hello grapefruits friends!

i was feeling burned out at the start of this summer, and decided to take a light sabbatical (a.k.a. a vacation), which i haven’t done in years, in hopes of resetting my brain a little bit. it took a surprisingly long time for me to shake the sense of dread and exhaustion brought on by years of endless emails and logins and scheduling conflicts and ULTRA HIGH PRIORITY tasks, but in the past month i finally started to feel relaxed… and then something interesting happened. my computer died, and took all its secrets to the grave with it. ✮:♱.☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎.☆☾⋆｡𖦹

luckily, a very generous and thoughtful friend offered me their old macbook air to replace it within a few days. but for a moment i thought “maybe this means i don’t have to do email anymore. nobody can find me now—i am a shadow!” i was free of the conduit for much of my work-related stress, and it was great! but also deeply anxiety-provoking in its own way. who am i without my DATA?? (don’t worry, all of my stupid google docs and whatnot were still safe.) it was a bit of a shock to the system, but a good one in the end. i was due for a technological purge.

i don’t know if that little story directly relates to anything in this email, but it kind of indicates where my head is at right now, in these chaotically lazy late days of summer. hesitantly emerging from the pleasant fog of vacation, trying to sift through big questions with a sun-baked brain, freshly revived by some unexpected rainy days. did taking a break fundamentally change me and my presence as a worker and human in this weird capitalist situation? or are all my old stresses lurking in the cloud, waiting for me to return? can i shift my angle of approach just slightly to allow for some kind of lasting wisdom from this time of repose and reflection to take hold? i have found hints of a direction pointing towards some kind of truth(s) in some of the following essays and discussions. i hope you all find them as invigorating and generative as i did!

hi again! in the week or two that have gone by since the first part of this issue, a few people have messaged me or told me in person something to the effect that they really appreciated the theme of “alternate realities.” i’m so glad people liked it! sadly i feel like the idea of retreating from reality just keeps getting more appealing (╥﹏╥)

but my goal is to use that feeling and energy to dig up some inspiration! part 1 was focused on extraterrestrial encounters, conspiracies, magic, and spiritualism, and included lots of historical/archival material and at times a general air of nostalgia (for things like 90s television, flip phone keypads, gilded age parlor magic, second wave feminist antics, etc). i think applying a lens of curiosity to the past is a natural and often productive way to make sense of the present—after all, the past is the main ingredient that constitutes each present moment—but sometimes it feels like you just need to move forward, maybe very rapidly. if the last email was about getting into a radical mindset that can allow for imagining new and better ways of being, this one is maybe about what those new and better ways might be. in this follow up, i want to look at some texts and artworks that are concerned with futures of all sorts, both hopeful and cautionary.

ok i know i said i wasn’t going to focus on the past, but here i go linking to a text from the distant year of my birth (1985). donna haraway’s cyborg manifesto uses the idea of the human-machine hybrid to examine the ways other binaries (such as man/woman) can be bridged or broken down. if you haven’t read this before, or if it’s been a while (like it has for me) you can read the whole thing for free at the anarchist library! haraway’s writing has sparked a ton of subsequent theorizing and imagining in the years since it came out, and will probably just keep getting more and more interesting to think about as technology continues to merge with ever more facets of our social and physical experiences of the world.

yesterday was the fourth of july. i have never been super into this holiday, what with the terrible history of the united states, but i can’t lie and say i don’t enjoy a summer bbq and fireworks with friends. this year though, things feel extra doomy. watching the lights of drone cameras swarm and buzz among the pyrotechnics, surrounded by what i would describe as a bizarre patriotic-burner-facebook-rave atmosphere, was unreal, almost psychedelic. and that actually felt appropriate.

sometimes the urge to retreat into an alternate reality is really strong. instead of denying it, lately i have been interested in looking at how artists and writers are engaging with things like magic, science fiction, and the occult/paranormal. i’m curious to understand how these lines of thinking can be used not in order to escape from reality or abandon our responsibility to each other, but to recharge our senses of radical imagination and break out of oppressive structures of thinking to find new strategies for changing the world. it’s ok to not know what comes next, it just means we’ll have to get creative in how we figure it out.

in case turning to superstition and make-believe sounds like a questionable approach to serious things, consider how they are already baked into the culture of our own government and military. trevor paglen’s book i could tell you but then you would have to be destroyed by me documents the silly-but-not-exactly-harmless badges created by the pentagon for black-ops teams. these insignias seem to draw on the traditions of elite patriarchal “secret societies,” comics, and sci-fi/fantasy culture, making light of the seriousness and violence inherent in their wearers’ lines of work. check out this slightly busted but totally free pdf version here.

