Phone talk

The lost art of calling people.

Hi, everyone.

Me doing lots of stuff, including talking on the phone

I love talking on the phone.

I always have. Ever since those early days in elementary school when I used to sit on the edge of my mom’s bed and talk to my friend Ashley for literal hours. We would laugh so hard we peed our pants. I felt so connected to her even though we were on opposite ends of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We crafted new languages during our calls, told wild, rambling stories, and spoke in our own made-up voices. Together we dreamed about a future faraway from Alabama. The phone’s extension cord tethered me to the wall, which added an extra layer of constraint back then. I remember trying to stretch the cord to my mom’s bathroom so I could pee without having to leave our incredibly silly and completely engrossing dynamic for even two minutes.

Talking on the phone is a very intimate way of relating to someone. You are with the other person’s voice but you also exist in your own private space. You can pick your nose or lay on the floor in your underwear and be completely comfortable. I think connected/concealed dynamic lends itself to depth and confession. Someone is listening on the other end, but you aren’t subject to their looking and observation like you are when you’re in the same room.

I like the intimacy of the phone call. That voice in your ear. The extended conversation that can stretch across many days, months, years.

I haven’t lived in the same city as my friend Matt since 2010 but we talk on the phone a ton. He lives in Brooklyn, and I live in Portland, but our phone calls have been a constant in my life for 15 years even when I lived abroad in Amsterdam. In the Netherlands, I used to time when I knew he’d be waking up in Brooklyn. I’d call him as I was drifting into the afternoon. I’d walk the Nine Streets or bike through Vondelpark with him in my ear buds.

This is all to say, this week I wanted to capture The Phone Call. Specifically, my phone calls with Matt. Lately they’ve circled the doom drain of politics. Spiraled into terrible what-if futures, but then they come back, ultimately, to the grounded realities of our lives.

Split screen PDX and NYC

Walking the dog / Arranging flowers

Reading the news / In the studio

I like the split screen because it shows how two separate worlds can exist side by side, connected by the phone.

What else happened this week?

I went to Port Townsend and visited this really cute watercolor supply store called Art Toolkit.

magnetic tiles and color palettes

organizing kit for watercoloring in the wild

magnetized tiles for travel

I got my own Art Toolkit and drew my supplies all tucked in.

My art toolkit with drawing stuff

I went to get coffee and sat down with watercolors and pen and drew this. The coffee shop is right on the water and you can watch the ferry go back and forth to Whidbey Island.

My view of the Salish Sea from Better Living Through Coffee

Sketching folks at Better Living Through Coffee

My coffee cup and M’s coffee cup

M working at the table in Port Townsend

I also drew this little cartoon pictogram inspired by an exercise in Cartooning by Ivan Brunetti.

Feeling, moods, situations, and types of people

Thanks for coming around again. Next goal for me is to lear how to upload and edit my comics and drawings on Procreate. The technology intimates me, but I’m going to try. Especially, because I’d like to make a little zine to send ‘round.

Onward ✏️

Genevieve