sure. But most of all, there will be dancing, my friends.

Uncanny Carnivals, Jonas Burgert, and the Weight of the World

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It is past mid April, a time when fatigue strikes all academics and writers–grades and manuscript deadlines loom ahead like some impossible chasm to cross. We hope we’ll make it, but often at the cost of sleep, healthy eating, and social connections.

Given that, it’s only appropriate for me to introduce you to the stunning work of Jonas Burgert over at Weird Fiction Review. Intoxicating, lurid colors will bring viewers into a strange dreamscape that chronicles the exhilaration and isolation so many of us experience in this post-modern society. Paradoxically, these surreal conglomerations of pseudo-zombies, children, and monsters also create a desire for deeper community, a reconnection to the self and Other. My friend Creston Davis talks more about how to survive this “weight of the world” over at his blog. Go have a read.

Other news: My short story, “The Four Horsemen” will be reprinted in Danse Macabre for their May issue! I originally wrote and published the story with Plus Gallery here in Denver for their “Apocalypse? How!” show in January. I love and am devoted to this beautiful, wondrous intersection of word and image. To that end, I’ll be going back to NYC in early May to attend the Frieze Art Fair. If you are in the city between the 4th and the 16, let’s get coffee!

New Story Up at Bourbon Penn

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I’m excited that my story “Merea” is in the latest issue of Bourbon Penn (04). And here is my official post about the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Art–ICFA Might Just Be the Tardis–over at Fantasy Matters. I’m late posting this, it’s true, but April has turned about to be the month of late things (and we’ve just started!).

Lastly, two artists I’ve had the pleasure of writing about, Xi Zhang and Jenny Morgan,  just got lovely reviews in Denver’s Westword for their shows. Am so happy they are getting such recognition for their work. Xi has a show right now, 11 Ceremonies, over at Plus Gallery, so if you are in D-town, go check it out.

March Madness

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I started off March going to NYC for Armory Arts week. It was four days of art ogling, first going to see the Amory show, then on to Volta and Scope.  My first day there I got to have lunch with Ellen Kushner and Katherine Pendill, where we talked about all things Interstitial.The wonderful artist Lia Chavez hosted me for a few days, while Trine Bumiller and Carla Gannis became my guides through galleries and after parties (which lasted long into the night and somehow always ended with dancing).

I came back, finished my essay on portrait artist extraordinaire Jenny Morgan, graded, taught, and then packed up and went to the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Fl. There I spent another four days with writers, scholars, and artists talking about all things fantastic, grotesque, monstrous, and uncanny. Jeff and Ann VanderMeer’s Weird Fiction Review did a special “12 Days of Monsters” celebration week in honor of ICFA, for which I wrote about the grotesque menageries of Greg Simkins. My presentation on The Island of Dr. Moreau and the contemporary artist Patricia Piccinini went pretty well, given that it was at 8:30 in the morning (a ridiculous time for anyone to be awake). China Mieville, Kelly Link, and Jeffrey Jerome Cohen were the guests of honor, but that was just icing on the cake to spending time with Theodora Goss,  Maria Headley, Kat Howard, Ben Loory, Daryl Gregory, Ted Chiang, Deanna Hook, Karen Lord, and Charles Vess, and so many more wonderful writerly humans. I think Jeff  VanderMeer and Maria Headley both sum up the spirit of the conference in their posts: The Restorative Qualities of ICFA and  Strawberry Daiquiris Blended with Beast. I’ll be writing a more proper ICFA post for Fantasy Matters later this week.

Last, but not least, my short story “Evangelical Wonderland” came in out in Prick of the Spindle.

Alas, I’m still on the road. This coming weekend is the American Comparative Literature Association conference, and I apparently felt the need to do two conferences back to back. But this post has lots of lovely links for you to click on and read, so it should keep you busy for a little while.

Genteel Monsters and the Apocalypse

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I had the pleasure of writing about the artwork of Travis Louie for my latest article over at Weird Fiction Review. Dressed in fine Victorian garb and having the most sensible of constitutions, Louie’s hybrids blur the line between human and monster. Short 3rd person narratives accompany most of the portraits and give us humorous insights into the lives of these “others.” We begin to see that these genteel monsters operate more as grotesque mirrors of our own culture.

And a few weeks ago, I was interviewed by one of my former students concerning the story I wrote for the Apocalypse? How!  I had the chance to talk a bit more about the grotesque in art and literature and how this once ornamental aesthetic now functions as rhetoric. Go to the Westword blog for the article.

Ray Caesar’s Lost Girls

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Siren, 2012, Ray Caesar

 The girls Ray Caesar portrays rivals those of Mark Ryden in their resilience, vulnerability, and ferocity. Caesar portrays their hurts and betrayals but also sends them into the realm of the monstrous, where he keeps them safe and reveals the deeper afflictions of a culture, which continues to harm our young through abuse, isolation, and sexualization. But there is a stunning beauty and luminosity to his work that keeps our own gazed trapped even as we are disturbed by what we see. To read my full article, visit Weird Fiction Review.

 

Image credit: Ray Caesar/Gallery House”

Goblin Selves

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I was so busy getting ready for the beginning of spring semester, I forgot to post this article that I wrote for Weird Fiction Review, so if you like goblins and monsters, with a healthy smattering of Goya and the work of fabulous artist Laurie Lipton, then please go have a look. I’ll be posting there every other Tuesday.

A reminder that “Apocalypse? How!” is this Friday (Feb 27, 6  p.m.) at Plus Gallery, featuring the works of Donald Fodness, Drew Englander, Paul Nudd, and Larry Bob Phillips.  My short story, “The Four Horsemen” will accompany the show.