My first Substack note introduces the working life behind Sketchy Shona: painting, rent, uncertainty, CounterCult, EXPERIMENT and the reasons I keep sharing.
Transcript
Thanks for being here. You have to subscribe if you want the future newsletters.
Welcome to Sketchy Reality, a name I chose because I sketch a lot, and because life as an artist can go sketchy in ways that are less charming than the name suggests. You are here for the ride.
You may already be a little sketchy yourself. You may be curious about what a real working artist’s life looks like. Or you may be my dad, checking whether I am financially stable as an almost 30 year old.
Either way, welcome. I am SketchyShona, an American and a military brat, so do not ask where exactly I am from unless you want a long answer. I am currently based in Berlin. I work in oil paint, installations, murals and street art, and I occasionally poke people with tattoo needles. The work keeps returning to love, joy, contentness, grief and the human experience, all the feeling really.
I used to be a closed book. I am beginning to understand that sharing creation and the experience of life is part of being an artist, not a distraction from it.
I also get bored with myself, as I am sure you will, so I look for other creative people to document through the groups I co-run. CounterCult is a platform that gets artists fairly paid. EXPERIMENT is an international residency for artists, run by artists.
This newsletter is not a claim that I have figured anything out. It is a place to show what sits behind the social media smoke and mirrors: working-class artist life, the mess between gigs, a floor covered in ink, bills and half-drunk coffee, the way a painting can break me, and the tension between art and survival. There will be chaos too.
I will share studio notes, works in progress and photographs of whatever is drying on my walls. I will write about being a human in this world, send event updates and performance invitations, and probably include a rant when something gets my mind going.
I plan to send something every month, sometimes more and sometimes less depending on what is burning. You can reply to the emails. I read them. If something feels useful, forward it to someone who might need it. Some editions will also appear in audio or video if you would rather see or hear me.
Art is not a product to me. It is a process, and you are now part of mine. I never wanted to do this alone.
Stay sketchy,
Shona