d[i]sclosure

This is my most recent explanation of myself.  I created a bio for the Hip Hipster’s Affordable Art Show (in LA in December 2012):
about lorna two columns12/26/2012 – Lorna

11/28/2012

In the interest of full disclosure I figured I should post an actual photo and introduce myself. My name is Lorna Alkana, and I’m a 24 year old lady living in Los Angeles. I had a great high school experience in the Creative Writing conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA) in Santa Ana. I continued my writing pursuits at the University of Southern California where I majored in English-Creative Writing and took on a fabulous interdisciplinary minor in Cultural Studies. Since I loved reading and writing and talking about reading and writing I figured teaching English would be a logical next step, so I joined Teach for America in 2009. A lovely charter school in San Fernando hired me. I taught middle school English for over 2 years and worked relentlessly to develop curriculum, track student achievement, and get to know the school’s community, my colleagues, and the quirky little people who I taught.

When I was teaching, I always included visual aids to help students connect with the ideas we were discussing. If I couldn’t find images or graphic organizers that fit, I made my own. One of the most successful units I created was on comic books. As I helped my students develop an appreciation for graphic narratives, I also became more interested in the genre. I’ve always found (and heard) that I should write what I know. So here I am: looking for work, figuring out how honest I can be in my writing, and grappling with what it means to be an autobiographical cartoonist.

I like: Elizabeth Bishop, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Bechdel, Wertz, Vanessa Davis, Aimee Bender, strong female characters, surrealist games, creative collectives, intellectual conversation (is this douchey?), palimpsests, the writing process, poetry, reading aloud, grammar, chalking, and mild debauchery. I like a whole bunch of other things, of course, but I’m working on being concise.

June 2, 2012

May 28,2012

137 thoughts on “d[i]sclosure”

    • Wow! Thank you so much! I’m definitely trying to develop my voice and figure out where I can go with it or where it will take me. I really appreciate your feedback!

  9. Pingback: D[i]sclosure « ilikeyourart

  10. Thanks for following my blog. I really like your care-free way of working. I’m currently busy with a course in creative writing and am looking forward to sharing my work. I’m currently figuring out the difference between irony and paradox.

    • That’s great! Thank you! The way i understand it, irony is the unexpected. For example, you think you’re going to be late to the airport and miss a flight, but then you get there early and the flight has even been delayed. That’s ironic. A paradox is when two things are true that contradict each other. Paradoxes seem to be a type of irony, because such contradictions are unexpected. For example, I could be severely scared of heights, but only feel safe when I’m on a plane. It’s ironic because it’s unexpected that I’d be scared of heights and feel safe in planes. It’s a paradox because planes flight high in the sky, and if I feel safe up there, it contradicts my fear of heights. (These examples are probably plane related because I just got back from driving someone to the airport.)

  11. I like you[r art], too… I’m bad at hai[ku]…

    Once I tried my had at comics, it’s a lot of work, and I applaud you – I really love your Haiku piece, the artwork and the poetry both – it just works. I especially like all of the little details in the artwork, the floating leaves in the gutter for example. And as an earlier commenter mentioned, your color choices are lovely.

  14. Hello Lorna! Thanks for liking, & following my blog! I had a chance to tool around here a bit this morning, and it’s very refreshing. You have a new follower. Glad to “meet” you!

    Mike

  16. Thanks for the like on my blog – mostly because it got me over to look at yours! Really like some of the coloured pencil/collage pieces you’ve been doing. Looking forward to seeing what you do with comics – like you, I’m only just starting to find out what I can do with them.

  18. ok, i’m loving your blog, your illustration style and use of color! so inspired by it. and inspired to do the 30-day challenge too! :) p.s. i went to usc [years & years ago] & majored in lit too (language emphasis) and one of my best friends went to ochsa (years & years before you :) . what a small world. lovely to meet u! xoxo, yvette

    • Haha! That’s great! Thank you so much for letting me know about your connection to USC and your friend’s connection to OCHSA! That’s crazy! I look forward to being blog buddies with you!

  19. Hi Lorna! Thanks for the follow of my blog. I really enjoyed your “About’, the unique idea of ‘autobiographical comics’, your vibrant free-spirited illustrations and reflections. Hope to be back soon.

  25. Glad you liked the pic of the lioness I posted because I was introduced to you and your honest, creative ramblings….I love photography, cats, lions, texture, color, chameleons and good friends. Hope to read/see more of you! The Lioness!

  27. I would add: other trails to explore in the wilder[ness] of the creative landscape ~ as for visuals Elizabeth Murray is one of the most under rated artists of recent times. Also keep the multi-point perspective = even better than the color imo.

    a graphic auto-biography = sounds like art to me.

  28. Thank you for stopping by my blog and posting a “like”. Much appreciated! However, upon reviewing your blog, I have to say that I am envious in a way because you are doing something that I once thought of doing myself. I guess just simple motivation is all I needed. Your site really is colorful and I think that much of your work would benefit those who relate more to pictures than just words. Combining them both, creates a great impact on the way others could/would/should have interpret. Fantastic place!

  30. Thanks for following my art blog. (keep an eye in my direction: comics are a longtime love of mine, and I should be posting some new stuff in the near future.)

