Kevin Sampsell’s I Made an Accident dazzled me with its beautiful, mysterious collages and pried my brain open with its curious, dreamy poems. I really loved how the art and prose play together, suggesting new connections, making a meta collage of images and words in book form. Accidents never looked this good. Delightful.
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A collage I made on my kitchen bulletin board, under a painting I bought at a San Fernando Valley estate sale.
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Blush & Bangs, Highland Park, Los Angeles, Calif., 2005 | Photo credit: Susannah Breslin
David Fincher is filming the Quentin Tarantino penned spin-off to Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, starring Brad Pitt, so they transformed a section of Highland Park into the 1970s.
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I’m delighted to share that one of my photographs will be part of a group art show in Brooklyn this fall. The show, curated by photographer Ellen Stagg, is called “Don’t Be a Square,” and it will take place at SHAG. The exhibition will be up from September 19, 2025, to January 3, 2026, starting with an opening reception on the 19th from 6 to 8 p.m. My work is titled Flowers (Adult Movie Set); it’s featured in the lower left-hand corner of the invite pictured in this post. I took the photo on the set of an adult movie in Canoga Park, Calif., in the spring of 2009. Below is Ellen’s curatorial statement. I hope you’ll check out this awesome exhibition.
Don’t Be a Square, Group Art Show
Curated by Ellen Stagg
Shag from September 19 - January 3
108 Roebling Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
“To Be Square: Means to be old-fashioned, conventional, or uncool”
Erotic art is never square, but I asked the artists of this show: “How do you see outside a box when you put yourself in one?”
Making art in a square is not typical, but it can be done. Most canvases are rectangles in Landscape or Portrait, but a square is the same on all sides, creating a canvas for all the artists to be the same, but expressing themselves in their own way, fully and freely.
The artists in this show exemplify just that—all different. From color to black and white, and through the use of media from Photography, Collage, Drawings, Sculpture, Paintings, Video, and Multimedia, they all have a common ground—the square—and their own way of thinking outside their own constraints. By expressing themselves fully with the theme of Eroticism and what it means to them to be boxed into four walls, they are thus exposing their own deepest desires of sexuality and sensuality.
The work flows so well together because of their common canvas, but they are all so different in a playful, sexy, and thought-provoking way. If we are forced to be boxed into a square, how do we test the limits of our sexuality? Stop putting yourself in a box with conventions and don’t be a square.
Artists to show:
Agatha, Amanda Heck, Ames Robin, Daze, Dee Lee, Ellen Stagg, Isa McMullen, Jeff Faerber, Joe Borzotta, Lara Scotton, Leo Brooklyn, Marianna Carlina, Martina Secondo Russo, Micheal Paul, Peekaboo Pointe, Porkchop, subtexture, Susannah Breslin, Sy Rivers, Trixie LaPointe, Tom Tapit and William Thompson
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This year, I decided to read only books with pictures. In July, I read four books. (You can find all my short book reviews here.) My favorite was Barbara Nitke’s American Ecstasy; from my review: “I read and pored over this book at a glacial pace because I didn’t want it to end.” My least favorite was E. M. Carroll’s A Guest in the House; from my review: “I had to search the internet to try and understand [the ending].”
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In my recent review of Desolation Jones: The Biohazard Edition, I mentioned that a character in the comic book series is based on me. Her name is Filthy Sanchez, and she’s a porn czar in Los Angeles. What you see here is a snippet of their interaction. She appears to be accompanied by her gimp. I think it’s hilarious.
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This year, I decided to read only books with pictures. In June, I read three books. (You can find all my short book reviews here.) My favorite was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Tove Jansson Edition which I called “vibrant and beguiling.” My least favorite was Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin which I did not finish.
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A photo from my ‘hood: Magnolia Park, Burbank, Calif. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
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A panel from a series of comics I created some years ago by manipulating photos I took on an adult movie set.
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Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin was my first DNF (did not finish) of the year. I really tried, but I just could not get through this. There’s a certain type of woman writer who seems pathologically afraid of taking a position, determined to privilege the work of others above her own work, and whose lived experienced appears to be largely based on content she’s absorbed through a screen. Riffing polysyllabically on the contradictory nature of art and literature isn’t the same as art criticism; it’s just making noise. This book — as far as I made it — read like a senior thesis that got a book contract. Maybe it gets better. I’ll never know.
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Tove Jansson Edition combines two of my favorites from childhood: a marvel of literature and the creator of the Moomins universe. So I was delighted to learn this book united the two. Rereading Lewis Carroll’s text was illuminating—how willy-nilly he is with language and imagery and how much magical conjuring happens when a creator allows pretty much anything to sprout from his brain. I adore Jansson’s images for the text. They are more vibrant and beguiling than the originals. My favorite illustration features Alice peering over the lip of the mushroom to consider the caterpillar.
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A photo of mine will be part of a group art show later this year. I’ll have more information when it’s available.
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L: Eastern Promises, director: David Cronenberg, 2007
R: This Is Hardcore/Pulp, art directors: Peter Saville & John Currin, 1998
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A storefront in Beverly Hills makes for a meta moment. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
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Although I was aware of Hilma af Klint’s work, I didn’t know much about her until I read The Five Lives of Hilma af Klint by Philipp Deines. The oversized book features five chapters of visual biography of the artist’s life, from her privileged upbringing to her spiritual journey to her secret queerness. I recommend this book to anyone who is an artist, who wants to feel inspired by a woman who wasn’t “discovered” until long after her death.
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David Lynch’s plot at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
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