New site! New blog!

It is with great excitement that I announce that you should please bookmark my NEW online portfolio/blog/home for exciting things over at marissaland.com. Please do!

This blog will no longer be updated; please find and follow its replacement HERE.

Love Letters :: Messages Received -- opening 3/2

Love Letters :: Messages Received, a new body of work by Marissa Falco, is on display at the Washington Street Art Center from March 2–30, 2013. In this exhibit, Falco uses fabric and thread to craft three-dimensional, functional objects that are both highly relatable and intimately personal. Love’s many messages from the world around us are hidden in hand-constructed garments, while a handmade quilt features text from Falco’s extensive cache of analog correspondence. These objects explore communication within relationships of all kinds, and the types of messages directly received versus the messages one chooses to take in from the world at large.

Falco’s Love Letters :: Messages Received presents a vintage aesthetic of hand-tailored clothes and letters sent through the mail interwoven with undeniably modern elements of pop music, humor, and sexuality.

Opening reception for Love Letters :: Messages Received will be held Saturday March 2nd, 7–10PM, and will be on view to the public 12–4 on Saturdays in March at the Washington Street Art Center.

Recipient of a 2013 multidisipline artist fellowship from the Somerville Arts Council and the Mass Cultural Council, Falco will be creating, presenting, teaching, and writing throughout 2013. View more work from Marissa Falco at http://marissaland.com.


 

Sweet Dreams + How to Be A Lady :: new zines

This is a joint project I worked on with Carolee Superdilettante last summer. At an early age, music videos gave us ideas about how the world worked and how we might come to be adults. Each of these zines is about how certain music videos from the 80s and early 90s shaped this concept in our minds. These zines are text-heavy with very detailed cut and paste layouts/illustrations. Behold! If you like memoir-perzines about gender and pop culture this is right up your alley.

If that were not enough, the zines will arrive packaged in a handmade gold paper folder hand-decorated with notebook graffiti representative of the era. What sort of graffiti? Look into your past, my friends. You know what you drew on YOUR notebooks. It's good stuff.

More about the zines here.

When Somerville Hugs You Back

This is my second time living in Somerville. The first time was in 2001, when I graduated from college, started working full-time, and after a sleepless summer realized that I needed to be out of the student neighborhood in Allston. So I looked on Craigslist and found a room in a big house in Teele Square, just around the corner from a good friend, and lived there for two years with a revolving cast of roommates. At that time, zines were the main creative force in my life, and purely by chance I was recruited by a fellow zine-maker to take part in the very first Bazaar Bizarre craft fair at the VFW in Davis Square. This was the beginning of something, but at the time I didn't know that.

My second Somerville residence began in mid-2009, when a friend living there let me know that the apartment below her was vacant, and should I be interested in living there, we could drink tea and work on art projects all the time. You know, in case that appealed. It did. Although part of a fantastic living arrangement north of the city, I'd been getting weary of being so far from "the action" or whatever, and found myself hoping to live somewhere with more community and more art and more places to hang out. So I moved back, and for the first time I lived alone, and even though I was doing a decent job of making it work, I was really REALLY scared of messing everything up for a solid six months or so. But eventually I got a couch, and I made a budget, and I started working on a lot of projects, and over three years later I'd say that it's been going better than well. I've met some interesting people, worked on lots of artwork alone and with friends, I've drawn several posters for Bazaar Bizarre, and I joined the community of artists at WSAC, or The Art Center, as I usually call it.

All of which is to say that Somerville and I have been getting along quite well, creatively. It is a good place and it is good that I am here.

What was good got even better last week, when I found out that I've been awarded a fellowship grant from the Somerville Arts Council this year. Yes! This is based on the work I've done so far, and will essentially be an investment in the work I'm going to do this year, which is very exciting. It is an honor, and all the more special as it means I'm representing/being recognized by a place that I am quite fond of. I want to make lots of great things this year, and make Somerville proud. And I want you to come see these things, and experience this place that means so much to me.

Parcel Ghost's Guide to Post: a new zine about mail!

Originally conceived as a means for teaching young mail-art makers about the rules of the post office, the Parcel Ghost quickly took on an afterlife of his own. In the Parcel Ghost's Guide to Post, the friendly spirit (who used to work for the post office when he was alive) shares his knowledge about mail practices and particulars, and tells some stories about his adventures and mail he's sent and received. This zine is intended for mail lovers of all ages.

Get a copy for yourself and your mail-loving friends HERE

The Parcel Ghost has started a tumblr about his mail and adventures HERE

Mail Call class at BEAM camp

For a week this summer, I was a guest instructor at BEAM camp in New Hampshire. It's a sleep-away camp way out there in nature, specializing in innovation and building and making things happen, a very cool place to be. I was there to teach two art classes, the first of which was Mail Call, designed to teach kids all about mail and mail art (not male art, as I keep having to explain). The idea was that I'd show the kids some examples of mail art, point them toward a pile of supplies, and then set them loose to create their own weird things to send to friends and family back home. I managed to snap some photos of the kids' work before all the postcards and letters were mailed.

