hello and salutations from the deep valley! i’ve got some cool news + updates for y’all.
june was a very warm and very fun month. it’s been really nice taking advantage of the good weather to get out and about, hang with friends, and explore the city more on bike. i started a ~new hobby~ of shooting on film this month, and have been having a great time documenting the goings-on.
i also got the privilege of being fully booked up in june, so thanks to everyone who reached out and came through for a tattoo! i am always very grateful to everyone who comes in and gets a piece. july is also fully booked, but i will post any last minute availabilities on my instagram story.
if you’re looking to make a new appointment, here is an early access booking link for august. shapeworld is shutting down for two weeks to re-do our floors, so between that and some other projects, space for appointments in august will be very limited. i’ll be at shapeworld most of the month, but am doing a few days at the secret door while the floors are being fixed up.
new flash
all flash is available once in color and once in black and gray. to see currently available pieces, check out this google drive.
cool tattoos from the last month
This custom for benja was super fun. it’s based on a cave painting of a person reaching for honey from a beehive. it was really rad to re-interpret something so ancient, and build a custom earthy color palette. more earth tone pls!!
these two flash pieces, for max and daniel, were super fun. really enjoyed playing with the color on the second one!
custom joan of arc for grace! super fun, and always a blast to draw up day-of as well. if you’re ever unsure of what you want, i’m always down to take on customs at your appointment.
bonus! really wonderful heal on taylor from a few months back.
new studio
i’ve been eager to get back into painting for a while and have always felt like my room lacked the space to do more than small works on paper. the artifacts show was super fun, but i’ve been thinking a lot about larger scale works with oil and what that could look like. i used to paint a lot in college, and really miss it.
i’ve been looking for a good studio situation for the last 5-6 months, and am happy to report that i’ve found a nice, affordable option in bushwick for the next three months! it’s small, but it’s a good amount of space to spread out and work on some new stuff. i’ll be in here making paintings (+more?) until october 1st, but potentially longer if things work out.
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i’m still tattooing at shapeworld by the way. this studio is more of an art-studio-type-thing. i’m going to be in here making a mess and trying to re-learn how to paint and what that looks like for me in 2024. the last time i painted with oils was in 2016!
misc projects
new colorful guy drawing
i drew another cool fellow with pencils. it’s been fun making these guys and adding a lil crazy color underneath. i’d like to make one more, and maybe arrange the four of them into a riso print.
heaven ii update
progress on heaven ii is going well! the coloring steps are slow and tedious, but i only have a couple of pages left now. once that’s done, i’ll have some formatting to do before i get into the risolab to print. my lab time starts in july, so i’ll hopefully be able to get a few other things ready to print as well.
i don’t want to share *too* much of this project, so have a peak at this cool spread. and imagine many more :)
web store updates
i’ve been working on my webstore over the last few weeks as well, in very small increments when i’m not doing something else. i’ll be honest, i really don’t mesh well with website stuff. it feels so tedious, hence the extremely slow pace of it. but, i’m almost fully set up with the cargo shop! i think i’m going to hold off on opening it until heaven ii releases, and do a big "shop re-opening heaven ii release sale” type of thing. keep your eyes peeled!
film photos
as i mentioned above, i started shooting on film this month. i’m always on the hunt for new hobbies, and i got this old canon ae-1 from my dad that used to be my grandfathers. it took some time to figure out how to use it, but i’m digging it a lot! here are some pics from the first two test rolls (kodak ultramax) that i really liked :)
not super sure how much of a place these photos have in the newsletter. but, if you guys dig them, i’d love to get in the habit of popping a few in the newsletters moving forward!
patrick recommends
saraghina bed stuy
isabella and i have been to this place once or twice, but decided to pop over the other night for a quick date night in our neighborhood. we don’t usually frequent the same places, but saraghina is a great stop and close to us. i like the atmosphere at this spot, and since the weather was pretty nice, we ate outside. while the weather was good, the traffic (both car and foot) outside the restaurant was a lot, so i’d recommend eating inside or aiming for the backyard seating if you can swing it. we ordered the focaccia with whipped ricotta and the coppa and carciofi pizza, which were both bomb. the house montepulciano pairs great with any of the pizzas too. definitely recommend this spot for a casual feeling but upscale tasting italian place. side note, there’s a wicked bakery attached that’s got a ton of amazing bread and pastries too! show up early though, there’s always a line. we didn’t go this time but i always recommend it.
beau travail
saw this 1999 film by claire denis for the first time the other week. it’s a slow paced movie, with lots of lingering shots and little dialogue. the score is brilliant, at times both beautiful and unsettling. the movie grapples with notions of masculinity in it’s depiction of foreign legion officer galoup’s jealousy of new recruit sentain. at it’s core, this film is about jealousy and how it can drive a man to sabotage himself and others. it’s a slow burn, for sure, and i may or may not have fallen asleep for a few minutes at the midway point, but i still would highly recommend this one if you haven’t seen it yet.
shadow of the erdtree
like many others, the last week and a half have seemingly disappeared completely from my life. the new elden ring dlc has come out, and boy. is it something. i’m only about 10 hours in, and just beat the first boss (lion dancer), but i am really loving this.
the way the dlc scales with you, and rewards exploration over grinding is a really great way to keep this experience fresh for underleveled and over leveled characters. the dungeons are challenging, but manageable. the bosses are super tough, but definitely not impossible. the world design is immaculate! the way it keeps unfolding bit by bit just leaves you with so many “oh shit” moments. i’m absolutely and totally lost, plot-wise, but that’s standard for me with these games.
my one piece of advice, don’t kill any of the kindred rot bug guys you see in the world. despite triggering my fight or flight, a lot of these guys are not actually hostile to you, and will give you cookbooks. if you kill one, you ruin your relationship with an npc. not sure how vital he is since i couldn’t roll it back once i killed his bug pal.
honorable mentions
this month, i wanna shout out riding a bike on a summer day, mango with chamoy + tajin, and the sound of thunder. additionally, been listening to a lot of robert lester folsom, cut worms, and tim hill this month. i’ve been playing a lot of stardew valley in between elden ring struggle sessions. i’ve also been watching mobile suit zeta gundam (part of an extremely long undertaking of watching all of the gundam stuff ever). as always, send me your recommendations :)
resources for palestinian action
i’ve decided to start including resources for those wishing to take action for palestine in my monthly newsletter. i think it’s extremely important that we all use whatever power we have to speak up and act out collectively.
please understand, your silence is complicity. take the time to learn what is happening. make your voice heard. help to end this genocide.
this is a google doc that is regularly updated. it includes protest information, places to donate, boycott targets, resources to educate yourself, and many other resources to take action.
Love film photography and these are gorgeous, you should definitely include them going forward!!