Hello from the depths of recovery! It turns out that I had Influenza A and am still fighting my way back to health. I’m down to only a few layers of cotton around my brain and wanted to get down some thoughts about August events I was able to attend, before they slipped away entirely. 

Today we’re gong back to mid-August, and a Tohou x Yuri Drawing Salon run by Rica Takashima at the Yume Brooklyn gallery!

Rica is very into Vocaloid and Touhou. It was a lot of fun being in the gallery, as the attendees all worked on drawing live models, while Rica cheerered them on with dance and a bouncy Vocaloid playlist by MC Schema NiNeko!

I’ve mentioned it before, but I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler. So it felt very exciting to be around such talent as folks just sketched what they felt.

While the salon was in session, there were a fairly steady stream of visitors who asked about future sessions at the gallery, and who shopped for items sold there. I definitely hope that Rica and Tai can create another series of figure drawing sessions. It seems that there is a genuine desire for something like this – and the more diversity, the better. Let’e skeep our eyes and pens peeled for more events that bring art to anyone. 

From here I headed back into Manhattan for a very brief soujourn at Flamecon! I managed to visit one panel, where several of my favorite queer indie artists (Carlos Quispe, Jennifer Camper, Cristy Road Carerra, et al)  were reading their work, then I took myself off to the Dealer’s Room to peruse the creativity and originality of creative and original people!

I picked up a few folio-style comics, including two shaped like NYC coffee/tea cups that contained individual coffee and tea place reviews and a magnificent folio style art piece that took a story visually from a medieval folio into a fantasy, then scifi world. Not lastly, I picked up a short comic about Local 22 Choir, a union-building coalition of black women in 1943’s South Carolina. It’s a fantastic work and a story I hope will be shared.

I had a number of wonderful conversations, including Just Between Us creator Adeline Kon, and a few other folks with whom things are being planned!

It was a crazy rushed day, and the next week, where AnimeNYC ate me life for the next several weeks will be even crazier, but it was a wonderful August day in NYC full of great queer art. Here’s to more of that!