For your perusal... We moved down the hall!
Hello Fellow True Believers,
I don't usually use my blog as a major tool for event promotion, but I thought y'all would like to see when and where you can find me in the next few months. Someone asked recently (well, it gets asked a lot) if I had a mailing list, and I think the blog is the closest thing to a mailing list for me... (SALACIOUS has a mailing list though: http://eepurl.com/b1PvH)
Anyway! Here goes.
January 8 - I'll be repping SALACIOUS at Queerespondence's Launch Party for the Magazine!
January 13 - The Portland, ME SALACIOUS Launch!
January 14 - We're moving studios! Any locals who want to stop by the new place, contact me. We're just moving down the hall.
January 16 - I'll be dancing around being pretty at the Boston SALACIOUS Launch!
January 29 - I'll be in Oakland, CA for the SALACIOUS Launch, which is also an Iron Slut Sex Educator Showdown with Madison Young vs. Reid Mihalko!
February 8 - I'll be on a sex panel at University of Southern Maine. More info coming soon!
February 11 to 13 - I'll be in Providence, repping SALACIOUS at the FFF.
February 17 - I'm most likely giving a talk at Rutgers, with the fabulous Johnny Blazes, about our Gender Outlaws piece.
March 11 to 13 - I'll be teaching about Queerz and Comix, and talking about my Gender Outlaws piece at True Colors!
Whew. That's all I got for now.
If you'd like any more information on any of the above events, let me know!
Rock on,
kd
The past three weeks have been incredibly upsetting. Six young men have taken their lives due to the anti-gay bullying they were the focus of at their schools. None of these young men were connected--they did not go to the same schools, have the same socio-economic backgrounds, come from the same hometown.
However, there is a unifying factor among these young men--somehow, their peers had decided that they did not fit the right gender mold, and therefore deemed them worthy of scrutiny and brutality. Never mind whether they were *actually* gay or not.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about this. The absolute root of my politics is that sexism, classism, and racism are the pillars of oppression that, once toppled, could lead to a freer, kinder, gentler society. For me, homophobia and misogyny are subsets of sexism, and they are all a singular force that helps to police and patrol what's "normal" and who is "right" in our world.
When you're 12, 13, 14... Even 18, 19, 25 years of age, everything is still really confusing. Learning who you are, and who you love, and how you really want to dress--these are all confusing internal struggles that we all face, regardless of gender or sexuality. When our peers wish to taunt and poke fun and damage us during this process, the results can be ... incredibly harmful.
Sexism hurts everyone. Truly. Sexism tells men how they're "supposed" to behave. The notions of "true" masculinity are incredibly damaging, and they inherently limit a young man's full potential to really be himself. It feels so upsetting to me that we must still try to make it clear that it's alright for cisgendered men to be gentle, soft spoken, disinterested in certain activities. I thought we had gone beyond this hyper-masculinity, this ridiculous need to make sure that "MEN ARE MANLY!" But it appears I am gravely mistaken.
This situation, in the end, is only partially about making sure that schools have better policies on bullying, on peer support, and on staff and teacher support. That is only a part of the puzzle. Organizations like the Trevor Project, and initiatives like It Gets Better are also pieces of this puzzle.
We need greater Personal Visibility. It's one thing for there to be characters on television, in books, in comics, in movies. There needs to be openly gay teachers at all school levels; queer pastors and rabbis; lesbian business owners; transwomen authors; transmen comedians--ALL coming out of the woodwork, and not just to post videos online, but to turn to the youngest person in their lives and be open and honest with that youth about their own personal stories.
It might seem crazy--I might seem insane--but I've always had this idea, this concept, that if we verbalized our stories, if we all spoke our truths, we'd all feel ... safer, I think. More united. We'd have communities we didn't know we had.
When I was diagnosed with HPV, I went through a whole range of emotions. I felt a lot of things, good, bad, and ugly. I wrote two comics about the experience, one educational and personal, and one simply educational. I spoke openly about my HPV status, and additionally, spoke openly about my past safe sex experiences and my current safe sex practices.
This fascinating thing happened--suddenly, I had people telling me *their* biggest STI/STD fears. Folks of all sexualities and ages suddenly felt like they had a platform, had a friend, had a support that they could call up and ask questions or tell their stories to.
