some stories squared

This drawing was born out of a photograph my mom sent we from Helsinki back when traveling was a thing. I’ve been trying to find the photo, it really should be in our family chat history – but there’s over nine thousand pictures there, and I have to admit I gave up at some point, so I’ll just use words. It was a picture of a guy on a bench somewhere in […]

I started this pic back in October. I was home at my mom’s place in Petrozavodsk, a month after grandpa died. I like keys. I rarely really lock things, but there’s something special and magical about keys. I have a liking for them as objects that are almost abstract, sculptural. The key in the bird’s side reminds me of the key to my mother’s piano. It’s an old piano made some time

I am usually not this literal, but yup, this is a Python pic. For the past 54 days, one to fifteen hours of my day each day have been dedicated to studying Python and things connected to Python. It’s not my first programming language. I’ve done some PHP and some JavaScript. And I use PHP in my daily work. But Python is special. It’s a language that feels right. The whole thing

I am back in St. Pete. The first week I got back J. was away in London, and I was suddenly all alone in an all empty apartment. It was the first time I was alone since grandpa’s death. When grandpa died, I stayed in Petrozavodsk with my mom for a bit. And that whole month that I was in Petro, when we were taking care of grandpa, the days he was

It all started with this bottle of wine my friend N. and I shared when I was visiting mom in Petrozavodsk. We don’t meet often, but I’ve known N. since my seventh grade or so. We met at my hiking club that I just joined then, and just as at school but fifty-fold I was the odd one out on a million levels. N. was a few years older, respected in the

I really value both space and connection in a relationship. Being together, but remaining distinct individuals. In this respect the idea of a tandem bike feels off-putting. I mean, your both pedaling, and both putting in the effort, but one of you has zero control of the direction you’re going in. Some tandem bikes even have a steering wheel on the back seat. That you can’t use for steering. Maybe I’m being

Both J. and the Dogster modeled for me for this one.  J.  — while finishing up another work project on his laptop, the Dogster — half asleep and indulging in a belly rub from the both of us. I was still thinking of intimacy, feeling safe and close to each other. Feeling that you can relax and let go, feeling aligned, like there’s a direction the two of you share. Knowing that

This is another piece I created for the gender stereotype project N. and I are working on. The man in the interview talks about a relationship he was really happy in. “We had warm conversations, we could talk about cooking, fashion, things one or both of us were interested in (science, art, music), or we’d sit sharing a pair of ear buds, listening to the same music, for hours. <…> We were

After finishing Moon, Cheese and Mustache I urgently needed to work on something personal. All my work is personal, but I needed personal personal. I could barely wait to finish the last of the circle and line pattern in the background and started this pic, with my hips and J’s face, immediately as soon as I was done.

I started this piece after reading a story from the gender stereotype project N. and I are currently working on. In this story a man shares his long moment of trepidation in the store: he is contemplating probably having to buy this fancy cheese, because he’s a man and has to be generous and a provider of goods…