ilovemypencil@pm.me
04-17-2026
I cannot replicate the sensations of the moment after it is gone. I won’t remember, it transforms into a memory, a longing, a shape underneath fabric, that you can feel but can’t see. I am like a goldfish, being transferred from tank to tank.[ive clamped an eye onto
the ceiling fan
its slowing now,
daytime greif.
the cool dark air seeps in through the mesh
of the sunroom
faux stone tile floor
a cooling sensation through my soles
thankfully, spinning people
and laying down people
and running around people
bring moments along with them
as they pass through the curtain of time
that doesn’t separate into a doorway
except i, maybe one day,
will be lucky enough
to see my own silohuete in it.
04-17-2026
Travel is upon me; the sky turns green and then shakes with thunder and great flashes. We huddle underneath the awning of the cafe, preparing eggs and pastries and stirring grits, in the early morning. Then as 8 oclock hits, the sky softens, swells with warmth and light blue, grows humid with sunshine, and then people are hungry, hot, the dishes pile, the reciepts print, and our meandering banter synchronizes into ship communications. time to operate the breakfast machine.
Travel evokes the prompt of a uniform, one that challenges me to find one jigsaw puzzle for my body that will armor me against the world and my own self looking. I do not want to be looking at my body when I travel. I look at it too much when I’m at home, like a vaccum.
04-17-2026
I’m always so anxious to get to the next place, that the moments of contentment at home are punctuated with melancholy. I am already in the future, so I am already missing the place I’m at. My sense of time places me in front of my body like a ghost. I am haunted with the memory of the present, and then my memory of the past slips away so easily, so I rely on companionship to keep track of things that have happened. What would happen to me if I were isolated and submerged in the abyss of the present? I don’t know, but I do fantasize about the possibility, if i weren’t so tortured like this, i could maybe get everything i wanted to do done! I am a page, an announcer, an ideal imaginer, of wands.
04-09-2026
I cannot replicate the sensations of the moment after it is gone. I won’t remember, it transforms into a memory, a longing, a shape underneath fabric, that you can feel but can’t see. I am like a goldfish, being transferred from tank to tank.
the ceiling fan
its slowing now,
daytime greif.
the cool dark air seeps in through the mesh
of the sunroom
faux stone tile floor
a cooling sensation through my soles
thankfully, spinning people
and laying down people
and running around people
bring moments along with them
as they pass through the curtain of time
that doesn’t separate into a doorway
except i, maybe one day,
will be lucky enough
to see my own silohuete in it.
04-17-2026
Travel is upon me; the sky turns green and then shakes with thunder and great flashes. We huddle underneath the awning of the cafe, preparing eggs and pastries and stirring grits, in the early morning. Then as 8 oclock hits, the sky softens, swells with warmth and light blue, grows humid with sunshine, and then people are hungry, hot, the dishes pile, the reciepts print, and our meandering banter synchronizes into ship communications. time to operate the breakfast machine.
Travel evokes the prompt of a uniform, one that challenges me to find one jigsaw puzzle for my body that will armor me against the world and my own self looking. I do not want to be looking at my body when I travel. I look at it too much when I’m at home, like a vaccum.
04-17-2026
I’m always so anxious to get to the next place, that the moments of contentment at home are punctuated with melancholy. I am already in the future, so I am already missing the place I’m at. My sense of time places me in front of my body like a ghost. I am haunted with the memory of the present, and then my memory of the past slips away so easily, so I rely on companionship to keep track of things that have happened. What would happen to me if I were isolated and submerged in the abyss of the present? I don’t know, but I do fantasize about the possibility, if i weren’t so tortured like this, i could maybe get everything i wanted to do done! I am a page, an announcer, an ideal imaginer, of wands.
04-09-2026
$9.50 + tax
8/10
delicious flavor- lime leaf really shines. cashews were a little chewy for my taste. high pricepoint took off a few points. I was so precious about these cashews and only ate a few a day over the course of the week.
