OCTOBER RECAP: In-person at SAW!
October in Gainesville is always totally decked out with events, parties, and shows. Between a Weeklong Workshop, weekly Accountability meetings, and our ongoing Comics 4 Teens class, we have our hands full.
We kicked off October with an incredible standup show featuring Rex, Rebecca Rasmussen, and Henry Evans. The SAW space was transformed from a workshop/library to an intimate, cozy venue for absolutely gut ripping sets. In light of the destruction of Western North Carolina by Hurricane Helene, we decided to split the proceeds from the fundraiser. We raised $589 total, so we donated $204.50 to the Pansy Collective, a queer and trans powered collective, or self described DIY benefit booking collective and tranarchist distro. If you would like to donate to mutual aid in North Carolina, they really could use the cash! CLICK HERE.
SAW’s in-person Accountability group started on October 1, and is ending next week, running for a total of 7 weeks. In this group, participants had weekly goals I checked in on both in person and via email. Folks had a range of projects they wanted to keep accountable in, like a children’s book, an ongoing graphic novel, and a prose novel. Two of the nights out of the seven were spent in Silent Critique.
Tuesday night or CRITIQUE! I accidentally gave us too much time per person, and had to rush everyone at the end, but we still got to read everyone’s work!
Crit nights always end up being so rewarding. Each of us goes reads the other’s work. The artist has a level of sensitivity they can write out for the critiquer (another artist in the group). We go around for ten minutes with everyone’s work and leave notes beside or within their work, depending on if it is a print out or original art. We spend about 10 minutes at the end reading everyone’s comments, questions, and praises of each other’s work. This builds everyone up for the week ahead and maintaining motivation to just keep going.
Our Comics 4 Teens class began on October 5, ending in mid-November. Every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, a dozen or so teens from around Alachua county come to SAW to make comics. Everyone’s favorite activity is working on a comic while I play Chappell Roan. I have a few students who struggle to start drawing, and I always empathize with them. They want to make something “perfect.” I try to utilize Lynda Barry exercises with them to help let go of that absolute perfection. Of course, I also have a student who can make a comic with markers, pens, and pencils in about 10 minutes and it looks fantastic as well as extremely dramatic. He has no doubts, all in, every time. It’s so inspiring.
Our Weeklong Workshop was packed to the brim. On Monday, we all met at SAW to discuss storytelling. This led to a generative exercise using memory and lists. Everyone read their story aloud, which felt like a beautiful, vulnerable moment to get to know one another. We broke for lunch, and then spent the rest of the afternoon brainstorming what comic to make and finish by the end of the week.
The following day we met at SAW to then drive to Sweetwater Wetland Park out on Main Street and Williston, south of the Gallery. This park has sweeping views of the prairie and a reclamation water system that is fascinating, as well as littered with alligators. We took this opportunity to sketch cormorants, gators, leaves, flowers, egrets, and turtles. That night, we all got together for the first Critique night of Accountability group, which was also including the folks from the weeklong workshop. Everyone’s spirits were incredibly lifted that night.
We visited the Santa Fe Zoo on Thursday, sketching animals but mostly gawking at capuchins. They are so cute! I gave a short and detailed lecture on lettering using this incredible link I found in the Mighty Network under free resources.
Thursday night, Falen Spade gave a special workshop on making zines using stickers, washi tape, magazines and markers. Falen walked us through how to layer all these items so that they are telling a coherent story.
The rest of the week, we really focused on making the comic each person chose. Chris, an active member of our Mighty Network, penned a comic about AI, time, and philosophy. Keely finally got to pursuing the rest of their webcomic featuring a themme fatale and an ensemble cast to boot. Elliot sketched out a story they’ve been ruminating on for years. Phil worked on comics from workshops past, specifically a collage comic he made in a Tom Hart workshop. Robert discovered Yupo paper and began inking, and thumbnailing, a longform fantasy comic set in a medieval age.
Finally, we ended the weeklong off with an event of Halloween Figure Drawing. About 20 folks came together at SAW, in costumer, on October 26 to draw each other doing various poses. To warm up, I set out paper with panels already printed on them, and two cups: one cup filled with various haunted settings, and another filled with spooky characters. Folks came up with incredible stories about witches in a cornfield, scarecrows in a seedy bar, and ghosts in a graveyard.
Truly, an extremely fun-filled month! I look forward to some time to rest… until all of our upcoming November and December events! Look out for those in another blog post :-)