I purchased some antique-style cat stickers recently and they proved to be one of the most popular supplies in the art barn. Everyone had to make a cat postcard! Yes, everyone. The kids also really liked the washi tape, decades-old Pantone swatch book, and rubber stamps from the supply box.

More postcards by various artists. Note that the cat sticker on the card in the lower left corner is saying "Please love me Aidan!" I hope Aidan received this postcard and chose to love that beautiful, mysterious cat admirer. The kids also enjoyed using typewriters for their mail projects.

Nature postcards made of collected nature in cellophane bags

A kid made this postcard of lace and the dictionary definition for "gentle"

On the last day of class, the plan was to teach the kids to carve erasers into custom rubber stamps. But when the day arrived, we couldn't find the knives anywhere. We ended up making do with the one x-acto I'd brought from home and a couple of craft knives we found in the office. "Please, please just watch out for your fingers," I said, giving a lesson on knife safety before the kids got started "And please don't lean your face in quite so close while I'm carving. Please." I said a little prayer for no lost fingers and no poked eyes, and then let them go to it.

Eraser carving was going great! Kids were sharing materials, waiting patiently for use of one of the knives, asking for help carving some of the tiny details. And then the lights went out. Yes. Thirteen of us (me, my assistant, and eleven campers) sat in the dark as much of camp lost power. "Just keep working!" I chirped, trying to keep a cool exterior. Carving erasers was my backup plan, the final structured activity I had planned for these kids, and it wasn't safe to have them wielding knives in the dark. We'd have to do something else. Sure, I could improvise something, but in the dark? That made it a little more tricky. "Hey, can we carve on the porch?" one of the kids asked. Great idea! So half of us went out to the porch, finding that the floor of the porch was mostly dry enough to sit on. We sat out there, working on our stamps, when someone had the excellent idea to tell ghost stories, because that's what you do when the power goes out. I had a chance to tell my most favorite ghost story, which the kids deemed "creepy but also nice." By the end of the afternoon, we had many stamps to show.

Eggplant by a counselor; all others kid-made!

When I got home from camp, I made a stack of camp-inspired postcards in thanks to the mail artists who sent us interesting, beautiful, or mysterious mail at camp. It's amazing that how many people are willing to share their time and their creations to keep the art form going! Many thanks go out to Angela J., Christine N., Linda W., Jacque D., Aaron J., Pamela G., Billie Jo S., and Judith M. Check your mailboxes soon!

Special thanks, also, to my friends at the Letter Writers Alliance for multiple mails including the pigeon, to Superdilettante for excellent mail, and to Virginia and Leah for stationery donations. Please stay tuned for a post about what we made in my other class!

Zine Talk 6/27, open to the public

Next Wednesday, 6/27, I'll be presenting a bit about my zine-making history and how my formal education in journalism and design influenced my ongoing perzine publishing. Alana Kumbier will be talking about zines and libraries and building community. Papercut Zine Library will be there. It should be an excellent evening. Thanks to the Somerville Arts Council for the opportunity.

For more info, click here.

Somerville Open Studios 4/5-4/6

Why come to see me at Somerville Open Studios on May 5 and 6? I'll tell you why:

1. Zines! It's a common theme in all my work this year, and at open studios you can purchase my zines, including the recently-published Inspirado. You can also see what goes into making a zine, as I'm planning to work on a new one during open studios. You can also find out more about my upcoming zine event with the Somerville Arts Council. Tell me about the zine you used to make in college! Zine talk: let's do this.

2. New things! I'm working on a few new things, one of which is a series of small pieces that are a combination of painting, collage, and drawing. Right now I'm referring to them as Conversation Pieces and if you come to open studios you'll see why. Mysterious!

3. Buttons! If you come to open studios and mention reading this blog, I'll give you a Miss Sequential button AND a high-five. Don't miss it!

4. A new space! Previous years I had open studios at my house, but not this year. While I still do my work in my home studio, my friends at the Washington Street Art Center have invited me to show my work with them, because they are great. The WSAC has about 20 working artists, and so if you stop by and see me, you can also the the work of these excellent people. Excellent!

5. Buddies! Greatest (to me) of the great WSAC crew is my friend Megan Mary, who, as you may recall, wrote/illustrated Inspirado with me. Megan Mary makes some incredible cut paper art that you will enjoy. See us both making art and talking about art! See us drink tea or seltzer! It will be like you are LIVING THE ZINE. I don't know if there's anything else to say about that.

See you then!!

New zine alert: INSPIRADO

This zine is a collaboration with my friend and fellow Somerville artist Megan Mary Creamer.