$28 + tax & tip
4/10
rice bowl with fish eggs, sea urchin, and a pate like mix of chefs choice fish. I wasn’t expecting the fish to be pulvurized together and woul chave preferred sashimi. I have been curious about sea urchin so i wanted to try it. It was yummy! very oceany taste but texture was just as i imagined it would be. i was hungry after walking down sunset blvd all day so i was happy in the end
$21 + tax & tip
2.5/10
it wasnt horrible but it was a backup option to courage bagels, which was closed! I was craving a bagel at that point so we went here. it was ok- def not worth $20. i also felt hungry only a few hours after, even though it felt like a heavy meal. not worth the splurge!
$5.95 + tax
additionally, a smoothie (cashew milk, strawberry, mango, banana, added cacao nibs), and from the cold bar: white bean kale salad, japanese sweet potato(roasted), tofu sticks
5/10
i find it entertaining to go to erewhon when i am in LA- but some of these were just OK- namely the smoothie, the cookie. I did enjoy the salad, potato, and tofu stick.
$5 + tip
100/10
juicy! yummy! rich! affordable! delicious self serve sauces! so much parking in the von’s lot! perfect!
$48 + tip
(jeffs review: 7/10. bagels were 10/10 but took off a few points because of how expensive it was)
9.5/10
for me, after my last $20 bagel flop, i was so happy to eat such a intricately assembled bagel, perfect ratio of ingredients, no heaviness or bloating after eating, just the beautiful memory of flavors!
$11 + tip
9/10
just a solid choice to satisfy a boba craving!! they put alot of boba! and it was perfectly chewy and the milk tea was not too sweet
04-03-2026
I’m in LA all of a sudden, in Echo Park. X swung by New Orleans Monday night and I hopped in the car. we blazed through TX and got to LA in a little over 2 days. I felt a huge warmth in my heart seeing the desert mountains again.
03-29-2026
Super Sunday Downtown in New Orleans
03-27-2026
I think I’ve learned how to move into the unknown more gracefully through all my traveling through the years. When it crept in on me, I always hesitated in giving into the comfort of home. Having a home is necessary. Being home makes me feel ansy. I’m always looking for the next place, because I love the way departure sets in motion the present. I am going to Australia end of July. By then I want to have dissolved my home base into several bases so that when I set off into the world there is no place I have obligations to return to. All my stuff- I only want to keep what is necessary. I am constantly confronted with all my stuff through my frequent moves. I love the process of consolidating my items into a suitcase- though it is difficult and frustrating and exhausting to try to anticipate what is necessary to pack. I highly favor versitility, and look for it in all items I choose to bring with me. Some things are sentimental, like my camo bear, who I left in New orleans for most of last year as I traveled and I regretted doing so the whole time! I am yet again pulling apart the containers. It feels good, though part of me is still lethargic from the winter, though the days are sweltering already, and the mosquitos are vicious during my afternoon nap at the park. My x lover reaches out and heads south towards me. I ask the tarot about my grief. It gives me the Star (revelation) number 17 out of 21 in the major arcana. Nearing the end of the cycle. It is nighttime in the desert and a pink flute player sways in the foreground as water runs off into a murky green body of water. A blue figure hovering over the water in a staircase/canoe pours liquid from a vase down, the path of the falling liquid draws a line down and touches the lips of an idling fish. the moon is a sort of sun and glows bright yellow. i have a hard time getting rid of scraps. drawing i made in berlin wilted candle. an amazingly sweet scene metal unicorn horn aquired at junk store in Pittsburg hamburger bear lighter and my heart collection found at City Park its actually a pencil sharpener. aquired from J & J junk store in Birmingham AL another pencil sharpener. i gave the 3rd one to my sister bedroom portraits [ i really love this corner of my room]
03-25-2026
In my projection of the future, there is a period of isolation I imagine where I will be able to focus inwards and accomplish all of the things I want to do without the disturbances of socializing or nice weather, like make an animation, or read all my books, or make sound collages. Somehow each winter comes and it never happens that way. I get cabin fever quickly too, I like to be on the move. Lately been feeling disapointed in myself, it just can’t be helped. And I’ve been feeling longing and grief and exhaustion. And I’ve been spending too much time on eBay, rewatching shows i’ve seen before, not enough time reading. there’s people i need to email. i don’t drink enough water. im being hard on myself, and im sick of coughing all day and all night. spring so far is sticky and sicky and grotesque. but time moves in mysterious ways. it just can’t be helped!
