Deanna Templeton (joined here with husband Ed) is an artist based in America
Episode 151: Over the hurdle of episode 150 and bouncing back with a deep conversation about Deanna Templeton’s excellent new MACK book What She Said. Ed also joins us on our odyssey.
Deanna’s book hit very immediately for me as fan and deeply passionate lover of music. I was drawn instinctually to the show flyers within and admit complete jealousy at some of the shows she caught-particularly Skinny Puppy with Severed Heads. There are a number of artists who have books of musical ephemera similar to this and I am sucker to see what I missed. I am reminded in passages of Nick Waplington’s Made Glorious Summer and Graham MacIndoe’s All the Young Punks. There is a natural gravity for those of us passionate about music to incorporate our posters, flyers and ticket stubs into a project and I love reading the cultural terrain involved. I say this as I mull my Jesus Lizard, Melvins, Catharsis, Disembodied, NIN, Danzig, Season To Risk and Pegboy concert stubs.
However, with Deanna’s project, there is a difference in perspective in reading her teen diary which at times is funny, over the top and at points worrisome. It points to all the difficulties of growing up and growing up American. I somehow identified at a distance with many of the concerns and themes found within. I always find it interesting that we leave such a trail behind us in journals, sketchbooks etc. I believe Deanna’s incorporation of this material is really brave. It must have been difficult to go over some of the material.
In the episode we speak about her journals, but we also speak about the young women that Deanna chose to photograph that run parallel to the ephemera throughout the book. The three of us speak about sequencing and the work of it all, but also how these portraits factor as stand-ins for Deanna herself as she has gravitated to or chose young women with her own common interests in music and sub-culture that exemplify her written presence. They meet in melody, mood and musical taste. In some ways, the work is about time, about the grandiose changes of getting older, while always maintaining the ties that we do to our youth. It is a beautiful song in itself.
In the conversation we speak about cutting. It may be difficult for anyone listening to this to hear Deanna and I discuss our experiences with self-harm, but both of us believe that it is honest and might help to serve people listening who might experience depression in this manner. The image below is what brought this conversation to the fore. Though the episode is serious, for the most part is was good-humored and loads of fun. A special thank you to Ed for joining in on it and maintaining ground with me on “Fucking Slayyyyeeeeeeerrrrrrr”. Tune-In.
