Janet B

In the process of going through my old art files to get the timeline right on the retrospective, I discovered that I'd done a fifth generative drawing later in 2011, that I hadn't uploaded to my site. This, and e- from 2005, are finds that would have been lost if I hadn't embarked on this bloggery.

2011
The first of these is a multimedia work only vaguely titled based on Mieville's SF novel Embassytown, after the human "ambassadors" who are twins raised to be able to speak with the Ariekei or Hosts in the story. I was experimenting with painting on clear panels again, and with space backgrounds for nudes.
The other drawings are of the aliens themselves, which are sort of deliberately described to be as hard to depict as they are hard to understand. The core idea is that they speak through two mouths, and only one mind speaking through two human mouths is comprehensible to them. They are also only able to speak of concrete things, so if they need a metaphor they will enact it so they can refer to actuality. It's an existentially Marxist take on colonialism, ultimately, and one of my all time favorite books.

In 2011 I did a bunch of these "Elfs" and even a sticker. I really don't know what I was doing with these except that I was pushing through a lot of questioning my career choices and I'd figured out that making art helped my mental. Even very silly art. There was a very intentional "therapy is expensive but if I make drawings and title them with negative self talk I can at least pretend it might make me money instead and have the same effect".

2011, pen on paper, each around 8x10in.
I must have made a New Year's resolution because I suddenly started churning stuff out in January 2011, starting with these generative abstract drawings. I had some shows lined up at weird East Village venues and I was really digging into self-deprecation in my language around my work.