03-24-2026
high image intake
footstep or stamp
the depression glasses
frequent stops
intermediate level consumption
consumed by negative thoughts
i am eternally lonely
field recordings
im]mediate self perception
arial view /wingspan
feel for some edge
remain unjudgemental
spring chatter
erupt from pores
shattering
best beast
breathtaking
the shaddow of someone sitting
incessant cough-
nearly vomit
03-22-2026
[I am fighting off the demons today!!!]
returning to paper with some intention, its been a while. many things seem to come between me and drawing, which maybe is a good thing because of my appreciation of limitations, the box or window, the scope, because the entire picture is confusing and indecipherable without an edge from which to break away, so maybe with painting it has been hard because... the image is so much more important. the drawing folds back into layers of time, between pages of different imprints whereas the painting is still there looking back at me when i leave the studio and turn the lights off. i dont want to disapoint it.there is a relationship there that is half sentient. the edges bleed into real life and make me dizzy. and the paintbrush is like a conveyor belt of information rather than pencil, which is like drawing with a body leaving footprints.
03-16-2026
Time is moving quickly
03-08-2026
Canoe in Tickfaw national park
03-08-2026
Canoe in Tickfaw national park
03-04-2026
hello blog, and my bff ryan, who may be the only salami blog reader.
it is... 20:52 Uhr. I’ve never been good at solving the puzzle of reading time on clocks with hands. it takes me too long to follow the short hand to a point and then the long hand to a different point and then descipher those two points into a number sequence that describes the present moment. I used to wear a digital watch which pointing puzzle for you, and it lit up in the dark and was waterproof. sort of recently it started to give me a rash when i wore it which i took as sort of a sign i was getting allergic to clock time. i also no longer think its necessary for the indication of military time to be so indestructable and attached to me at all moments. everyone deserves to be able to get lost in their own time.
during my time in europe i tried to familiarize myself with 24 hr time, military time as we call it. i wonder how noon feels in a day that is 24 hours long instead of 2 12 hours bunkbedded together. if i wake up at noon i sometimes feel like ive lost a whole day because of my upbringing as a 12+12er. something about being able to tell time in 24 and 12+12 interchangeably feels akin to being bilingual. im trying to become a polyglot
my friends got used to my typos and eventually all learn to decode my bizzarely assembled text messages. it is freeing to just communicate using the tools given to me instead of adhering to some rules.
**i guess i was thinking about [x], a little bit, because you are so good at proof reading, and knowing whats write or wrong about centence structures. it is a skill and intelligence that has always impressed me, but over time, after all our trials and tribulations, i guess i started feeling like what i was doing was merely the first draft and surely riddled with errors and typos, i grew to untrust my eye.
after my visit to berlin last fall i started daydreaming about moving there. I started learning german and found it delightful to unearth the building blocks of a new to me language and system of logic. now i know how to type characters like ö and ä on my keyboard- who knew! There they were inside the trapdoor underneath these letters i touch every day.
i wont lie, though its frustrating and confounding, and one german lesson almost made tears come out of my eyes, i do sort of enjoy furrowing my brows in confusion and awe as i try to make sense of this world. there is a liberating feeling in the growing pains, knowing that i could at one point use this bizzare complicated language to express my very own thoughts and feelings. in those moments of frustration i still smile inside knowing with enough determination i wont always be a lost tourist with a blindfold and a map of the city.
im attached to the time i spent in berlin, because it is part of my future, and i am inbetween the two, pulling them together.
i got this little rock creature at a junk store near neukölln in berlin.
i thought it looked like me because i had just bought this handmade alpaca(?) hair bonnet at the street market. I liked the bonnet because it looks like hair, like a wig. and i guess i am always looking for myself in these inanimate things because they seem to understand me without saying a thing. we are talking, they become petrified angels. the other day my rock friend shattered in a morbid accidental execution as i was rearranging my room. what is the message???