I had thought about this "story-telling saves lives" concept before then--but the experience of actually witnessing and being a part of it sealed the deal on this part of my artistic and political self. Visibility isn't just about seeing a representation of oneself in the mainstream media. It's about creating and experiencing firsthand a safe space to truly be yourself.
There is no way to bring these young men back. Even as I write this, there are tears in my eyes, because I feel a great hole in the heart of my community. When someone is murdered, there is a general and clear face and "enemy" to have strong feelings against. We are able to verbalize our upset much clearer--we are able to call it hate and call for tolerance. However, when someone takes their own life, we are forced to contend with a much much bigger problem. We must acknowledge that we must stand up and be strong against a Societal Standard. We must unite against a Cultural Norm. We must undo a History of Gender Policing, Gay Bashing, and Women Hating.
It is a radical movement to decide to take on Cultural Norms. It means we must not only examine how these norms affect the people around us and our children, but how we perpetuate these norms as well. We must be equal parts retrospective to introspective. It means we must, essentially, not only tell our stories--but listen to the stories of those we may not entirely agree with or feel comfortable hearing.
YouTube took it down--but it's back now, on Vimeo! For all your relaxation needs... my Animated Comic for Regina Spektor's "On the Radio!"
Animated Comic by Katie Diamond from katie diamond on Vimeo.
I will be making 5 prints each of the below Animals Being Awesome paintings... They'll go for $40 plus any shipping costs! All prints are 11x17 or 17x11 inches.
Send me an email if you're interested! kd@katiediamond.com
Back when the internet was primarily ruled by AOL, and I was but a wee-queer who only understood her sexuality through books and the web... I discovered Femina Potens. This was ten years ago. At the time, Femina Potens only had a mission page, a calendar, and examples of artists they support on their meager, early-internet website. They were like a beacon of hope to my young queer artist soul. I babbled to my high school friends about how it would be amazing to go there, work there, exist there, breathe there!
A decade later, this August 18th, I'm giving an Artist Talk there.
Needless to say, but I've never been a subtle muppet, this is really exciting.
Info below!
----
WHEN?
Wednesday, August 18, 7 to 9 pm
WHERE?
Femina Potens, 2199 Market St, San Francisco, CA
ORDER TICKETS HERE:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producerevent/119366?prod_id=7307
WHAT?
No Straight Lines: drawing sexuality and gender in comics
WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW?
My bio/talk description!
Katie Diamond is a radical queer comic artist who fuses art with politics, graphics with sex, and education with visuals as a method of altering societal norms and breaking down preconceived notions of gender and sexuality. Her work throughout New England, and across the country at large, has been called “imaginative,” “ambitious,” “fresh,” and “creative.” Her dogmatic approach to comics and art as a transformative experience sets her apart from other artists.
For the creation of "Transcension,” a chapter in Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, Diamond teamed up with the fiery talent of Boston-based drag/burlesque performer Johnny Blazes (www.johnnyblazes.com) to create a collaborative comic about Blazes’ experience discovering hir “genderqueeritude,” and the process of
accepting one’s trans identity as a growing, changing experience of gender and the world.
In her talk, Diamond dissects the process she went through to create the succinct and rich visuals for telling Johnny’s story, and the various struggles and triumphs of what it means to represent gender and sexuality in two dimensions. Years of study and experimentation have given Diamond the tools to fully examine and create artistic methods that allow for subtly and intrinsically altering readers’ perspectives on culturally taboo topics such as transsexuality, transgenderism, sex, and sexuality.
Facebook Event link!
There has been a lot of talk this week of my new project. A lot of talk. Part of that is because I have only 3 days left to raise my pledged goal on KickStarter, and so the internet is all a-buzz about it. I've been pushing it through the many social networking channels, and like a good taboo-subject, it has officially reached complete strangers. [FMI: click here]
Also like a good taboo, it has earned its degree of commentators and detractors. Now, I am all for healthy critiques of my work. I love a good dialogue, and I love passionate art discussions. I am always open to these kinds of talks.
However, I can't say any of the negative feedback I've gotten has been a "critique." A critique would imply that commentators approached me and let me know their concerns about this project, my art, my identity, my process moving forward. Instead, my project and my artwork has been slanted as "rampantly racist" or "inherently oppressive."
