work on exhibit!

Feels fantastic to have our work up on the wall! And we got such good, helpful feedback at the reception last weekend. We’re already planning a few edits and additions to what’s there. We’re also cooking up another Cincinnati story in which Hearn and his friend Henry Watkin attend a ‘spiritualist’ lecture in Kentucky- complete with scrolling chakras, a sadhu and a leotard-clad lady contortionist. Stay tuned. In the meantime, this story is on view at 1628 Ltd. thru Feb. 25- at 11 Garfield Place, downtown.

channeling Hearn

Hearn and Coroner Maley’s hands examining an incinerated skull- in progress details.

Attempts at Rosa

We’re still neck deep in research for this project- it contains so much content to navigate: racial injustice, childhood abandonment, fascination with ‘otherness’, notions of the afterlife, etc. etc. In the midst of writing and reading, sometimes you just want to draw. Here are some messy attempts at Hearn’s Greek mother, Rosa, who abandoned Hearn when he was 2. She’s a mystery to us because there are no photos of her, but we know that she was an extremely sensual and earthy woman, also a devout worshipper who combined superstition with intense Greek orthodoxy. I imagine her with loose hair and a unibrow for some reason.

Rosa was left, pregnant with her third child by Charles Hearn, in Ireland with his aunt, while he repeatedly left on military posts. I imagine that she often raged over this.

Rosa eventually died in an asylum, after a nervous breakdown, at the age of 49. I can see her looking tired, frightened and confused during her later years, a truly tragic figure.