This morning, I found out that I got a review in ArtNowLA written by Zara Kand. Does it count if we’re friends? Maybe? Zara writes for several art magazines, but she is also a great painter and practically my neighbor. She lives about a mile away, and what’s totally crazy is that we have the same landlords!

Talk about coincidences, right? I didn’t know this until after I met her. Years ago, she was curating a 2-person show at Art Queen in Joshua Tree and asked me to be one of the artists. She got my name from Jody Zellen, who also wrote a review about my current (almost over) solo show.

All I wanted was some press for this show. I know that sales are always the “number one” desire for most artists, and it’s not that I’m ungrateful; I am! (I sold three pieces.) But more than anything, I wanted at least one write-up, and I’ve got two! I’ve also heard that Shana Nys Dambrot is working on an article for an art magazine about my show as well. Three for three!

So, today is a good day then. The news came on the heels of yet another rejection. Another one I actually thought I would get because it was for the BRAVA Awards—the one for artists’ books. I thought I had a really good chance because a few of my books are in the BIMA (Brainbridge Island Museum of Art) Artists’ Book Collection, where the BRAVA Awards originate. But nope. That makes SIX rejections in the last six weeks. And that’s how long my show has been up, too, just as a side note.

Tomorrow is the last day of the show. Well, Saturday, July 4^th, is technically when it ends, but you would need an appointment to see the exhibit on that day. Apparently, it’s some big holiday they call “Independence Day.” It’s ironic since I’ve been in an intense history class (Reconstruction to Present), and while many people don’t feel like celebrating the 250^th anniversary of this country because things are so fucked up, I’m reading a lot about the Constitution and the Founding Principles, which were really brilliant ideas, despite how many presidents have completely ignored the Constitution! And yes, I said “presidents (plural).” While Trump is most definitely the worst of the worst, he’s not the first corrupt, lying son of a bitch who’s run this country, and not the first to shit all over the Constitution.

But there’s a whole “wartime” justification where the 1^st Amendment gets pretty much ignored, where people have been put in jail or even put to death for voicing their disdain for any particular war or who have spoken out against the president. I mean, it depends on who’s in office at the time, but it’s something crazy that keeps repeating itself in history.

Okay, so, I don’t know if I mentioned it, but this past Monday, I led a bookbinding workshop at Camp Mulberry, a week-long summer camp for trans kids ages 6-17 that the Laurel Foundation sponsors. Most of the kids in the class were about 14, and though it was a small classroom of 10 or 12 kids, most of them were really psyched. They made some great-looking handbound books. I wish we had more time to decorate them, but now that they all know how to do it on their own, they can make as many as they want now. The whole thing made me wish there had been a camp like that when I was a kid, but no such thing back then.

The camp was up near Big Bear, California, and the drive was rather brutal, but worth it.

Whelp, I think that’s all I’ve got for now. See ya soonish!