Drawing Together With Lynda Barry
March 12, 2021 9:51 AM Subscribe
Want to take a workshop with MacArthur Foundation "genius" Lynda Barry? You're in luck--a two-hour version of her workshop, given through Graphic Medicine's online series Drawing Together (archive), is now online!
Hat tip: Open Culture, who includes a sneak preview of the class, along with a delightful musical playlist, here.
More Lynda Barry fun:
Lynda Barry on David Letterman in 1988
Grandma's Way Out Party, an hour-long film that documents a roadtrip with Lynda in 1993
Hat tip: Open Culture, who includes a sneak preview of the class, along with a delightful musical playlist, here.
More Lynda Barry fun:
Lynda Barry on David Letterman in 1988
Grandma's Way Out Party, an hour-long film that documents a roadtrip with Lynda in 1993
Yes, please.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:02 AM on March 12, 2021
posted by Going To Maine at 10:02 AM on March 12, 2021
She's still the Funk Queen of the Galaxy as far as I'm concerned.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:04 AM on March 12, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:04 AM on March 12, 2021 [12 favorites]
I saw Lynda Barry at the National Book Festival a few years back. She seemed very surprised that the room filled up, and gleefully sang Happy Birthday with her mouth closed as a random goofy trick. I waited in line to get her autograph on my copy of "One Hundred Demons"; she included a lovely drawing and sweetly chatted with me for a few minutes. Such a gem of a human.
posted by wicked_sassy at 10:41 AM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by wicked_sassy at 10:41 AM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
I've been lurking MeFi a couple of years now, but today makes me a donor. Between streaming St. Patrick's Festival and this Lynda Barry item, holy cow.
posted by elkevelvet at 11:24 AM on March 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 11:24 AM on March 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
yayayayayayay!!!! I've been working my way through Syllabus and kicking myself for graduating right before she started at UW-Madison. Hooray!!
posted by shesdeadimalive at 11:55 AM on March 12, 2021
posted by shesdeadimalive at 11:55 AM on March 12, 2021
OMG, thank you thank you so much carrienation!!!
posted by storybored at 12:14 PM on March 12, 2021
posted by storybored at 12:14 PM on March 12, 2021
I'm pretty sure you don't need the scare/air quotes on genius there.
I remember growing up seeing "Ernie Pook's ComeeK" in the back pages of the East Bay Express, along with Matt Groening's "Life in Hell". I found it offputting, at first, the art kind of saying "stay away you" and yet forcing you to pay attention. It was never funny, really, yet often hilarious. Just dig in, go wild.
posted by chavenet at 12:45 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
I remember growing up seeing "Ernie Pook's ComeeK" in the back pages of the East Bay Express, along with Matt Groening's "Life in Hell". I found it offputting, at first, the art kind of saying "stay away you" and yet forcing you to pay attention. It was never funny, really, yet often hilarious. Just dig in, go wild.
posted by chavenet at 12:45 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you follow her on instragram (@thenearsightedmonkey) you may be lucky enough to catch one of her periodic benefit sales of drawings (and lately, tshirts and stickers and masks) on her etsy. I acquired a drawing of Marlys last year and it is perfect in every way.
Over the years I have picked up almost all the collections of her work second hand (the small format ones, just big enough for a three-panel comic per page). Heartbreaking works of genius, every one. Maybonne just cracks me open.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:50 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
Over the years I have picked up almost all the collections of her work second hand (the small format ones, just big enough for a three-panel comic per page). Heartbreaking works of genius, every one. Maybonne just cracks me open.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:50 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
She's just the best. What a treasure.
posted by aspersioncast at 2:13 PM on March 12, 2021
posted by aspersioncast at 2:13 PM on March 12, 2021
I just got my second shirt from her etsy shop. Each package has been nicely wrapped with a bonus trinket!
