Zine Series: Self-Storage
Each year since 2016, I’ve self-produced a zine using a very basic black and white desktop printer. The series is a personal, informal contemplation of self-storage—not a physical space for excess material goods, but a place where pieces of our metaphysical selves pile up. A space to gather and inspect the stray thoughts accumulated and internalized over the years, like bits of fuzz hitching a ride on your sweater, mostly unnoticed. Each zine has 32 pages, and each page features a unique pattern paired with a word or phrase I found in my mental scrap heap. I'm not sure what they mean to me, if they mean anything at all, and the result is both an inventory and an exorcism.
In 2019, this series was featured in issue 37 of UPPERCASE Magazine.
Self-Storage Vol. 4
Ink drawings for Vol. 4 were made using only one kind of implement - tiny q-tips dipped in sumi ink. Throughout the process, I continued to be surprised by just how many kinds of marks I was able to coax out of those materials.
Self-Storage Vol. 3
Vol. 3 remains my favorite in terms of ink drawings. Each drawing was made with a different non-traditional brush, including a silicon baster, false eyelashes, synthetic doll hair, a ball of twine, various sponges, feathers, pom poms, and a toothbrush, to name a few. View the full series of ink drawings here.
Self-Storage Vol. 2
I will always be proud of the over-the-top ambitiousness of the drawings for Vol. 2, with weeks of research, planning and testing before the meticulous execution. For 31 days, I worked through a full spectrum of colors. In rainbow order. Using plant-based inks. THAT I MADE.
Self-Storage Vol. 1
They say you never forget your first love, and I would add to that your first zine. I still love Vol. 1, which was sold at Printed Matter in NYC, lead to some prints available at West Elm, and was the face of the UPPERCASE magazine feature a few years into this series.