hello again lovely people! i guess the spring turned out to be busier than i anticipated, because i realize it’s been a couple of months since i last sent out an email like this. oops!

that’s ok though. it’s nice to let yourself move a little slower sometimes, especially during this lovely early summer season. here’s just a tiny selection of the many beautiful things i have seen recently or want to see in the next little bit:

ním and i visited “matrilineal memory”, a solo show by mikaela shafer at the native arts and culture foundation, during a mini southeast portland art walk. it was the first time we had been to an exhibition in this space since back in its YU days, and it felt really good in there. the work was primarily mixed-media collage with sewing, some framed and some photographed and printed on sheer silk, situated around ideas and emotions about motherhood and familial legacies. there was soft music playing and sweetgrass or something similar in the air, which added an enveloping sensory atmosphere of tranquility. the show is no longer up, but hopefully this artist will have more work on view again soon. and now we have a new gallery on our neighborhood viewing list!

hey there fellow grapefruiters! this week i just have another random bunch of nice/interesting stuff to share... no real theme, unless you count "stuff" or "things" as a theme ; ) hope you enjoy!

i have fond memories of making charcoal pictures in figure drawing classes as a teen/young adult, and i think partly because of that association the medium takes me back to a sort of youthful, moody, finding-your-artistic-voice kind of realm (although what doesn't lol??). i don't see a ton of charcoal drawing featured in galleries so this (kind of) recent two-person show at deli gallery makes me happy, and also makes me want to use the charcoal sticks i have had kicking around for a while... the online publication topical cream has a nice interview with the two artists.

Palestinian Museum in West Bank Reopens After Months of Closure

The institution debuted three separate exhibitions that together “stand against the atrocities and systematic annihilation of Gaza.”

hi! this email is a smidge late, but it's a fun one---just a tiny round up of cool shows around town i'm looking forward to seeing. these are all portland picks, i will try to include some vermont (and maybe other places) art events in upcoming emails, for my vermont-and-other-places readers. hope you enjoy : )

i don't know much about ppstmm, other than it is a pretty new space and it's open by appointment only. i also just saw some older paintings by current featured artist, edward jeffrey kriksciun, in another space, and i'm excited to see more! i wish i had gone to the opening event, which featured a musical ladder, but there is also going to be a closing event at the fixin' to on march 14, so maybe i'll try to catch that.

i'm a little tired and i thought this might be a good time for a "mini issue" of the newsletter, organized around a theme: fiber and textile art (my favorite!). i don't know how mini this ended up being but it was fun to have a more specific focus... or maybe i should say a "common thread" hehe... a while back i was talking with a friend of mine who also uses a lot of textiles and sewing in their work, and we thought maybe fiber art would get more press if writers were aware of how many amazing puns are possible?? have fun looking for examples in the articles and such that i've linked this week : )

Woven Histories | 4Columns

i really enjoyed this review of a recent show at the los angeles county museum of art focused on the lineage of modern through contemporary textile-based art. i wish i had gotten to see the show! it includes some pretty big names in textile history, like leonore tawney, eva hesse, sheila hicks, and sonia delaunay. i thought the writer of this piece (sasha archibald) deftly summed up some of the major critical dialogues surrounding art and craft over the past century... if you are interested in learning more about these histories, i strongly suggest checking out this book:

heyo i am back after an unexpectedly long winter break! here in portland the past couple weeks of crazy weather kind of messed up the shiny newness of the new year. it wasn't just an inconvenience, it was also really damaging for local businesses and deadly for those without access to adequate shelter. i won't go into it too much but if you are interested there is some good follow up reporting coming out about why the city's response to the storm was so weak... anyway, i'm here to tell you about art stuff, but it's a good reminder to make sure to give a little extra support to whatever emergency service providers and houseless advocacy efforts exist in your area if you can. thank yoooou!!

here's some art things i have been thinking about lately:

i'm really looking forward to seeing this group exhibition, "labor of love," at the jsma art museum at portland state university. the curatorial theme has to do with hidden or unrecognized labor, which is of interest to me as a proud teachers' union member! but also it's very relevant to the art world---check out art handler magazine or look at their instagram if you just want the memes. i also have to shout out this amazing sculpture by my friend midori, which i have admired in pictures a million times but never seen in person... yet!

hi again! i am back with a holiday-season edition of the grapefruits sometimes art mail. not that there is really anything unusually festive about this one, i just happen to be sending it out right now because this is when i had the time for it lol ⛄️

anyway, here's a mini-smorgasbord of art things i've been looking at lately!

