No end, believe me!
To the inventions of summer
Hi all! I have been meaning to sit down and write this newsletter for weeks. I had a beautiful, busy June and I’m taking July mostly off. My shop is still open, and I’ve got a discount code for you, dear reader. For 25% off anything in the store, including my new extra hefty themed collage minizine kits… Enter JULY25 during checkout! They are available in plant themed and adult themed. The former were made with the plentiful leftover plant ephemera I collected for my Plants They’re Just Like Us Workshop last month, and the latter are made with my vintage Playboy collection.
Being off Instagram is necessary, enjoyable, unbearable, and life changing all at the same time. I worry will my following remember I exist when I come back, or even see my posts? But I revel in living my life for me and me only, unbothered with documenting it for an audience. I wish we could go back to the 90s I grew up in, when we didn’t have these electronic tethers attached 24/7, and just experienced each day organically. Having social media be my main channel for promoting my art/art business makes me feel like I pissed off a witch in a former life. I know I’m not alone, almost every creative I know laments the change in relationship to their practice that sharing it online creates.
Hence my periodic breaks. I’d love to get off IG entirely and just send out a monthly round up to share with the people who care. That’s where you come in! If you’re not subscribed already, here’s the button. And here’s my invitation: if you think you know some folks who would dig my particular brand of collage, zines, and writing here, why not share this newsletter with them? Forward the email, tag them on one of my IG posts, write it in an old fashioned letter. Thanks, and that’s enough of that for now.
My Troublemaker’s Cafe for NEPA Stands Up went brilliantly, I had so much fun and really think all the attendees did as well! We had the perfect amount of space for the everyone. The plant workshop at Evergreen was also lovely, and I want to thank everyone who came out to make some art with me! It’s so important to take time for ourselves and just play, or make something with our hands, away from screens and the constant barrage of information that our animal brains are not equipped to handle. I love that I can be of service in cultivating that container for folks. Here’s some pics from my recent workshops, and what participants made!
During Pride month, I got to attend my local city flag raising assisted by the lovely Mx. Trans Pennsylvania, Jacob Kelley. I participated in the first annual Field Gay in the park, which was sparsely attended on a rainy morning, but SO much fun. I felt like a kid again, except for the part where the sack race had me hyperventilating. OMG, everything was so much easier as a kid! My team lost every single game, but we still got little trophies and had a blast. I made a pride flag tye dye shirt that I’ll never wear, and made macaroni salad for a trans pride picnic. But my favorite event from Pride month was attending the opening of Transcendence in Allentown. I had three pieces in the show, and I felt so honored to be among the company of other talented queer artists. They gave all the artists a single rose, it was really special. What a meaningful exhibit, curated by Rae Yukon! Here’s my artist statement for my newest piece.
“Desert Skin” Analog Collage May 2025, 12“ x 12” framed
“Desert Skin” is a recent example of my work in which I contemplate trans folks’ relationships to our bodies, alongside our mortality. By making unexpected shapes with the model’s skin, I enter a sort of body horror realm where the final girl is the one who accepts themself. They hover mere inches above a mountain of rubble that signifies their eventual demise. When gluing this piece, the paper wrinkled near the top, and I decided to leave it, since bodies are full of imperfections, wrinkles, nooks, crannies, and more that make them each completely unique.
I had another honor in June as well. MCBA chose me as the artist of the month! I was their featured in an artist spotlight in their newsletter, which you can read in its entirety here. Here’s one of my favorite interview questions from it.
For someone interested in starting to do collage or make zines, any advice on how to get started?
Just pick up some sort of periodical or junk mail and cut or tear out what catches your eye. Getting started is as easy as that. If you think three different things go together, put them together! Congrats, you've made something only you could make. The one-sheet 8-page minizine is a great way to get started with zines because the space constraint keeps it low-pressure. If you don't like the way something came out, just glue something else over it. You can't go wrong. I think hands-on creativity and self-expression are vastly underrated as a self-care practice in stressful times.
Artsnfartsnkris… pretty big in Minnesota! Who knew? As a reminder, in addition to the Shop at MCBA, my zines can also currently be found at South Street Art Mart in Philadelphia, Quimby’s in Chicago, and Cat’s Luck vegan restaurant in Neptune Township, NJ. If you’re in any of those areas, I’d love if you support a local business as well as me at the same time! If you’ve got an independent bookstore or record store that carries zines near you, why not ask them if they’ll carry my work? Or leave suggestions down in the comments for me to reach out to them.
I’m currently working on a zine about my vacation, and all the yummy vegan food I ate, and places I went in NJ. I’ve finished writing and editing the nearly 5,000 words and am starting to move on to the physical construction of the zine. I think I’m going to use some clipart from my first Craphound that I got for my birthday! I found some great new stationery from Daiso and Paper Source that I’m excited to use. This zine will basically be a scrapbook, and I think you’ll be into it if you’re interested in any of the following things: New Jersey, stationery, vegan food, travel, books, and vending as an artist.
I went straight from beach vacay in Asbury Park to table at Princeton Zinefest. It was a fun event for the second year in a row, and I enjoyed meeting some new people and creators! I debuted my new themed zine packs there, and stayed at a hotel that was laid out like a maze. More about that in the zine! Have you gotten in any travel so far this summer? I’d love to hear about it. Why not make a zine about it?
Recently I’ve attended two of Joanna Wallace’s collage workshops, and it’s so nice to get out of the house and make my preferred medium in the company of others! Raiding her magazine collection is the best part. It’s challenging to work without the creature comforts of my home studio: the lighting, the space, my brayer and comfort grip xacto with a fresh blade. I feel like the other participants are just there for lighthearted fun, and I’m that oddly intense person hunched over what I’m working on in the corner, hissing at anyone who interrupts me. I’m okay with being a weirdo in public though! Here’s some of what I made at these workshops.
We had a real rainy Spring, and now it’s a hot Summer. I just can’t process the heat like I used to, whether that’s due to age, shifting hormone levels, climate change, or medication side effects is anybody’s guess. I am equipped with a season pass to the local pool, and don’t know how I ever lived without a personal neck fan before. I’m only sporadically helping out at the kids camp at the farm sanctuary where I volunteer, and don’t hesitate joining them in running through the sprinklers now! I did enjoy some magical forest exploration in June, but I am dreaming of cooler Fall hiking. I’ve also gotten some good snaps of mushrooms, so I’m starting to think about a Mushrooms I Have Known vol. 4….
I think that’s all for now, friends. Thank you for reading my updates. I’m reading a lot this month since I’m off IG. Maybe I’ll close the gap on my yearly goal a bit! If you’d like to see what I’m reading, here’s my Goodreads page. Please enjoy this poem I’m sharing with you below. Wishing you all the happiness your body is willing to bear.
Love & air conditioning,
Kris
(they/them)
The Roses Mary Oliver One day in summer when everything has already been more than enough the wild beds start exploding open along the berm of the sea; day after day you sit near them; day after day the honey keeps on coming in the red cups and the bees like amber drops roll in the petals: there is no end, believe me! to the inventions of summer, to the happiness your body is willing to bear.