*
the store is packed to the brim with random uncurated household items. i asked the owner of the junk store where he gets all this stuff. he says: “when people die, i come and take all”
it spooked me because a month before that my grandma warmed me about reposessing old things and buying vintage because the spirit or tragedy of the last owner affects the karma of the object. from the looks of it my little rock guy has defeinitally seen some shit
it spooked me because a month before that my grandma warmed me about reposessing old things and buying vintage because the spirit or tragedy of the last owner affects the karma of the object. from the looks of it my little rock guy has defeinitally seen some shit
*i am reminded of the half floor in Being John Malcowvich where the main character finds the John Malcowich chute.
i was going back to a point i had remembered from earlier in the sentence. in my physical reality, i am making preparations to move to a different country. in the psychic realm, i am expanding my spirit towards possible horizons as i am in this space, the space of the US Empire, which feels endlessly repressing. I guess im preparing for the likelihood of space getting smaller, more restrictions, more surveillance, watch wearing, autocorrect.. and im armoring myself with my own freedom, that which cannot be taken from me. In the spirit of Assata!
yesterday jack whitten space
my laptop is almost out of juice and the chattering across the street has subsided. time to turn on the radio and let a bit of the city in...
02-28-2026
stopped by Ave Maria Grotto outside Birmingham on the way back down to new orleans
Extremely touching sculptures made by Brother Joseph Zoettl over a period of 30 years (1931-62), who was a Benedictine monk originally from Landschutt, Bavaria-Germany who moved to Alabama as a teenager and soon after joined the monastary at St. Bernard Abbey. The sculptures he made are mostly of famous religious structures around the world (and then some, like the great wall of china and lizard 0condo) and cathedrals for fairies.
Inspired by his innovated approach to concrete and stained glass, two mediums I’ve been working through and now see even more ways to build with...
stopped by Ave Maria Grotto outside Birmingham on the way back down to new orleans
Extremely touching sculptures made by Brother Joseph Zoettl over a period of 30 years (1931-62), who was a Benedictine monk originally from Landschutt, Bavaria-Germany who moved to Alabama as a teenager and soon after joined the monastary at St. Bernard Abbey. The sculptures he made are mostly of famous religious structures around the world (and then some, like the great wall of china and lizard 0condo) and cathedrals for fairies.
Inspired by his innovated approach to concrete and stained glass, two mediums I’ve been working through and now see even more ways to build with...
02-27-2026
its the last day on the farm!
i completed the tree, which i’ve called Tree Is Me- T.I.M. for short.
I haven’t made work since a year ago at the farm, when I came for the first time in March 2025.The two main stained glass Artifacts I made last year, Open Mouth Object [O.M.O.} & Subsequent Findings [S.F.}, searched for solutions to merge the image and the Frame, for which as a Drawer, has often been an afterthought. The Frame turns the Drawing into an artifact, it brings it into the physical realm. I always felt a disconnection between whatever Frame I used to enclose my drawings, and now I seek to dissolve the distinction between the two. The more I do stained glass the more I realize I connect with my abilty to shape the glass as a Frame for images that are pressed inbetween, rather than using glass to make the image itself. Last year, I made drawings on old typewriter paper that I got at J & J Junk Store outside of Birmingham Alabama. This paper is delicious- perfectly transluscent, weathered, warm with time. I love old paper and am always on the look for it now. Its sad to think even paper is diminishing in quality as we move into the future.
I thought the translucency of the paper inside the stained glass worked nicely, allowing the image to melt into the background color during the day and reappear on a white surface at night. Drawings feel especially pedestrian- I liked how this solution not only merged the frame and the drawing, but created something that is best when it is suspended. I don’t like when my drawings are against a wall and only one side of it can be seen. It interests me to make objects that react to time and perspective.
This visit I wanted to revisit this idea of encapsulating an image within two panes of glass. When I solder around the edges of the glass to seal the frame, the image inside is forever trapped, like a specimen. I gravitaed towards the thinnest clear glass I could find. The best kind I’ve found is taken out of picture frames. I thought about family photos and the pedestal given to an image when put inside a photo frame. As a sort of warm up I started making collages out of photos on my camera roll and ones I’ve taken over the past year on my red digi cam. I like making my collages by copy and pasting on Finder. You can’t rotate the images, do much editing except basics- which is perfect for me. More limitations please!!