Imagining a new future: ‘Make Banana Cry’ at PICA | Oregon ArtsWatch

The much anticipated finale of PICA's "Time-Released" programming is the work of Andrew Tay and Stephen Thompson. The performance engages with representations of Asian identity with a sense of play, recognition and, ultimately, reclamation.

i was supposed to go see this show, called "make banana cry," at PICA's time released festival last month with a friend, but i made the mistake of thinking i would be able to buy tickets at the door. there were none left!!! :( sold-out shows aren't necessarily the norm for performance art, so obviously this one was special. fortunately, oregon artswatch has a terrific review in case you also missed out.

hello! i'm back with another issue of the grapefruits sometimes art mail a little sooner than planned. this special installment is less art-centric than usual, as it is focused on what's happening in gaza right now.

i'm definitely not an expert on any of this and don't know the best way to write about this subject. but i guess i decided that even an awkward email newsletter is better than silence.

there are a lot of comprehensive learning resources and informative social media accounts that are being shared widely, and many folks have probably already seen. in the interest of offering something potentially new, i tried to put together a collection of art-related items, specific reporting, and platforms for activism and support that i personally found hopeful or useful recently. i hope they are useful and maybe hopeful to you!

because this is supposed to be a newsletter about art, i'll start with a couple of features that slightly more in that realm:

hi again! i keep finding a lot of cool stuff to share and i want to make sure this is a sustainable hobby for me, so i'm not going to editorialize too much this week. just straight to the content!

hyperallergic has a thoughtful critique of a judy chicago retrospective. my first encounter with the work of the 1970s/1980s feminist art movement was initially revelatory, and then quickly became confusing in ways that helped me clarify my own values and interests... i can totally see many of the faults this writer found in chicago's work, but that doesn't negate the lasting impact of some of her major pieces like "the dinner party." it's too bad chicago's work is so often presented in a way that feels resistant to or resentful of the changes in feminist thought that have unfolded since she got her start. i was reminded of the thoughts that i had while reading her very salty book, "institutional time." her words always made it sound like she was worried that being critiqued was equivalent to being dismissed... has anyone out there read her writing? have thoughts on her work? it's divisive!

hi again! i am back and i have collected more mostly-art things to entertain you. i hope you enjoy this week's assorted potpourri of whatnot and etc! ---martha

some of you may know that i have never owned a smartphone, and i used to have a club of other device-abstainers called the high tech luddites. i made us one issue of a zine (which maybe i'll restart!) and another person made an official club mix tape. i know having a flip phone is kind of trendy these days, and now most of my fellow luddites have smartphones, aaand i finally gave into fomo and got on social media, but i am still a technology-skeptic at heart. so i liked this feature about some well-known artists who are seeing the light and de-tech-ifying their practices or using art as a way to question some of the highly questionable ideas about technology and progress floating around out there. yay!

the grapefruits sometimes art mail is back!

i have been super busy in the past year and kind of neglected this project, but thanks to covid i now suddenly have a bit of time to restart things! always searching for a positive spin on things lol.

if you've never gotten one of these emails and don't really know what you signed up for, it's basically just a biweekly-ish assortment of art writing, shows, and other stuff that i thought was interesting. a lot of events and such are portland-centric because that's where i live, but i am interested in art from anywhere.

i would definitely consider submissions for future emails! send me stuff, please! i think it would also be cool if some conversations came about as a result of these emails. i'm not sure if people can comment on emails on the buttondown site or what but maybe i'll look into it...

hi there everybody! first off, my apologies for the delay in sending out this email. it has definitely been more than two weeks since the last installment of the grapefruits sometimes art mail! i am guessing a lot of people out there will relate when i say life has been crazy.