That is to say, Lynda Barry rules!
posted by vespabelle at 2:26 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
That is to say, Lynda Barry rules!
posted by vespabelle at 2:26 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
I swoon. She is amazing. I saw her speak on the book tour for Making Comics and it really was genius--brilliant, humane, inspiring. She autographed my copy of the book and I treasure it. Shortly afterward I turned 50 and commemorated it with a drawing based on her suggestions...it's one of the best, most meaningful artworks I've ever made.
posted by Sublimity at 4:17 PM on March 12, 2021
posted by Sublimity at 4:17 PM on March 12, 2021
Someone I knew back in the day when she drew Ernie Pook for the Rocket. She, Ellen Forney and the incredible Shary Flenniken of Trots and Bonnie fame, who would be my first choice for the Genius award, all hail from this town...
-- Seattle is way over-represented in the woman comix artists department, by the way: it must be the water or the weather --
...and [Googles] Holy shit! The second edition of Flennikin's long out of print Trots and Bonnie book comes out this month! My order is in!
posted by y2karl at 7:29 PM on March 12, 2021
-- Seattle is way over-represented in the woman comix artists department, by the way: it must be the water or the weather --
...and [Googles] Holy shit! The second edition of Flennikin's long out of print Trots and Bonnie book comes out this month! My order is in!
posted by y2karl at 7:29 PM on March 12, 2021
She typically has items for sale in her Etsy shop every Saturday and Sunday at noon CST, with all proceeds split between worthy causes (bail funds, food banks, etc) and her assistant, the fabulous chanteuse Kelly Hogan.
I had the good fortune to attend one of her day-long workshops in Wisconsin in 2019, which was a bucket-list item for me, and all I expected and more--hopefully she'll go back to doing these again once COVID loosens its hold on us all.
(BTW, the "genius" wasn't scare/air quotes, it was because that's not the official title of the grant, but it's what everyone calls it. She's every inch a genius in my book.)
posted by carrienation at 7:31 PM on March 12, 2021 [3 favorites]
I had the good fortune to attend one of her day-long workshops in Wisconsin in 2019, which was a bucket-list item for me, and all I expected and more--hopefully she'll go back to doing these again once COVID loosens its hold on us all.
(BTW, the "genius" wasn't scare/air quotes, it was because that's not the official title of the grant, but it's what everyone calls it. She's every inch a genius in my book.)
posted by carrienation at 7:31 PM on March 12, 2021 [3 favorites]
I set up a MeFi meetup so we can watch (and draw, if you like) together! Next Sunday, 7 am Central US time.
https://irl.metafilter.com/4487/Drawing-Together-With-Lynda-Barry-together
posted by Sheydem-tants at 7:02 AM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
https://irl.metafilter.com/4487/Drawing-Together-With-Lynda-Barry-together
posted by Sheydem-tants at 7:02 AM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
She's every inch a genius in my book.
She is enormously talented, accomplished and one of the hardest working human beings I have ever seen. And so generous with her time and attention to boot. My best wishes to all who participate.
posted by y2karl at 7:19 AM on March 13, 2021
She is enormously talented, accomplished and one of the hardest working human beings I have ever seen. And so generous with her time and attention to boot. My best wishes to all who participate.
posted by y2karl at 7:19 AM on March 13, 2021
Finally watched this over the weekend. It was really nice! If you’ve read her recent books on what she does with her college students and how she’s come to think about comics, I wouldn’t say it was a surprise, really - but I’m not coming for a surprise, I’m coming to do some of the master’s exercises with the master! A++ would recommend, and might even want to subrscribe to Graphic Medecine to do some more doodling on their periodic Zooms.
Also, please let’s not overlook the Spotify playlist Lynda Barry made for the class, which is a very rockin’ selection of songs that’s pretty far outside my usual wheelhouse. (She was picking tracks from it in the moment to use for timing, so if you want to shuffle the playlist I think that’s just fine.)
posted by Going To Maine at 10:34 AM on March 29, 2021
Also, please let’s not overlook the Spotify playlist Lynda Barry made for the class, which is a very rockin’ selection of songs that’s pretty far outside my usual wheelhouse. (She was picking tracks from it in the moment to use for timing, so if you want to shuffle the playlist I think that’s just fine.)
posted by Going To Maine at 10:34 AM on March 29, 2021
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I've been a fan for a long time but I finally took one of her classes at Omega Institute in 2018 and it was one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life.
posted by Tesseractive at 9:55 AM on March 12, 2021 [8 favorites]