January!
- The Terminal City Roller Girls (www.tcrg.com) did their derby draft at the end of Jan! Over 30 girls were drafted to four different teams, and the best news is that every girl who took part in Fresh Meat (aka girls who were trying out/total rookies) found a spot on a team. I happened to make it on team PUBLIC FRENEMY, the newest team to join the TCRG league. I was super stoked to be on the new team and help be a part of building on Vancouver's TCRG league. Our first small bout is later this month (march 20th, i think) and the BIG SEASON KICK-OFF is in April! I'll let you know as it becomes closer to that date.
Derby practices have been awesome and fun and last week we played against "Tough Love", Bellingham's team. It was just an unofficial scrimmage and we didn't win (single tear-drop) but we played very well and I can just imagine what kind of great team we will be in the not so distant future. I was mentioning to our captains and coaches, how I can now see how our team is going to start working really well together, it's now in reach.
And that's pretty exciting.
-I've been working like crazy as part of the Communications team at First Nations Health Council (fnhc.ca). I've really helped amp up the social media aspect of that organization and I feel really proud about where it is going. I think it's given me a lot to think about...mostly, how strongly I feel about community members, or grass-roots citizens deserving the right to 1) understand complicated bureaucratic systems 2) have access to information they can use at a community level. I feel like this intent relates so closely to my philosophy about art, which is to always provide multiple points of access to complex thought, theory, politics and opinion. Art should be a vehicle for thought and dialogue, it should be used to convey something that can bring people together. That's how I feel about it, and while there are many different types of art out in the world, this is the kind that I feel most strongly about and I'm happy to find a position at an organization where I can use this similar intent in a different way.
Access, access to information, theory, ideas, thought. The more people feel that they deserve the right to know, the more you empower others. This seems basic, but it's a difficult thing to do.
-Other things:
I've been having an art break lately. The last part of 2010 was overwhelming and stressful and awesome and productive all balled into one chaotic mess. I'm finally done my grant project but am taking a time-out. I need to reconsider my approach to maintaining my art practice. Roller derby consumes a great deal of my social/art life. I can't keep everything propelling forward or it will get too crazy. I need to choose my interests. Right now, I feel like I'm trying to keep my head above the water. But eventually I want to commit to a couple projects.
1) I want to start illustrating drawings for my friend, Chris Eng and his punk rock YA novel (www.hoodieripper.com). I AM SO BEYOND EXCITED FOR THIS. I read his entire novel in 1 1/2 days. I have ideas, lots of them and want to do this. We're imagining one drawing per chapter, but we'll see. I can't wait to see where this goes.
2) I want/need to start my comic, it's ...complicated. It's a combination of a comic that I used to do called "Trapeze". My friend, Tim used to post this off his website for me, but eventually his website when under and all of it disappeared...oh yeah and the computer that i had saved it on ended up dying, so sad. Anyways, the premise is about this bad-ass Native girl who leaves rez school and goes on an adventure that is 1/2 aimless, a little vengeful and also a bit of a vision quest. She's basically the girl-hero that I've always dreamed about, that maybe, I've been looking for my whole life. And that if I was a young kid and had a character like this to relate to, maybe it would have changed my idea of Native pride at an earlier age. Maybe?
Anyways, that's pretty much it.
Hope you're doing super great, and if you're not doing anything this upcoming weekend, you should go to Signal Fest (cbc festival that focuses on Drip Audio).
xox
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