Gender in the Woods
A four-part experimental graphic novel memoir taking place in the Hampshire College Woods in Amherst, MA and is about how a special plant taught me about the meaning of gender. The multiple points of view will lead the reader on a walk through the woods, the life and death of a flower, a conversation between mushrooms, and a trans awakening.
The book is multi-media, featuring 12 pages of pen-and-ink made from walnuts foraged by me alongside 50+ digitally drawn pages.
Readers should be advised that the book contains some discussions of instances of transphobia.
preview gallery
view some selected spreads from the book below - click to enlarge
handmade ink
This project began as a way for me to connect my art practice to the land I was living on. I learned about making natural inks and pigments from my professor at Hampshire College and Jason Logan's book Make Ink, and decided to incorporate hand-foraged inks into my comic. The brown ink used in part one is from the fruits of a Black Walnut tree on Hampshire's campus, made by boiling down the rinds of the walnuts that I gathered off the ground. My favorite part about the foraging process is that I got to collaborate directly with the plants to make my art, and I am super thankful that they lent me their fruits for this!