the latest chaos agent around here is my upcoming move back to portland, oregon this july, which i am so excited about! however, that means this newsletter is going on a bit of a summer break until things settle down again. when they do (probably early september?), expect links to some super cool writing and art and videos and podcasts and maybe even some original reporting on art stuff in the pacific northwest!? we'll see where things take me. until then please enjoy some summer fun offline, you deserve it : )

i will leave you with big window's latest, NLXCHANGE:

hello again! this edition of the grapefruits sometimes art mail is the second installment of what i guess is now a mini-series, called "no reading required." this is a podcast- and video-centric version of the newsletter (which is usually focused on writing), and it's back by popular demand because you all really don't like to read! haha jk, life these days is crazy and our attention spans and eyeball capacities are blown out from the constant flow of content, so i am really happy to provide a selection of interesting, enlightening arts discussions that you can listen to while you fold laundry or work in the garden or do whatever physical real-life things you need or want to do. i also want to continue expanding the variety of media i'm featuring on here in recognition of the different ways we all like to process information, so look for the next episode of this little thing to highlight a bunch of cool videos. but for now, here is a selection of great podcasts and such for your listening pleasure:

first up is just the nicest conversation with painter clarity haynes on the "i like your work" podcast. there was so much in what she had to say that i really connected with, especially in the part of the interview where she talks about her studio process. i also believe in questioning the impulse to resist certain aspects of your artistic urges, because so often the reason for this impulse is external. it's also cool to hear about the evolution of her torso portrait series, and the vibes all around are so good. enjoy! (tip: the first 5ish minutes are promos, skip ahead for the interview)

hi everyone! i realize it's been a little longer than usual between emails, but life happens and things just got too busy for a bit. but i'm back and i have cool stuff to share! no real theme, just a lot of high-quality arts content for you. check it out:

i am a big fan of the journal momus, so it's not that surprising that i also loved this interview with momus editor sky gooden. she talks about how art publications are changing perhaps for the better in response to an arts funding landscape that is doing the opposite, which is exciting to hear (and i feel like is why i do this email thing – because arts writing is getting so interesting these days and there is so much good stuff out there to read/watch/listen to!).

hiiiiii! time for more art. this edition of the grapefruits sometimes art mail is kind of just a bunch of stuff i like... i guess the rough through line is representational images in 2 dimensions... aka paintings/drawings/prints of people, places, and things! also i just felt like collecting a lot of beautiful pictures to look at, which is why i got into making art in the first place – maybe you can relate?

this is a bit different for me, but yolo... i am starting with an instagram post by the artist avocado ibubrofen (real name jaako pallasvuo, i think). i really liked this cute yet angsty defense of decoration as a critical practice. i have experienced the knee-jerk reaction of just wanting to make pretty things and not think so hard goshdarnit, only to walk that sentiment back entirely as i argue in my head for the conceptual depth and rigor of prettyness haha.

hiiiiiii! for this edition of the grapefruits sometimes art mail, i'm doing something slightly different. i have been really busy lately, and my attention span isn't what it should be, so reading has been a challenge. instead, i have been listening to more podcasts while doing dishes, making breakfast, etc. it is kind of hard to find art-related podcasts that qualify as the kind of "easy listening" i have been craving lately, but i have put together a few that really hit the spot – hope you like them!

BOMB magazine has a podcast called fuse, and I really enjoyed their latest episode in which writer maggie nelson interviews painter tala madani. i haven't read maggie nelson's recent book, "on freedom," but this made me curious. i have read mixed reviews... anyone out there checked it out yet? also take a listen to this episode if you, like me, love john wilson of the docu-show "how to with john wilson"

hi there,

this is a little late because of the holidays, travel, omicron, whatever. but i say the new year starts whenever you want/need it to! here is an end of 2021/start of 2022 art email for you.

i always enjoy "year in review" type articles, it makes me feel like i was part of something (or totally out of the loop if i don't remember anything on the list!). here's a good one from my old pal the new yorker:

The Year the Art Scene Rebounded, Expanded, and Surrendered to N.F.T.s | The New Yorker

As the city reopened, the art world saw legacy-changing donations for the Met and the Brooklyn Museum, and a seismic shift in Tribeca’s gallery scene.

here are some more art and art-adjacent things you might enjoy:

i can't explain how much i loved this animated fruit rap battle based on a uighur poem... p.s. the navigation buttons on this page are on the bottom left and right (i didn't see them at first)

hi, welcome to the first edition of the grapefruits sometimes art mail! these are a few articles i have read and found interesting recently.

first up, a feature by Léuli Eshrāghi about curating indigenous artists at university of british columbia's museum of anthropology. i appreciated this super direct critique of the way institutions keep reproducing cringey old eurocentric fantasies of pacific island and coastal cultures. it also features work by natalie ball, whose work is so good. check it out here

natalie ball, "bang bang" 2019