I wanted to make a bigger Artifact this time, something that could stand on its own, so to speak. I cut out circle panels out of the clear scrap glass. I thought about venn diagrams and thought bubbles. I made this pregnant tree animation a week before my visit so it clicked that I should make a Tree. A Tree is where family is grown, violence is hung, paper is made, lift shelters. I cannot deny a motif the time of day when it keeps reappearing! Nicky helped me make the trunk out of scrap wood- three different woods glued together, planed and shaped into the same surface, jigsawed into shape, grinded divets on the trunks to hold the weight of the glass frames, which I began to call its Hair. Besides the scrap wood glued together to make the body, I found a way to assemble the rest of it without glue (i don’t want to use glue!) which was extremely satisfying. Everything is held up through friction, tension. The root legs slide on and off the trunk, and the glass panels are attached to each other like a Wig and can be lifted off the Body.
Today I had to finish the tree. I needed to interact and understand the Body. I lathered the whole thing in Linseed oil yesterday which felt like moisturizing skin. I thought, the Tree Is Me. In tattooing I sometimes use this stencil transfer paper to make stencils when i don’t have access to a stencil printer, and still have the same transfer sheet that I first used nearly 7 years ago. It’s a nice archive of designs- each time I use it, i trace the design on top of the stencil sheet to turn the paper I am tracing with into the stencil itself. It leaves an impression of the design on the stencil sheet while still leaving room for endless tracings on top of it. I wondered if this would transfer onto my tree Body. I also save all the stencils I use after tattooing them, and I pulled them out to see if they would transfer onto the wood (some did, some didnt.) It felt like this Tree and Me were searching for an identity. The different woods took the stencils differently. This wood with separate origins were forced to assimilate into one body, but they did not become a homogenous material.
I started compressing the collage scraps into the glass scraps as a way to resolve the unused material. As if looking under a microscope/ petri dish/ patterns, colors, textures remain / the debris takes a new form, its beautiful!
Ryan called it [ A Compass to Nowhere}
02-25-2026
Fiona Apple: “ I simply will not talk to you unless I think that you’re listening to me”
02-02-2026
The picture is coming together. What satisfaction! I feel most free when I start the painting. I want to hold onto that freeness as details emerge. I am afraid of overworking it and overthinking. Oil is oily and slippery. I like wiping it away with a rag or my sleeve. I like pushing it around with my brush.
1.angels
2.pregnant tree
3.sardine/bathtub
4.material bias
5.radio
01-31-26
Francesca Woodman -
Francesca Woodman -
01-27-26
Oil painting is changing my relationship with image. with oil, you push the pigment around till it lands in the right place. an explosion of paint thinner can take every delicately placed pigment away. I think that is the most exciting part because intricacy serves to help me think. I do not feel so precious about the intricacy. I think the more important focus is intentionality. When i start to overthink is when the mark swells, bloats, or becomes plastic1 2 3 1. “chopin's waltz opus 64 no. 2 in c sharp minor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
preciousplayspiano on youtube
2. maya deren
3.the last trick
jan svankmajer (1964)
Oil painting is changing my relationship with image. with oil, you push the pigment around till it lands in the right place. an explosion of paint thinner can take every delicately placed pigment away. I think that is the most exciting part because intricacy serves to help me think. I do not feel so precious about the intricacy. I think the more important focus is intentionality. When i start to overthink is when the mark swells, bloats, or becomes plastic
preciousplayspiano on youtube
2. maya deren
3.the last trick
jan svankmajer (1964)
01-26- 26
Discovering what i am drawn to and what they are trying to tell me. Narrowing the scope, arranging the furniture that was already in the room, opening the window to look out at the landscape
wiz of oz- the house spins up, lands somewhere else
magic treehouse books
the dream travel white laying in bed
dreaming presumes some sort of body safety state
Ruth Asawa [I’m really concerned with how much I can pack into one day, then into 9 months or a year. I’m really concerned with every single day.]
Assata Shakur
[’I am about life’ i said to myself,’ I’m gonna live as hard as i can and as full as i can until i die. And i’m not letting these parasites, these oppressors, these greedy racist swine make me kill my children in my mind, before they are even born. I’m going to live and i’m going to rejoice. Because our children are our futures and i believ in the future and in the strength and rightness of our struggle.]
Martin Wong
“The Museum of American graffiti is a privately funded institution devoted to the study of arisen heiroglyphics. It is hoped in the future that additional grants will enable us to publish and document information crucial to the field before luck and the vagaries of time will have dispersed this material. “