Inspired by the art chats we have over tea at a local cafe, this zine takes the form of one of our conversations, showing each of our perspectives on several topics related to our art and process. The layouts feature both of our work, so you can see the results of the processes we discuss.

This zine is printed in black and white with a limited edition cardstock cover silkscreened with blue metallic ink.

5.5 inches x 7.5 inches, 16 pages. Awesome.

Available now online, available locally at the Somerville Open Studios 5/4-5/6.

Spring Zine Thing! And more zine events!

There's just one week until Spring Zine Thing, a mini zine fair/party I'm co-hosting with Megan Mary Creamer at the Washington Street Art Center in Somerville. That's plenty of time to make that zine you've been talking about, or gather together your dollars to buy someone else's! The Spring Zine Thing runs from 2-6pm, hope to see you there.


But that's not all! Here are a few other zine-related things I'll be up to in the next few months:


Somerville Open Studios is on May 5 and 6 this year, and this year I'm lucky to be showing my work with my friends at the Washington Street Art Center. I'll have zines for sale, some other work, and a few things I don't even know about because they are not yet finished. It should be a great time, and there is a ton of great work to check out at the WSAC.

Somerville Arts Council has been running a series of salon talks about various art media/processes since the start of the year, and on June 27th I'll have the floor to talk about zines! I'll be talking a little bit about my zine-making history and how, as a long-term perzine publisher, my recent work has been shaped by my journalism and design training. My co-presenter is Alana Kumbier, who will be talking about how zines can help build communities around libraries and archives, based on her experience with zine-librarianship at Wellesley College and her participation in the Queer Zine Archive Project. Special thanks to Tim Devin who is organizing the event!

New zine! Miss Sequential's Sketchbook

Yes! A new issue of Miss Sequential! Awesome! This issue is called Miss Sequential's Sketchbook, and is a collection of comics and drawings on no particular theme, except maybe the theme of I Drew Them All. The comics are a combination of real happenings, things that happened in dreams, and things I imagined, which is kind of fun. It's 28 pages of good stuff that you will enjoy, and you can get a copy HERE.

Also: If you live in Chicago and missed the Chicago Zine Fest this past weekend (bummer dude), you can purchase a few issues of my zines at Quimby's, which is incidentally one of my favorite shops in the entire universe. Truth.

New mini zine: Things I Should be Doing

I started working on this mini zine at a comics workshop at Ladyfest Boston and lo and behold, it took on a life of its own once I brought it home and added some security envelope and typewritten details. You can get a copy from my shop.

Also, let it be known that this was a warm-up project for a new issue of Miss Sequential, which will be taking shape in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

tinker, tailor, soldier, spy

Papercut zine library grand re-opening!

This weekend, as it became apparent that I was getting a very nasty cold, I left the house anyway to attend the grand re-opening of the Papercut Zine Library at its new home in the back corner of Lorem Ipsum books.

When we walked in, the shop was full of zine-appreciators, all listening to a zine reading. After the reading we milled around, took a peek at the collection, and found a table with zine-making supplies so anyone who wanted to could make a page for their comp zine. Friends, we all know I can't resist the opportunity to try out a typewriter. We stood at the table to do layouts, and I typed some text quietly as the first band of the night began to play (The Low Tide; I really liked them!). And from the weird old books and supplies on the table, I made this:



I feel like there might be more to that story, or maybe a fake archaeology zine that may need to happen in the future. For now, I am so excited that the zine library has moved into my neighborhood, and I hope to visit often, read tons of zines, donate extra zines from my collection, and hopefully see more zine-related events in the future. There used to be so much of a zine presence in Boston, and I miss that.

Something Sweet at the WSAC on November 4th

Hi readers! If you are local to Somerville/Cambridge/Boston and are free on November 4th, stop by Something Sweet at the Washington Street Art Center.



The WSAC is hosting an art auction and dessert buffet to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition. Over 20 local artists have donated work for the show, and you can bid to take home your favorite piece. I am donating a giclee print of one of my favorite drawings, this one:





Yes, a print of this drawing could live at your house. Totally exciting, right?

The event is Friday November 4th from 6-9pm, and admission is $10 or a donation of canned food or new clothes. Hope to see you there!

Upcoming art shows + appearances

Friends! I wanted to alert you to a bunch of art events I'm involved with in the next few weeks. Come see some art!

September 24 (TOMORROW): MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) in Porter Square, 10-6. I will have copies of META and Miss Sequential.

October 1: Tangled group show at the Washington Street Art Center in Union Square, Somerville, MA. I have an embroidered piece in this show. The opening is from 7-10pm.

