on being ambiguously brown

5 panel comic! Click thumbnails below:

(somewhat) hourly comics

on being a 4th culture kid

I grew up a biracial, tricultural kid in America, with one grandmother living across the Pacific in Malaysia and one across the Atlantic in England.

notes from france: orangina

In first year French, Madame Gabet taught us how to order an Orangina. But what was an Orangina? Was it better than Fanta? It was so French and mysterious. On a layover in Calgary the summer after freshman year, my family stopped at the resort in Banff and had lunch on the expansive terrace overlooking the Canadian wilderness. And oh mon dieu, there it was on the menu, Orangina!! The moment I had been trained for arrived. With rapture, I said to the English-speaking Canadian waiter, “Un Orangina, s’il vous plaît.” It was delightful. Ever since then, even though I don’t like soda anymore, I can’t help but ask for an Orangina s.v.p. in Francophone countries. And it is still delightful.

the secret show

A comic about a secret show we went to last year. It was so magical! Click the panel thumbnails below for bigger text.

march for our lives

Hitting the streets with the students today & thinking of two high school friends who died because of easy access to guns. It’s way past time for gun reform!

in my studio

At my art table, on a sweaty and somewhat frantic day.

Fun fact: I still use the art table my dad bought me for christmas in high school.

enchanted forest birthdays

Sketching out my friends’ Enchanted Forest birthdays party to remember it by.

The magical birthday girls…

…and me, their friend the nasturtium sprite.

darkroom

From my sketchbook. When I was in high school, my family was numerous, loud, and chaotic. The darkroom was the only place in the house (besides the toilet!) I didn’t have to let the little kids into. I’d put on music and feel sly and enjoy being by myself.

sometimes all honey, and sometimes all turd

A Valentine’s Day card for my Sweetie Poo. I think many of you in longterm relationships can relate, even if you’re not familiar with the Diary of Samuel Pepys.

plainsong

A sketch about listening to the Cure’s Plainsong when I was 16. Sometimes you hear a song and it overcomes you and you have to hang on while the earth spins.

personal effects and other quotidian things

day-to-day objects that remind me most of myself.

l-r, top to bottom: purple & amber glasses, 1972 olympus OM-2n film camera, travel watercolors, hair clip, satchel, sketchbook, hawk quill speedball nib pen, mechanical pencil, pentel brush pen, pentel water brush, winsor newton series 7 size 5 brush (bought on first day of art school in 1996!), enamel tray palette, most wonderful boots ever–lucky buffalo exchange find, burt’s bees plum lip color, rumply frye oxfords on their last legs, winsor newton inks, chinese black ink in a higgins bottle, dr. Ph Martin watercolor, painting board, marks & spencer coat, levi’s black jeans, fantastic watch with italic numbers, amber necklace with bugs in the beads, rings (one made by a very talented jeweler friend), winsor newton white gouache, lactaid (of course!), green tea in a 25-year-old cup (made by my oldest friend’s mother), arches hot pressed watercolor paper in a block (fantastic!!).

my camera

my film camera, a 1972 olympus OM-2n. i will never ever ever give it up!

my 90s frocks

i attended high school with great sartorial exuberance. i’ve been working on this here and there for the past few months when i got stuck on other things (fantastic wacom tablet practice! i’m not afraid of it anymore). now what will i do to procrastinate?

mother’s day

today i present all the dresses my mother sewed for me in high school. thanks mama!

instruments

all the instruments in our (one bedroom) apartment as of yesterday:

note: in the last couple years, we have given away/sold/fostered out 1) another acoustic guitar, 2) a heavy metal electric purple axe, 3) a bass guitar, 4) a keyboard, 5) a set of enormous outdoor-type speakers. we use 2 amps for nightstands. there are three. it’s like the polyphonic spree up in here. this is clearly a cry for help. steve needs to start a band, stat.

reading list

my favorite books from the last couple years. they are! moab is my washpot by stephen fry, burma chronicles by guy delisle, relish by lucy knisley, birds of a lesser paradise by megan mayhew bergman, wide-eyed by trinie dalton, farm city by novella carpenter, and magic for beginners by kelly link. (i might have to make another painting, there were a bunch of runners-up)

london & paris drorings

i recently returned from a delightful trip to london and paris. i brought a moleskine sketchbook and a pentel brush pen with me:

quilt

my mama made me this book quilt for my birthday:

i am so lucky!

tintyped

my dearest wish was to get tintype portraits at photobooth done for my birthday. et voilà!

here’s the studio setup (i have achieved this unnatural good posture by leaning against the hidden noggin propper-upper):