March 2020 I receive an email from Amy Silverman…
I hope this finds everyone healthy and safe. I can’t recall a stranger, more unsettling time. The last time I felt normal was March 11 — the last time we had a Bar Flies show.
Sadly, as I’m sure you know or have guessed, we have had to put the live shows on hiatus for the rest of the season. So I’m dusting off and tweaking an idea I had for fall that will allow us to continue sharing stories with our community — from a safe distance.
Amy continues with an invite to participate in the inaugural Illustrated Bar Flies.
I often attend Bar Flies monthly story telling/live readings at Valley Bar, in downtown Phoenix. If you haven’t been…you should go. Thoughtfully curated, each story is a unique (wow) telling. There’s DJ’ing pre and post individual readings (shout-out to Deborah!).
As with all Bar Flies stories, this illustrated version is true. The theme is HOME.
April 2020 I’ve been home researching the crazy virus that appears to be taking over all of our lives. I’m now teaching my drawing class on-line. In the studio, I work a large abstract, mixed media study based on what I am learning about the coronavirus.
The week I get the invite from Amy, I’m out in the front yard and run into Reed, my next-door neighbor. And with this interaction, I decide I’ll participate. I want to try something new that’s fun AND I can clear up a misconception.
My story title: Looking for the Truth
looking for the truth
you are never alone
they have an intelligence
real time information…dang! they reprogram a cell!
fomites…wash your hands!
solitude
I rest my case, artist-in-residence is the true story.
I learn to organize differently AND I have fun…enough to even have an ↓ outtake.
seeing eyes-balls that never make it into the story
#VirtualBarFlies #WeAreStillSocialDistancing #organic #linear #YouAreNeverAlone
#WhoAmI? #WhatIsThisWorld #WhatIsMyRelationshipToIt
#ImStillArtistInResidence
May 2020
Amy sent the invitation out to a group of people. Click on anyone of these links – go read them. Each story is true. Each story is different.
Phoenix Magazine → bar flies Archives
Instagram →flypaperaz
Facebook → Fly Paper, stories that stick
Eventually they’ll live on the Fly Paper website.
→ more about Bar Flies
©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ
Monica Aissa Martinez 