October 4: I also have a piece in a taco-themed art show in honor of National Taco Day! At Cantina La Mexicana in Union Square, Somerville, MA at 6pm.

wonder what i know now

Did I tell you about when I went to the Jejune Institute? What about the adventures that followed? If you read Miss Sequential #3, I mentioned a little bit about it in my stories of exploring San Francisco, but I didn't want to spoil the details for anyone else who might want to participate. Well, if you were curious about what I was talking about very mysteriously in that zine, or if you participated and were curious about other people's impressions of the whole thing, you will be happy to hear that I joined creative forces with Carolee and we made a beautiful zine about our experience.





From Carolee's description:

The Jejune Institute opened in 2008, running its covert third-space reclamation project until the spring of 2011, when the Games of Nonchalance culminated in a day-long Socio-Reengineering Seminar held at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. Part cult, part art project, and part Alternate Reality Game, the Jejune Institute defied categorization and definition, particularly for those who were its most deeply involved participants.

This zine is an amalgamation of experience and rumination. There is no way it can provide a comprehensive portrait of all the Games of Nonchalance were or tried to be. It merely scratches the surface of all the mystery and mind-fuckery that followed.





This zine was made in time for this year's San Francisco Zine Fest, and when I say "in time for," I really do mean "in the nick of time for" ... up until two days before I was sending Carolee bits and pieces and maps and my version of the cover (of which there are two: two front covers), and then she expertly assembled it, in record time, into this amazing, thoughtful artifact of our experience. I enjoyed seeing it for the first time as a reader would, which was a unique experience in itself.

At present, the zine is available through Carolee's website, superdilettante. While you are there, do take some time to peruse her other projects, all of which are thought-provoking, beautifully-made, and generally remarkable.

META

I hate to be an internet-tease, so I first want to say THANK YOU blog readers, for being so patient. I wasn't trying to be super-mysterious about my new zine in my post the other day, but a no-spoilers San Francisco debut was important for reasons that will become obvious in a paragraph or so.

I made a new zine! It is the culmination of months of note-taking and thinking and "This is a great idea but how do I DO it?" ruminations and talks with friends. Do you ever have an idea for a project but struggle with how to do it RIGHT? This was one of those for me, because of the subject matter and how dear it is not only to me, but to many other people. It turns out that it is a pretty big challenge when you mostly write zines about yourself, to then write a zine about someone who you really admire.





Margaret Kilgallen (1967-2001) was a painter and a graffiti artist, a member of the Mission School art movement in San Francisco in the late 1990s, along with her husband, painter Barry McGee. Kilgallen was prolific in her short career, which ended with her death in June 2001. This zine is about my search for more information and insight on Margaret and her work, and tells the story of my own artistic journey as well as thoughts on art in general.

I've been interested in Margaret's work for a long time, but this winter/spring some chance meetings and conversations kind of propelled me into thinking a zine might be a good idea. And then I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I was pretty sure it really was a good idea.

If you know of Margaret and her work, I'm sure you can see how this project was a little bit daunting at times. I felt that it was important to stay true to (what I understand to be) her vision and practices, as well as to my own vision of what this zine would become. And I think it came together very well, from my handmade, Margaret-inspired layouts to the block printed covers that came into existence on my kitchen table during a hurricane using a borrowed press, a borrowed blank lino block, and snacks of Doritos between prints.

If you are not familiar with Margaret and her work, that is all the more reason to check this zine out. I could say "If you like ____ then you'll like this zine," but chances are good that if you're reading this and/or have ever read/liked something I have written, you will appreciate reading this.

Copies are currently available from me via my etsy shop, or as always if you need to arrange ordering some other way, email me and we'll work something out.

San Francisco Zine Fest: this weekend!

Readers, if you happen to be in the Bay Area this weekend, you should most certainly stop by the San Francisco Zine Fest, which is being held at the SF Fair Building in Golden Gate Park (near the botanical gardens! go wander around there, too! it is otherworldly!). I have been to this fair for the past two years and it is a fantastic, fun, and exceedingly well-run event with zines and comics for every (yes, every!) interest.

I will not be in attendance this year, but my latest project I alluded to in my previous post will debut at the zine fest. Yes, it's true! The topic of my latest zine is very much connected to San Francisco, and so my friend Carolee will have a limited number of copies available at her table. Do stop by!

If you, like me, will not be in SF this weekend, do not fret! I will make a blog post about my new zine with ordering info this coming Monday, also known as Labor Day, also known as a great day to lay on the couch and watch a Dirty Jobs and/or SVU marathon on tv.

Old zines, new zines

Hi readers! It's been a while. While I was having a summer, Miss Sequential was reviewed in an article in the Library Journal focusing on out-of-retirement zine-makers. You can read it here.


And another thing! I've been working on a new zine. It's a little different from past issues, but not completely. I'm not going to tell you what it's about just yet, but here's a photo from yesterday's layout session.





Look for an announcement on this blog (probably next week) on where you can get a copy!