a newsletter by Ganzeer | Issue 202: Vomitbook Habit
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I always have a small pocketbook on my person, about 3.5"x5.5" in size. Together with a pocket fountainpen, this is my arsenal for jotting on the go or in the office. Everything goes into this thing: notes, ideas, job specs, to-do lists, grocery lists, sketches, roughs, quotes, everything, and I cannot possibly imagine being able to function without it. I only started with these things in 2022, but before that I used to carry one of those hardback A5 Moleskines, before migrating to Leuchtrums. I initially decided to abandon the the A5 hardbacks and go for something lighter and more lowkey because going out without a bag isn't unusual for me and sometimes you'd like to get something down and you don't have your journal on you, or even if you do, sometimes you just don't want to have to go through the whole slinging-your-bag-off-your-back/shoulder before opening it to pull a thick hard journal out just to note one quick thought or rough out one fast doodle. Something slim that fits in your pocket simply eliminates the number of steps required to do the deed (don't come at me with any phone-based note-taking apps, they all suck and it's not the same thing). I recall being weary of the small page-size at first, but much to my surprise these small inconspicuous things seem to have played a strong role in a number of breakthroughs for me. It took a couple years of using them, and really absorbing them into my way of being before they would garner such results, but garner big results they have. I first started with Field Notes, but the obnoxious branding really got to me. I wanted blank covers where nothing would detract from the dates I inscribe onto the covers. So I made the switch to the pocket-sized Moleskine Cahiers, the thread-binding of which I thoroughly appreciated. But then I discovered what I took to be a cheaper but I identical knockoff, the Twone Pocket Notebook. In using it however, I've come to discover that the paper is of much superior quality to the Moleskines despite being of similar weight. Like for real, I keep pushing how much I can abuse the damn things and they take it! Case in point:
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Not all pages look like that. The vast majority of any given vomitbook is often filled with notes and scribbles. The small size together with the very unassuming nature of the things though seemed to invite a fair degree of very quick experiments every now and again. Being busy with "real projects" meant that the prospect of pulling a proper sketchbook off my shelf just to experiment with tools and techniques would feel like a cumbersome ordeal. On top of the fact that something about those large beautiful hardback sketchbooks can intimidate one from true experimentation, because with true experimentation comes the prospect of messing shit up. And the big beautiful hardbacks kind of want you to fill its insides with big beautiful art. They sort of want you to treat them as precious things, but a meager pocketbook? Now that's something you can mess up without fear, and in the process something beautiful might emerge and surprise you.
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For the most part, my go-to carry pen is the Kaweco AL Sport, fitted with a medium nib. But if I have a bag or if I'm at the studio, I'll have other materials to throw at my vomitbook, and I've come to develop the fearlessness I lacked in the past to mix and match all manner of material without care. Lines from fountain pens will mix with charcoal, india ink, watercolor, masking tape, block printing, gelliprinting, rubbings, gouache, acrylics, and pastels, and collaging, and in the process I discover the aesthetic effects of working all these tools into the same piece and it's thrilling and exciting and surprising and takes no time at all. The importance of this cannot be understated, because it's beginning to influence my approach to some of my "real projects", not just in terms of mixing and matching tools and techniques, but in terms of developing something of a nonchalant fearlessness in approach. Less stress about planning every little thing to death, and instead just allowing the chips to fall where they may, to relish in the flow state of making.
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The vomit-approach may be deemed questionable by other uber-organized folk who like to have dedicated notebooks for different things. It really isn't all that unorganized actually. Starting in January this year, each of these pocketbooks has come to last me a month. Even if I don't completely fill a notebook by month's end, I set it aside and date/start a new one (not what I used to do in years prior), which should result in 12 neatly organized booklets a year. Anytime I need to return to a particular date, project or idea, it's fairly easy to locate. Certainly easier than attempting to find anything in those thicker A5 hardbacks of old, which I now have stored in a box in a storage unit separate from the studio altogether. Also, about those big handsome hardcover sketchbooks, the ones that are supposedly made for artistic experimentation? They're never going to be utilized for notetaking, they're just too thick and cumbersome and precious and designed exclusively for Art. Somehow having the quick notes and scribbles along with the more visual experiments within the same unassuming booklet helps coalesce all those threads together into the potential tapestry of future projects.
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Ganzeer Houston, TX 04.09.24
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The latest print installment of THE SOLAR GRID has arrived. An alien rebel, a foreign tongue, inter-tribal conflict spanning planets, and a trip down memory lane that will take modern Martians down a path of revelations.
Rife with origin stories, old and new, the expansive world of The Solar Grid nears its dramatic crescendo.
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My comp copy of Walter Chaw's A WALTER HILL FILM has finally arrived, for which I provided the cover art and design. Beast of a book that covers Walter Hill's entire oeuvre with insightfully penned essays from Chaw, and delightfully adorned with a great many screen stills.
For me the thing about Hill's films, even the note entirely great ones, is that there will almost always be one oddly visceral scene or element that just sticks with you for the rest of your life. I sought to portray some such iconic movie moments within Hill's portrait, the scenes forming his face.
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Genuinely gutted by Ed Piskor's suicide. I have opinions, but I will keep them to myself for now. Too many people weighing in on the matter, often from a standpoint of a monocausal argument, and monocausal arguments are almost always flawed. Now is a time for grieving. I never knew Ed personally, but that does not negate the human capacity for empathy, nor does it obliterate one's ability to have a perspective on how things transpired. I don't think it is wise to brush aside such perspectives altogether, because they all have to do with an entire culture more so than just one person, and the effects of an entire culture can touch a great many people over an extended period of time. It is imperative to talk about such things. But now is a time for grief. The opinions can come later.
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"A good painting is always a decorative painting, but a decorative painting is not always a good painting." -Neo Rauch
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- Restricted.Academy: After a long hiatus, our small intimate "cyber cafe" of sorts is picking up activity again. Thread I'm currently interested in is reading lists for Spring/Summer 2024
- Whole Earth Models & Systems: "Systems Thinking" is something I've been increasingly interested in for a time now, and with this interest comes the gradual implementation of it in life and work. This essay by Donella Meadows serves as a great primer for Systems Thinking.
- Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham: No time for a full review but it must be said that Sammy Harkham's BLOOD OF THE VIRGIN is one of the best graphic novels I've read in a long time. It does end on a rather anticlimactic note, but that doesn't take away from the overall experience. Masterfully crafted tome that brims with authenticity.
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Dry Ingredients:- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Wet Ingredients:- 1 cup dried fruit
- 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
- 1/4 cup sunflower butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:1) Preheat Oven to 325F (162C) 2) Line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Brush with coconut oil. 3) Mix dry ingredients in big bowl. 4) Mix wet ingredients in small bowl. 5) Pour wet mixture onto dry ingredients and mix all together. 6) Transfer mixture to baking sheet. Spread evenly. 7) Slide in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Mix it up, then pop into oven for another 10 minutes. 8) Let cool and store in airtight container.
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