Under the influence

A trip to San Francisco, and a new book, too!

May 19, 2025

👋 Hi, everyone 👋

I recently returned from a trip to San Francisco where I saw the Wayne Thiebaud show “Art Comes from Art” at the Legion of Honor. If you’re in SF, you should go! It’s a gorgeous look at Thiebaud’s career and influences. The museum itself (I’d never been) is really pretty––especially the views (they’re sweeping!). I’m a big fan of Thiebaud and loved walking through and seeing his paintings up close. I was particularly captivated by the short film they played about his artistic philosophy and approach to teaching. As the name of the exhibition suggests, Thiebaud was an “art thief” of sorts, who openly “stole” from other artists and was proud of the influence art history had on his practice. He studied other painters and movements so he could learn from them and feed their ideas through his mind and imagination.

In homage to Wayne Thiebaud the “art thief,” I made my own interpretation of his painting “Five Eating Figures” where five figures are seen eating ice cream cones. I put it through my mind and my current phone obsession and created “Five Phone Figures.”

Another sketch of the idea, this time with colored pencil

✏️ My San Francisco Notebook ✏️

Here’s what I drew during my weekend in the Bay. Megan and I spent a lot of time in parks. Below is our view from Alamo Square Park, kicked back looking at the Painted Ladies, sipping iced coffee in the sun.

Proof of more park time. This is our view of Golden Gate Park, near the Conservatory of Flowers. Picnicking and watching dog drama unfold.

More Golden Gate Park watching.

Here is Megan at Coffee Movement reading on her Kindle. Above is the cake sticker from the Wayne Thiebaud exhibition. A lil memento.

Before I went to SF, I was in New York, and I snuck in this sketch in a I did of myself in the photobooth at the Ace Hotel in BK.

📖 Week’s reading list 📖

Portrait of a Body by Julie Delporte: Holy cow. I found Portrait of a Body at a comic store somewhere near Haight Street that I just happened to duck into. I bought it right away because of the Eileen Myles blurb (haha, I guess blurbs do work??), and I read it in one sitting. It’s a fast, intimate reading experience about sexuality, gender, and trauma, and I was moved on every page.

Sweet Time by Weng Pixin: Another Drawn & Quarterly book (not surprising) that I picked up at random and was wowed by right away. The drawings in this book are so special. I found myself lingering, studying and getting lost in them. Since I’ve started drawing, I find myself trying to figure out what mediums and materials artists used to create their images. And wondering how one even starts to make a book like this that relates images and words in such a profound way.

☁️ A new novel ☁️

Something very cool happened this week, I got to officially announce that my second novel HEADFIRST is going to be published by Roxane Gay Books / Grove Atlantic AND that Roxane Gay herself will be editing the novel. This whole experience is a total dream come true, especially the chance to work with Roxane, a writer and thinker I’ve read and admired for over 15 years.

Thanks for reading Studio Work ! This post is public so feel free to share it.

(Here’s a little bit about it, culled from my IG! ⬇️)

HEADFIRST is the queer millennial novel of my heart. It examines art making and family making and queer friendship. It’s set partly at a gay wedding in Charleston, SC, and partly in Amsterdam, and the novel is, above all else, a love story. It’s the kind of love story I’ve always wanted to read, so I did what the wise old adage from Toni Morrison encouraged me to do: I wrote it. Even as the queer cannon grows in recent years (thank heavens), I’ve still yet to read a book with a main character I can see myself reflected in. So here it is. A character that’s not me, but of me and from me and who represents the kind of mind and body and lovers that I might identify with and see my story in. I love that queer literature represents all kinds of lives and all kinds of stories (sad and strange and joyful and angry and boring and in love and lust) and feel excited to be writing into the great and growing lineage, adding a little bit of my consciousness into the mix.

Before I go, I’m curious, who are your major artistic influences? Who do you look to and learn from? Where do you turn for inspiration? Are there any major touchstones (paintings, songs, drawings, poems, novels?) that you come back to?