VAIN (cover)
2004
Miss Universe, 2003
(detail) pencil on paper, 11” x 12”
Miss Universe (detail)
“smooth,
light and pornographically soft”
was originally written to describe the silk lining of a
top-of-the-line Prada zip-up jacket in a Metropolis Magazine
article. I thought it was a confession not unbecoming of
a beauty queen, but in the end I used “stop staying I’m insecure and I’ll
do whatever you want” to
describe her psychological state.
Vain was created in conjunction with my
2004 art show "All of Me In Vain." The book alludes to what it was
like to experience a strong attraction to someone who was vain,
how one needed to be vain oneself in order to appear attractive
to that person, and how the entire enterprise was an exercise
in dread and self-deception.
the letter “G” used in the
the letter “G” in the original
document
The entire book was set in a typeface
sampled from a note written by a former inamorato*, with his
permission. When presented with the finished book, he
(the inamorato, a writer himself) found it creepy to read words
he did not write in his handwriting. I didn't know how to
use Fontographer™ and the font is a script so it was
problematic to make each letter connect in a convincing way.
Instead I copied and pasted each letter one by one in
Illustrator™—a painfully mind-numbing task, to be
sure.
*I've since suspended communication with
him...maybe I'll write him a letter one day to explain why...
American%20Altruist36662.jpg)
(detail)
Elizabeth Nafpaktitis
Elizabeth Nafpaktitis
yearbook photo, 1983
My First American Altruist, 2004
Characters in the album include Miss
Universe (the cover image)--my personal mascot for vanity and
futility; and American Altruist, whose creation is inspired by
Elizabeth Nafpaktits, a junior high classmate who I remembered
being kind to me before I learned to speak English.
I also begin depicting personal effects in
my drawings in this character album, particularly things I
owned and used when I first came to America (see right)
CASIO AX-5, 1983
The new watch my parents purchased for me
before my family set off to America