Now, while I'm open to critique, I'm totally and utterly sensitive. I consider myself a radical, anti-racist, progressive feminist queer dyke. I consider myself someone who will always strive to make sure I do not replicate the systems of oppression in my language, my artwork, my comics, or my graphic design. I am the trusted designer and artist for many organizations *because* they know my politics are clearly painted in my work. And so these allegations cut deeper than others. Call my work bad and poorly designed. But don't call it oppressive.
I recognize as a white able-bodied queer woman, I have access to privileges that others do not. While I cannot disregard my privilege, and I never would, I can at the *very* least own it and try my best to clear the air of it so I can make all my art accessible, diverse, positive, and powerful.
My feminist erotica project is literally in its start-up phase. It does not have more than 2 solid submissions, and does not have any shape to it whatsoever. In fact, it's ONLY real guiding principles are that things CANNOT be heterosexist, sexist, or racist.
I am sensing many knee-jerk reactions to this work. I guess, naively, I did not think I would encounter such reactions. I've never had anyone tell me my work is damaging or oppressive... I'd like to believe my art falls far far far away from those categories, actually. I'm not Hustler. I'm not Larry Flynt. I'm not the mainstream heterosexist media. I'm actually pretty far removed from the Media Machine, and I intend to stay that way. This artist is not endorsed by Coca-Cola.
The Femme Show at Re/Dress
NOTE NEW LOCATION and TIME!
Saturday, June 5, 10:00 PM
The Femme Show comes to Re/Dress NYC with their unique blend of dance, spoken word, drag, burlesque and performance art from award winning artists. This is queer art for queer people, with a variety of diverse perspectives on femme identity that can be thoughtful, sad, funny, sexy, and fun. Special guests Lola Dean and Cheryl B. join us.
Please help spread the word about our new location! 109 Boerum Place, Brooklyn NYC
Transportation: F or G train to Bergen Street
Tickets $8-15 sliding scale at the door. No one turned away.
www.thefemmeshow.com
Re/Dress NYC is a curvy shopper’s dream come true! This lovely little shop is a premiere vintage & resale clothing boutique specializing in sizes 14 and up (vintage 10 + up). Fashions from Re/Dress NYC have been seen in the NYTimes Style Section, Italian Vogue’s Curvy Blog, Bust Magazine, Plus Model Magazine and more. Open Sun – Wed from 12:00 pm – 7:00 pm and Thurs – Sat from 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Re/Dress NYC is the perfect place to buy and sell goodies for your wardrobe.
The Femme Show in Brooklyn, Saturday, June 5, 9:30 PM
The Femme Show comes to the new Collect Pond with their unique blend of dance, spoken word, drag, burlesque and performance art from award winning artists. This is queer art for queer people, with a variety of diverse perspectives on femme identity that can be thoughtful, sad, funny, sexy, and fun. Special guests Lola Dean and Cheryl B. join us.
Collect Pond is a space for trans/genderqueer/gender non-conforming artists to create and present work.
www.collectpond.org
338 Berry St, (corner of S 5th) 3rd Floor
Transportation info: L to Bedford, G to Metropolitan, JMZ to Marcy Ave
Tickets $8-15 sliding scale at the door. No one turned away.
www.thefemmeshow.com
So, last night, I was the featured artist at MUSE in Portland, at Slainte. I've decided to post the notes I obsessively took so I could make sense at my talk... I wound up not needing to really reference my original notes at all, so what you're seeing here is the polished, original thought process, and what I spoke last night was a lot more fluid and passionate, in my opinion. But for those of you who missed it, here's what I said.
February 24, 2010
So, a lot of people know me as someone who organizes events around town, as the former Communications Director of the League, as a graphic designer… But something that is a little more under the radar is that I’ve been drawing comics since I was 9 years old.
The way I “got into” comics was through my Elementary School best friend, Patrick. He’s also a huge queer now, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. He made me watch the X-Men cartoon series, and pretty soon after I was the only girl wandering into the comic store. The guys there treated me like I was a miniature goddess, really—they gave me discounts, offered new series for me to read…
Now, I’ve always been drawing. It’s one of my earliest memories, sitting at a Sesame Street table (Cookie Monster was my favorite chair), drawing a picture of Goofy from Disney. I think I was also wearing make-up. The only difference between toddler-Katie and adult-Katie is the make-up, really.
