{"title":"Books","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTextured paper, quality work, all printed 20kms from my house - the same place I've printed art and books since the beginning!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"salt-double-zine","title":"SALT Double Zine","description":"\u003cp\u003eSirens, switches, lusty witches.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA double (SALTY) zine featuring the best of my MerMays and Kinktobers from 2020! Normalising love expression, queer intimacy and sexuality is an important part of my art, and I had a lot of fun with this!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrinted on 140gsm paper (with a heavy-weight cover) at my local printing house. Two zines in one! 20 pages of Kinktober + 20 pages of MerMay, with a bonus double spread in the middle!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45501337436341,"sku":"","price":22.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0713\/8656\/2741\/files\/c097b77b-il_fullxfull.2719941331_nglx.jpg?v=1749944185"},{"product_id":"embodied-portraits-and-stories-of-queer-body-and-self","title":"Embodied - Portraits and Stories of Queer Body and Self","description":"\u003cp\u003eWelcome to Embodied, a collection of watercolour portraits accompanied by each person’s own words about their experience as a queer person with a body trying to move through this world. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI began this project somewhat by accident when my partner’s incredible mum asked me to paint a nude portrait of her, as a gift for her love. It was her first time posing, she was nervous and excited, and as she sat and I painted, we talked. We talked about her experience of queerness, of her complicated and simple life, of her love and her body. We talked about trauma and healing. After, once she’d gone home with her fresh portrait, proud of her own bravery, the idea for Embodied crept in. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear more stories like that? To share them? It wasn’t long after that I painted a massive semi-nude portrait of my own wonderful mum for an art show (based on a polaroid she took to send into a dirty magazine when she was in her 20s), and I wished I could tell her story beside her image. She was a powerhouse of love and kindness and wonderful queer energy. She lived bravely, she struggled, she loved fiercely, and she died much too young, her body turning on her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd so the idea grew into something bigger. All this talk about queerness in the world today, all this focus on the body, on the biological frame of who we are. The othering, the reduction to, and the separation. What does it mean to be in your body, particularly as a queer person? Where is the line between body and self? I paint and draw bodies - I love them. I’ve been at this for a long time now, but what’s always excited me about the body is the story it tells and the art it makes just by existing. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo I embarked to make something that tells that story - the way I see the story, and the way each person does. I spent 60-90 minute sessions with each person, most of them in my house, and we talked while I painted them. We listened to jazz. We talked about whatever they wanted to talk about. It was incredibly challenging for me, as someone who is generally exhausted by people (even ones I know and love), but it was amazing to create and hold space for people to be so very vulnerable - in more ways than one. It’s hard to get naked in front of people - our upbringings make us feel all sorts of shame and weirdness about it - but it’s even harder to talk about your feelings. Many of the people in this book are personal friends and local community people, but many are relative strangers who volunteered to sit for me and tell a little of their story. Many travelled, some booked flights halfway across the country. I travelled to Melbourne and spent 3 very intense days painting (and socialising) non-stop. And it’s been an honour. So much faith put in me to represent such beautiful people well. So much vulnerability entrusted to me. Now it’s time to share these stories, visual and written, side-by-side. The story embodied in itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book is A4, PUR-bound, 100 print pages. The pages are thick and beautiful, the cover has gold foil details. It contains 48 portraits and personal stories, as well as a preface from me. As always, I am printing through my beloved local printing house, whom I have worked with for almost 10 years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCreated with the incredible help of so many Kickstarter supporters, and now it's real!!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52459677384885,"sku":null,"price":42.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0713\/8656\/2741\/files\/20260328_165847.jpg?v=1777079347"}],"url":"https:\/\/mayticks.gay\/collections\/books.oembed","provider":"Mayticks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}