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A mixed media introduction: my contributions to our first issue of Daróg

Updated: 8 hours ago

On November 30th, 2024, Hayden and I published our first zine together. Named daróg, meaning 'little oak' in Irish, this book is a visual collaborative storytelling experiment published digitally by us, the artists. The first issue is now live on our site, free to view and download here. Folks can also subscribe to receive each month's issue in their inbox.


I had such a blast collaborating on this new type of project. It was a unique challenge to connect both of our artistic styles, in addition to taking the risk of adding words to at least one piece. I asked this of us both; a small yet substantial step that would further communicate intent. This yielded a beautifully unique result that we simply could not have achieved by ourselves, nor without the power of the written word.


Below are the four pieces I contributed to the first issue: Climate. DGS is committed to making our work as accessible as possible, which is why I'm sharing each piece with custom image descriptions written by me!


Also included at the bottom of the page is a list of resources that informed my work on this zine, that I believe are worth further attention. Explore, have fun, and thank you for engaging with our work here at DGS!

Acrylic fingerpainting on a 14in square canvas featuring black paint overlaying a layer of mostly cobalt, mixed with white and red. The fingerpainting technique resulted in layered, repetitive, gestural loops of exposed blue underneath mostly black paint. The blue exists in an oval in the middle of the canvas, blending into black towards the edges. Abstracted by layering paint and using fingers as brushes, it looks as if a lake is lying under a layer of oil or like it's fading away into darkness. By Kelsey Stalker
Image description (above): Acrylic finger-painting on a 14in square canvas featuring black paint overlaying a layer of mostly cobalt, mixed with white and red. The finger-painting technique resulted in layered, repetitive, gestural loops of exposed blue underneath mostly black paint. The blue exists in an oval in the middle of the canvas, blending into black towards the edges. Abstracted by layering paint and using fingers as brushes, it looks as if a lake is lying under a layer of oil or like it's fading away into darkness.

Digital mixed media image containing a digital photo of glassy, sea-foam green-glazed ceramic deer skulls (one, larger, beneath the other, smaller skull) occupying the upper two thirds of the square. The skulls sit in the upper lefthand corner, sitting in front of sparse grass, on top of sparkling snow, with an afternoon long shadow casting off to the right, reaching the center right spot of the square. There is text written in handwritten marker, aligned to the right, digitally added beneath the horizontal image of the skulls. In all lowercase, it reads, “we have lived and died, been created and forgotten / the sludge of human impact smothers the bones / it was all natural once.”
Image description (above): Digital mixed media image containing a digital photo of glassy, sea-foam green-glazed ceramic deer skulls (one, larger, beneath the other, smaller skull) occupying the upper two thirds of the square. The skulls sit in the upper lefthand corner, sitting in front of sparse grass, on top of sparkling snow, with an afternoon long shadow casting off to the right, reaching the center right spot of the square. There is text written in handwritten marker, aligned to the right, digitally added beneath the horizontal image of the skulls. In all lowercase, it reads, “we have lived and died, been created and forgotten / the sludge of human impact smothers the bones / it was all natural once.”

Square illustration featuring abstract, minimalist, horizontal line-work in the shape of wind-worn geologic columns and other abstract desert shapes. The thin border is a digitally added light peach color, surrounding a hand-drawn ink lined border that contains the geologic features. In the top of the drawing, four, bright red, triangular, organic cones hang upside-down, or floating in mid-air. There are six, horizontal, centimeter line markings above these cones where I tested out line weight. There is a planarian-like yellow shape with a corner that starts to the left of the red cones, flaring out into another corner lower down to the left, flowing into a curved point that lands at the bottom righthand corner. In front of this shape is a forked, bright red column that is leaning to the right. Next to it to the left is a column with a hole in the bottom center, also red, but using red marker pen to outline and shade it. To the left is a black, wind-worn column made with black marker and lateral line-work. In the bottom lefthand corner is a black, organic-shaped spiral that starts top left, travels down, and to the right, and into the center. The color behind all of these shapes is a very light blue. By Kelsey Stalker
Image description (above): Square illustration featuring abstract, minimalist, horizontal line-work in the shape of wind-worn geologic columns and other abstract desert shapes. The thin border is a digitally added light peach color, surrounding a hand-drawn ink lined border that contains the geologic features. In the top of the drawing, four, bright red, triangular, organic cones hang upside-down, or floating in mid-air. There are six, horizontal, centimeter line markings above these cones where I tested out line weight. There is a planarian-like yellow shape with a corner that starts to the left of the red cones, flaring out into another corner lower down to the left, flowing into a curved point that lands at the bottom righthand corner. In front of this shape is a forked, bright red column that is leaning to the right. Next to it to the left is a column with a hole in the bottom center, also red, but using red marker pen to outline and shade it. To the left is a black, wind-worn column made with black marker and lateral line-work. In the bottom lefthand corner is a black, organic-shaped spiral that starts top left, travels down, and to the right, and into the center. The color behind all of these shapes is a very light blue.

Square card with a digital photo of a fallen, snow-covered tree takes up the top four fifths of the square image. The tree is horizontal on the Tahoe forest floor, the exposed bark wet from melting snow and fading into a black shadow. The bottom of the photo features snow-covered alpine forest vegetation, and the top features the blurry background of the forest during a light snow. There is a branch that stands up at the righthand upper corner with a dusting of snow on it. The snow accumulated on the tree trunk creates a fresh white layer taking up about one third of the tree’s width. There are handwritten words beneath the photo that read, “Saturated. Fallen. Perfect. It seems time has taken your youth and your life - and yet, you remain. Life beyond death, habitat beyond destruction. Are we to savor the bittersweet taste of knowing, and of not knowing, what is to come?” By Kelsey Stalker
Image description (above): Square card with a digital photo of a fallen, snow-covered tree takes up the top four fifths of the square image. The tree is horizontal on the Tahoe forest floor, the exposed bark wet from melting snow and fading into a black shadow. The bottom of the photo features snow-covered alpine forest vegetation, and the top features the blurry background of the forest during a light snow. There is a branch that stands up at the righthand upper corner with a dusting of snow on it. The snow accumulated on the tree trunk creates a fresh white layer taking up about one third of the tree’s width. There are handwritten words beneath the photo that read, “Saturated. Fallen. Perfect. It seems time has taken your youth and your life - and yet, you remain. Life beyond death, habitat beyond destruction. Are we to savor the bittersweet taste of knowing, and of not knowing, what is to come?”

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