    Your blog is terrific! Really fresh and a different approach from what I usually see: I mean, rather than a lot of typing, you use the balloons on your drawings to do the communicating. Brilliant.

    and since I love people to answer *my* questions, I’ll do the same for you: What would I do? The best thing to do with any artistic endeavor is to JUST START DOING. Draw stuff. Write stuff. Post stuff. It doesn’t really matter if it’s fine art, or if it defines you as a person. It took me years to get over all that mental distraction, at least to the extent that I can now create art without the paralyzing fear of it “not being good enough.” If it’s not good enough, then I just blog about why it’s not good enough, and what I’ve learned.

    How’s that for a start ;) ?

  32. Hi Lorna,

    Cheers for the thumbs up on my recent self-portrait I posted on The Gretchen Show. I had a browse around your blog and see you’re interested in self-portraiture as well. Subject matter that always provides something new to discover. :- )

    Gretchen

  35. Hello and many thanks for following my blog. I’m very intrigued by yours – as I’m interested in working with image and text. I very much like how you show your process. Looking forward to seeing more!

    • Sweet! Thank you! I apreciate that even though my blog and ideas have been changing so much these days I still communicate something consistent! Go art! I look forward to checking out your blog!

  40. Great blog and beautiful artwork! I also really like seeing LA scenery and stuff, and the stories, I’m from Long Beach. Very cool. I’m going to send my friend in Brooklyn your link, too.

  46. Dear Lorna, delighted about your liking my artwork ;) . Your blog really an eye opener for me. I also love comics(in fact it was my first love) but really hard to make it regularly, one of the reason i am not a natural story-teller, reading a comic was much easier than doing it. I think starts as a writer giving you a head-start here. Btw, i think you should be my English teacher <3

  52. Thanks for following my little new blog. I appreciate that. I haven’t got my mind round all that you are doing/trying to do … but one thing I feel sure of is that to find out what you want to do out of a number of things, you need just to do them and keep doing them until it just happens. Although, that said, there are many folk who kept exploring and never stopped. I’m thinking of Matisse or Degas here who I think declared in their 80′s that they were beginning to learn how to draw a tree. (???? may be dreaming this)

    I jump around all over the place, don’t do enough due to illness and am so keen to develop “a style”! I think that comes through just doing stuff and doing it over and over again … so that’s what I am doing for now …

    Very best wishes, I like blogs like yours where there is variety, life and energy!
    Adam

  60. Hello Lorna,
    Thank you for giving a part of your valuable attention to our blog. We really appreciate it, and we love to hear from artists so please feel free to share your thoughts in our comments sections anytime. See you in the blog-o-sphere.

  68. Nice poetry and scrapbook/collage artwork.
    I can tell you’re really following your bliss, keep it up!

    P.S.
    I’d just like to recommend some webcomics you could read:
    1)http://rumplestiltskin.smackjeeves.com/
    2)http://www.twilightmonk.com/
    3)http://www.lackadaisycats.com/(has a vary informative artblog)
    4)http://exquisitebeast.tumblr.com/(Isn’t a comic, but still cool)
    5)http://dresdencodak.com/(has a vary informative artblog)

  74. Hey Lorna!
    Thanks for stopping by at my blog. I appreciate the follow. I was looking at your work and I find it very facinating. I love images that tell a story and its great that you can paint these stories. Good luck! See you around.

  77. Hi Lorna, thanks for visiting and following my blogs. Hope you enjoy my simple notes and ordinary pictures..
    Here I saw a great blog with very interesting works! You’ve got another follower!

    cheers,
    Aan

  82. Hi Lorna,

    You have a very colourful blog. It’s interesting and if you enjoy it, it shows through and other people enjoy it too. I get more interested in art all the time. I even went to see a Damien Hirst exhibition a few weeks ago. I wasn’t much impressed. The sheep pickled in formaldehyde got a lot of interest though…

  84. First of all I would like to say fantastic blog!
    I had a quick question which I’d like to ask if you do not mind. I was interested to find out how you center yourself and clear your head before writing. I have had a tough time clearing my thoughts in getting my thoughts out. I truly do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or tips? Appreciate it!

    • That’s a great question! I like to follow the writing process. If I don’t have a prompt I’m answering, and even if I do, I’ll free-write about nothing in particular in order to clear my mind. After I have an idea of what I want to write, I brainstorm subtopics (usually in a cluster brainstorm because I think visually). After that I organize my ideas/sub-ideas into a linear outline, adding information as I go. From there I fill in blanks and try to turn my bullet points into sentences and paragraphs. Next, I reread and fix. This revising/editing process is my favorite part (and usually the longest) because a lot of the pressure is off: much of what I want to say is already on the page, I just need to figure out the best way to say it, and how to connect and transition between ideas. I hope this helps!

  85. It is perfect time to make some plans for the future and it is time to be happy.
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  86. Hi Lorna
    I just wanted to pop by and say thank you for following my photo blog http://myphotoyear2012.wordpress.com
    I appreciate the vote of confidence that this gives. I love that you build upon photos and add your own uniqueness. That is truly creative. I’ll be taking a look around here fora while.
    anyway, hoping to see you back at my blog again in the near future.
    Thanks
    Kate

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