The first comic I ever drew was a 4-book series when I was ten years old. I made Patrick into Spider-man and made myself into a Gargoyle. Together, we saved the world from villains whose concepts I stole from the X-men comics. I used toys I had at the time as references, and even lit them from behind to figure out how to shade them. I wish I could say I have these still—but in a fit of childish rage at how bad they were, I tore them up when I was 11.
Throughout middle and high school, I read more comics than I drew them, and I taught and attended comic classes. I worked at the ******** Cartoon Camp for 3 summers in a row. I was the Comics Instructor. It was basically a formula class, taught to ages 6 to 14.
The thing about ********, who was a retired artist from DC’s 1960s Golden years, was that he didn’t really think I had what it took to draw comics. Every time I showed him my own art, he shrugged it off and asked if I thought I could make it. I’m really shocked that I didn’t really develop a complex, you know, being 15, 16 years old… He would tell me my art wasn’t strong enough for the comics scene, and then give me a raise for being so dedicated to teaching at the camp.
My freshmen year of college was at Boston University, which, in case you didn’t know, has a College of the Fine Arts. This program is really, really traditional, so I was already out of place as the comics and illustration kid.
It was in a NON-art class, Women in Politics, that I had the crazy idea to start what I now lovingly refer to as The Sex Education Comic Book. Boston’s Planned Parenthood chapter came into the class to discuss their advocacy work, and discussed the battle over the “Barrier Rule,” which is a line that dictates how close protesters can be to the front entrance of an abortion provider. This got the entire class really fired up, of course… It was a Women in Politics class.
After the Planned Parenthood advocate left, the class sat around talking about how we could all get more involved… My natural inclination was to propose we create illustrated pamphlets of Planned Parenthood’s advocacy work. I was really psyched up about it! I was surrounded by Pre-law, pre-Med, Poly-sci undergrad women… I thought, Holy shit, I’ve got some of the smartest women in the room, they could write for these pamphlets, I’ll draw it—it would be the best project ever!
But I was also the only freshman in the class, and the only artist, so that idea was quickly deemed ridiculous.
It wasn’t until the next year, after I transferred to MECA, that I was really able to fuse comics and art and education and advocacy…
I took an Art and Community Service class, and it was life-altering for me. We registered voters and educated folks about their polling places for the 2004 Election as our main project for the class… And once the devastation of the 2004 election results wore off, we all had to propose what our next project would be.
This is when I rekindled and reconfigured my idea for the Sex Education Comic Book. I put together an illustrated proposal, naturally, and then created a Call for Submissions…
I don’t really think, in retrospect, I realized how totally on fire this project would be. I wound up being the project manager for this insane beast, with over 30 contributors of varying ages and talents, across the country, from Maine to Florida to California. Some of them I still haven’t met.
The issue with the original incarnation of the Sex Education Comic Book is that I had this idea that it could be geared towards everyone. That if the stories were strong enough, it wouldn’t matter who was being marketed to.
The world does NOT work that way. You can’t expect your work to be universally appealing. And thus was the issue that slowly murdered the Sex Education Comic Book as it was… There was no way a high school boy would be able to go from reading about how to safely check for testicular cancer to a woman’s first experience of getting her period. In an ideal world, those stories are in the same book. But it’s still a bit of a stretch.
So, after 3 years, I put the Sex Education Comic Book on pause, and switched gears to write my thesis on Carolyn Gage’s “The Obligatory Scene.” I saw the play performed at SPACE Gallery, and really thought it would make a great graphic novel. At the time, I appreciated the themes of female sexuality, and really wanted to take those themes to a level that acting just can’t. I wanted to illustrate female sexuality.
Throughout writing and drawing for this thesis, I kept smashing into the same wall that I only cruised by when I was in high school and teaching comics at the ******** Cartoon Camp… Everyone seemed to be into me as the “comics kid” except for a few professors. They deemed me “unfit” to make it in the comics world. One professor in particular didn’t think my art, my inking, or my stories were strong enough to make it.
I think I really internalized that critique… Upon graduating, I didn’t finish the Obligatory Scene comic, and I didn’t push for the completion of the Sex Education Comic Book. Part of this was because I started working full-time at the League, but I think I was discouraged.
