Writing Projects
Ritual Alchemy: On Rabyn Blake’s Mudpool
Hamam, Issue 5
In 2020, part of my pandemic reading led me down the rabbit hole of “Gourmet Bathing” and Los Angeles art world history, and I came across the work of Rabyn Blake. She was an early video artist in the 1970s and her video Mudpool is in the Getty Archives. She filmed people submerged and writhing in the mud pit she created in her backyard in Topanga, and the video is timeless and strange. I had the privilege of documenting my process of discovery (which continues still to this day) and was published in Hamam magazine. I have been a fan of Hamam since its inception, so I am so pleased to have this piece that I wrote grace the pages of the first issue of their second year.
Hamam is about art, bathing culture, and letting go. The theme of this issue is Strange, and I hope and find it as deliciously intoxicating as I do.
Order Hamam Issue 5 HERE.
Summer Serial:
Starting at the Summer Solstice of 2021, I released a serial newsletter. These chapters are a combination studio visit, a dip into history, and a diary of sorts that I released in a series of six chapters throughout the summer. I wanted to share the things I’ve been making in the studio, some things I've learned about why I am making this work, and perhaps open up further conversations.
The subject revolves around leisure...but before you dismiss it, I want to tell you that there is so much more to this area of study than golf, caftans or suburban pool parties. My research has led me to learn about Southern California boosterism, naked practices, gourmet bathing in Los Angeles (you heard me right), the field of leisure justice and that the 1935 Panama international Exposition in my hometown of San Diego had a nudist colony on display as an attraction. (!)
I have been looking at all of this in terms of its relation to my role as a figurative painter, a woman, and as someone born and raised in Southern California, and it has been feeding my work in the studio in generative and exciting ways. I hope these chapters will open up larger conversations for us around representation, bodily autonomy, access and exclusion, and that it will be a reminder to make time for your leisure.