feeling around in the dark: Nicole Georges is my sort of my hero

Monday, February 13, 2012

Nicole Georges is my sort of my hero

"Sort of" because it's embarrassing to admit that someone you might run in to is your hero. I'm not really sure why? Nicole Georges lives and works in Portland, which obviously happens to be where I dwell, and I've seen her around (at Mrs. and at the comic symposium). It's a strange and unique phenomenon with me that whenever I harbor an immense amount of respect for someone, it makes me cripplingly shy towards them. So instead of saying "Nicole Georges is totally my fucking hero" I'm going to play it casual and say "sort of," to make it less creepy.

Wait, what?

Anyway, Georges is most well-known as the author/illustrator of Invincible Summer, an autobiographical comic zine she's been making since 2000 (I think). In the comic, Georges illustrates her daily life, exploring such things as shitty break ups, chicken tragedies, and chronic over-caffeination through the traditionally hyper-masculine, super-hero-only medium of the comic book (not to say she's the first or only non-male/queer/non-super-hero comic artist, but the first I was exposed to). This sort of changed my entire take on comic books, because I'd always thought them to be sort of formulaic and irrelevant. Once I realized that ANYTHING could be written about in comic-form, I realized what I wanted to start doing with myself.

Additionally, Georges teaches zine/comic workshops and occasionally does residencies (such as at Benson high school) where she'll teach said workshops. This seemed relevant since I'm trying to figure out how to do a residency on campus while possibly working in some sort of illustration element. I don't really want to do any teaching but maybe I could guide some sort of writing and drawing workshop at the WRC. I'm just not sure I'm confident enough to really guide a group of people to do anything. But it could be collaborative!

I'm reaching the point in my blog post where I'm realizing how severely under-caffeinated I am and am having a hard time staying focused, however in summary: Nicole Georges rules, is a babe, is super-talented and bad ass, and is one of my main sources of inspiration. Her blog is here and her etsy store is here. I'll probably return to this post later after some coffee.

-h

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Ideas for Projects!

(not for class, just for "fun")

1) Disconnect entirely from all forms of modern communication for a month. No email, no Facebook, no internet whatsoever, no cellphone. Request that inqueries be left on calling cards I'll print that can be left in a special mailbox of sorts. Only communicate via calling cards or real live contact. Only recieve information via newspapers and books. I'd probably do this in the summer.

2) I was thinking about how broke I am and how someone should take me out on a date. Then the next night I was thinking about what I miss about being partnered is having someone to hang out with every night. So then I came up with the idea of printing "temporary girlfriend applications," very similar to job or housing applications, with questions like "do you enjoy cuddling without being creepy?" or "what qualities do you think you can bring to a casual and/or temporary girlfriend-type relationship?" or "have you ever had a restraining order?" Stuff like that. It'd be very formal and you could expect a possible call back in in 1-2 weeks.

3) I've recently started an OkCupid account, purely for sociological reasons. I'm far too cynical of a person to believe that anything really meaningful could come from online dating (at least for me). However, I frequently hear people tell stories about awkward OkCupid dates. It's like, a "thing." If I can ever work up the courage to actually ask someone out (which is unlikely), I think it'd be interesting to collect a years worth of awkward OkCupid encounters and then draw a comic book of them all.