Then, the fall of 2007, I was diagnosed with HPV. This was a huge shock to me. I’d never been physical with a dude, which was how I thought one caught things such as HPV. I didn’t really know how to deal with my feelings—except to draw about it.
I stayed up for several nights in a row, in front of “Smallville,” till 4 o’clock in the morning, writing and drawing and writing. The result of this time with myself and my drawing pens is what you see on the screen now.
I won’t call this a revelation or epiphany, because that feels super cheesy. But drawing this comic helped me through what I was feeling, and combined my love for comic art and my love for education.
It also helped me realize that short, personal, educational stories is a really succinct, beautiful way to get through to people. I’ve always, always believed comics are a universal way to reach out to people… Drawings put people at ease, and the simplicity of cartooning allows people to connect with the story and the characters in ways that words alone just can’t.
Which is something I’ve been applying for the past year or so to any comics I write or draw…
The comic you see now is titled “Transcension,” and is a collaboration between Johnny Blazes and myself. Johnny wrote the text, I drew it, and we submitted it to a call for work for the second edition of “Gender Outlaws” by Kate Bornstein and Bear Bergman. We’ve been accepted, and will be published in the fall of this year.
So, I went from being an illustrated Gargoyle X-man to being an illustrated queer… Which I think is incredibly appropriate. And it’s only been in the past year, but I’ve finally discovered that the barriers ******** and my MECA professors put up for me were constrictions of their own. They saw me as a queer woman interested in breaking into this male-dominated comic scene, as trying to participate in Marvel, and DC, and become a part of the boys’ club. And they didn’t think I could cut it.
The past year has taught me—I don’t want to cut it. Not in the ways that they expected me to. What I bring to comics is a sex-positive, educational, queer lens… I see my work as a way to give voice to those stickier, more taboo topics, and I really feel like they’re a gateway to conversations that otherwise have no easy access point…
So, I guess what I mean is, my queerness is my muse. My community is my muse. My comics are better and stronger and deeper because I’m speaking from my truth, from our truth… And I want to say thank you. Thank you for being my muse.
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This November 3, Mainers who are equality-minded had a major blow. Marriage Equality was voted down. While I'm not strongly for the institution of marriage, I do see it as a piece of a puzzle that leads to a fuller-equality for LGBTQ citizens in the United States.
What really got deep into my heart was seeing my fellow queers completely distraught--and to feel like the Proponents of Yes on 1 were more than just moralist, more than just fundamentalist, and more than just "protecting the children." The language they were using against my peers and I was more than hurtful. It was violent.
The work I do is all about language, and all about creating a visual and visceral culture... Does this make sense? That which we surround ourselves with (i.e. the media) is consistent with how we feel as whole... So having the radio waves, television screens, and print media full of hateful, violent language and imagery is damaging to us. Especially those of us that this hateful media is aimed at.
In the weeks following the Yes on 1 Win, out-of-staters started blasting the online and print communities with the concept of "boycotting Maine." Boycott Maine? Really? So, you're going to hurt our economy because approximately 290,000 Mainers don't like the idea of LGBTQ folks gettin' married?
Whether this "boycott" has any staying power or not, I posed the question to my friends and family about what they love about Maine, as a way to take what has become MORE hateful language and turn it on its head. I received 20 answers in an hour, and am looking to solicit more.
I've compiled the answers, and am starting to illustrate them in the hopes that it will inspire those of us fighting the good fight to remember why we love Maine, despite this emotional and political set-back. I'll be posting the finished drawings on this blog, and will have them available as a book once I finish a healthy amount of them.
This past weekend was the third Boston incarnation of the Femme Show. I've been participating in the Femme Show goodness since its first run back in 2007, when I was just attending as an artist-vendor. Upon arriving in the basement of the church where the performance was to take place, I felt an immediate sense of community--I helped move chairs, clean the stage, press buttons on machines, help move props... Even though I had just met this group of performers, we gelled immediately. Kinship, respect, validation... It was wonderful.
So, when I turned to my good friend Amy, and said "Lets bring the Femme Show to Portland," it was a natural next step in my mind. I wanted Portlanders to experience what I experienced. I wanted to share the art, the community, the passion of the Femme Show with Mainers.
