Exploring a "New" Medium

No. 209: Then & Now (Memoirs); Art (Gouache); Tessa Hulls, Ephraim Fuentes, Giles Whitehead, Andy Warhol (thx to Rose Florence); Aireene Espiritu, Billy Strings, Sam Lee with Elizabeth Fraser

Sep 21, 2025

THEN & NOW

A few years ago, I attended a weekend retreat/workshop at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH). At the time, they were presenting an exhibit of drawings and notes for artist/writer Tessa Hull’s graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts, which was then in the process of being completed.

I don’t have much money to spend on buying new books these days. However, my local library—bless them—has a copy of the memoir, which I just borrowed. I viewed a brief video of Hulls talking about her now Pulitzer prize-winning memoir, and one thing she said really resonated with the theme of my newsletter—intersections of history, culture, and the arts:

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of an artist and historian as someone who is about mending the past in a literal way, where you find these breaks in archives, breaks in the past—the places where you only see the myth and you know you’re not getting the whole picture. And then you have the ability, through your pen to create what isn’t there . . .
For me, silence is when you come up against something that’s too important to speak. I’m such a somatic person and I think my body is much smarter than my mind, and I let it guide me in any practice that I’m doing . . . so it would be that process of being quiet enough where I was wandering through the landscape of this book, where I would find this pocket of silence and it would teach me something. —Tessa Hulls1

I do think that a lot of writers and artists who deal with history and archives are driven by silences or myths that have obscured the truth. I suppose it’s a journalistic impulse, too.

But when you start exploring these stories, things can also get a little scary. My parents’ letters (so far) do not reveal anything quite as traumatic as what Hulls’ memoir reveals. Still, once I began reading the letters, I realized that I was not only uncovering hidden layers of their lives, I was also peeling back layers of my own memories and emotions that I hadn’t touched for a long time.

Yesterday, I sorted out all the empty envelopes and loose letters that were in the 1940s-50s box. Next, I will try to match the envelopes with their letters. Sometimes, I need to just sit back and breathe, and get involved in the more mundane processes of organizing, scanning, and filing.

Also, I haven’t been making much art, so I spent a few hours today doing just that.

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ART

I am learning to use gouache for the first time. I can hardly believe that I have never tried this until now. If I had attended art school, I probably would’ve been introduced to gouache early on.

I like the fact that, along with watercolors, gouache—a water-based pigment with gum arabic binder—is much more sustainable and non-toxic than acrylics and oils.

That said, I still have many tubes of acrylics and oils, and I don’t want to waste them. So, I’m going to try my best to use them up. New studio rule: No more purchasing of new art supplies—until I use up what I currently have, including every dang piece of scrap paper I’ve saved for collages.

Here are my first four gouache experiments, which I painted on postcards for mail art. In the first example, I was dabbing the paint on the paper to check the consistency. It’s a bit like acrylics, but with a matte, opaque finish. However, the more water you add, the more transparent it gets—like watercolor. Then I took colored pencil and made a few asemic marks. After that, I tried using brush and ink over the gouache. It was nice to relax and have fun exploring this “new” medium :

RABBIT HOLE

Pulitzer Prize winning author Tessa Hulls talks about her graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts:
Ephraim Fuentes’ colorful, giant spirit-animal wood carvings and sculptures of Oaxaca (PBS). Ephraim is a third-generation woodcarver from San Martin Tilcajete :
Back in 1995, British artist (from Kent) Giles Whitehead visited the US, traveling the width of the continent and sketching what he saw along the way. Later, he put together a video memoir using his drawings and sound recordings. Here are his memories of New Orleans:
Thanks to a Substack note by Rose Florence—who tells art stories in her newsletter The Rose Period—I now know that Andy Warhol had 25 cats:

SOUNDINGS

I guess I’m in a “country” mood, starting with Aireene Espiritu and Billy Strings, followed by Sam Lee and Elizabeth Fraser (still country, but different continent). Thank the gods for musicians and singers:

Gorgeous new recording of Aireene Espiritu’s country classic “Genuine,” just released on Little Village Records.

In the full concert video below, Billy Strings (appropriately wearing tie-dye) and his band perform at Golden Gate Park on a foggy day, August 1, 2025. Lyrics for the final song, “Thunder” were by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter (R.I.P.); Strings was asked to write the music for it. I noticed that the mandolin player is wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt, which reminded me that my first large concert experience was seeing the Dead in Golden Gate Park when I was about 14 (see also the funny reference to the Dead at about 40:00:
Sam Lee sings “The Moon Shines Bright” with Elizabeth Fraser; it’s one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard in awhile—a reminder to “cherish your every hour.” And it’s great to see/hear Elizabeth Fraser (previously of the Cocteau Twins) performing again:

Eulipion Outpost

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