Hello, Earth Dwellers!
My most important artistic influences and inspirations are all musicians. That’s not to say I don’t find influences and inspiration everywhere, in every art form, but music has always been my primary window into creativity.
I’m especially drawn to music artists who see the unit of their creation as the album, not the songs. Songs are the ingredients. They might be great on their own, but each song is elevated when taken in as part of the entire album.
This is how I see my poetry and my comics. While I want each one to stand alone and be as great as it can be, I always create with a collection in mind. In my poetry spreadsheet, I have hundreds of categories. When I have enough of a core of poems and comics, I zero in on filling out the collection.
I see this newsletter as a kind of digital sketchbook. I show you my work as I slowly create the components for future collections.
when the stars come out after the end of the world who will they shine for
Things are never linear for me. Sometimes I will make a short series of poetry comics that ends up going nowhere. Other times, I will create a series of comics over a period of years that eventually coalesce into a cohesive collection I can publish as a zine or as a full-length book project.
Right now, I am finishing up a time travel zine called A Spare Bit of Waiting. This is one of those years-in-the-making works. It has been stubborn, but I’m making the final push to complete it this month. (Famous last words!) I have already written all the poems for the collection, and am working on the last illustrations.
I’m also looking to the future. I am going to be entering the wild world of Kickstarter to fund my next big collection of haiku comics. The collection is going to be called, Conifers and the Cosmos, and will have about 150 haiku comics. Once I get the pesky time travel zine done, you’ll be hearing a lot more about it. The art and poetry for Conifers and the Cosmos is already 90% completed.
I would probably publish books and zines faster if I focused on only one at a time. but, that’s not the energy my work has. It’s all very much in flux. I’m a creative rambler, trying different things and only putting in focused finishing-energy on a project when it feels light.
A third project I am nearing completion of is the first issue of what will be a new series of haiku comics. It’s called Abstractus, and it will feature all abstract art with experimental haiku. The haku comics above and below are representative of the kinds of work Abstractus will hold. These zines will be patterned after the first zines I made, they will be smaller and more portable—about the size of a large smartphone. They are meant to be something you can fit in your pocket and gawk at instead of using your phone’s infinite scroll to distract you.
However, before I move forward with publishing Conifers and the Cosmos or Abstractus #1, I’m going to finish this %^&*#$%^ time travel zine!
As always, paid subscribers will get complimentary digital copies of the books and zines as they are published.
a silent witness to agonizing drama tucks away trauma
thoughts on Donner's Pass traversing the Great Basin high Sierras loom
Be the weird you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
I look forward to seeing what work you release next, Jason!
Lovely how your mind works Jason!! Keep going!!! I'm already looking forward to your new work!! Remember to enjoy yourself during the process!!!! 💚💚💚💚💚