The Femme Show is now a performance staple in Boston and Portland, with an increasing number of tours around the East Coast. This sort of slowly spreading Femme-Fire is really exciting to witness and be a part of.
I have to be entirely honest now: I have not, until this weekend, seen my participation in the Femme Show as anything but "what should be done." As in, I naturally aligned myself with the mission and purpose of the Show, and haven't really delved deeper into the implications of my involvement. As someone more masculinely expressed, as a Butch, what does it mean to me to participate? This question hasn't really come to my mind as anything except the occasional reminder to myself that it's really important to make sure, as a masculine person, to not take up too much space that is meant for the wonderful Femmes in my life.
But the definition of a true Ally is a lot more conscious than that. Right?
When the Artistic Director and Boston Producer of the Femme Show, Maggie Crowley, wrote me a lovely thank-you note that thanked me for being the "right kind of Femme ally" and then elaborated in-person about what it means to her to have such a clear, well-meaning ally involved, I started thinking deeper thoughts about the word.
To some degree, it's good that I didn't consciously have to "become" an ally. It was a natural concept. Just like I never had to "become" an ally for youth--I inherently believe that young people (specifically folks under the age of 18) deserve a platform for their passions, beliefs, and ideas... I feel the same way about my Femme counterparts.
Queer Femme gender is more than just a sexy concept/actuality to me. It is a delicious queering of that which is feminine. There are tons of critiques about what it means to wear heels, a skirt, make-up, or any combination of these things, etc... The difference, the major difference, between Femme and femme is the *conscious-decision-making* that goes into Queer Femme gender.
The Femmes in my life are *actively* thinking about the decisions around their gender. They *have* to. As queers (whatever that word may mean to who chooses it), we need to stop and consider all our movements through the world. The Femmes I know have taken this a step further, and actively re-engage in activities and genders that mainstream culture has tried to deem *not for us.* There is something radical, ground-breaking, and shattering to look the mainstream in the face and say, "No--this *is* mine. I shall *make* it mine."
So, in walking throughout South Station, I encountered this:
Because I love this page! Page 19, where EVERYONE is using gendered language to a frustrating degree...
Johnny's outrage at how obsessed we are with our own histories, rather than our present...
So, I'm not going to post these in order... But here's another page of the finished comic! Page 12, in the middle of "CHOOSE YOUR TRANSVENTURE!"
A young Johnny is harassed by a child in the playground for "being a boy with a flowered shirt"...
So I've been doing an awful job being regular about updates... I'm gonna work on that. I genuinely have much to share!
So as a way to break my own silence, here's a photo of the latest Bitch magazine: (anyone who knows me knows I looooove clay...)
All pages are now penciled. I'm working on the final inking right now. Once this is done, the next steps are scanning and entering text. I'm also going to be creating a middle gray shade in Photoshop...
16 pages penciled out of 23. Almost done! Next comes inking on high vellum, and lettering in photo shop. I'm debating whether to use my handwriting-font I created, or something else...
I'll post the pix in a bit! They won't rotate on my magical iPhone...
So I finally found a weekly calendar that will allow me to do my Draw Daily idea... Check it out!
I also saw some pretty funny "not art" installations in Somerville... Also below!
tweet tweet tweet...
Okay, I bit the bullet, and now I have a current and running Twitter account. Wish my too-many-applications-self good luck...
twitter.com/kmegaphoned
Check out this new school, old school illustrator... Some great themes running through here!
http://juliancallos.blogspot.com/
So, the octopus comic book has turned into a pocket-zine mini-comic sort of deal. Oh, and it's sci-fi poetry. Just thought everyone should know. A verse from the mini-comic:
"Thighs heavy with water, I trudged
Down the center of the street,
The crack in the asphalt widening between my strides."
Why has this become the structure, you ask? Well, I learned a long time ago that I really am not the best at sequential art that is very plot driven and/or paced in a certain way... My comix convey messages and have narratives that are short and to the point. So, I figured, I'll actually complete these mini-pocket-comic-zine things better and faster than other longer projects I do.
Whew! Anyway. Speaking of longer projects, here's a picture of Fuzz the Cynical Bunny on the computer:
And for giggles, someone has compiled covers of old pulp comix that involve OCTOPODES..... it's amazing.
