Mumbling Madly

The symposium is really best summed up with pictures. In short, it was fantastic, wonderful, and a lot of fun. I traded about half my zines for whoever would trade with me. Besides other zines I also traded for a henna tattoo, a silk-screened sweatshirt, a printed poster of a cat dreaming about a mouse, and other silk screened treats. According to Gina, the Symposium went from having only zines and self-published work to currently including crafty items, visual art, used clothes with stuff screened on them, food, and even little plants. Here we are on Friday afternoon, still assembling Gina’s latest zine at our little half table:

Diego was nearby selling his politically charged silk screened clothing. The shirts included this scrub with Heterosexism Is A Grave printed on it. As you can imagine, his table did very well.

I bought this little knitted cat at a nearby table where a Mom and her teenage kids were hanging out selling their comics. She had a box of these charming little cats and they immediately became a HUGE hit at the Symposium. People everywhere were wanting these darn little cats…

I bought Gina an orange knit cat to match Soda, her house cat:

Eventually, everyone around us bought into the knit kitty phenomanon. When things were slow we spent time posing and photographing them:

The general hubbub and excitement of so many artists packed into one space was hard to resist. Here is my sister and friends celebrating the little vegan chocolate cake that Gina traded one of her zines for:

Sam and Erin stopped by…Sam was intrigued by the Too Much Coffee Man and Erin bought a print from the folks at Loose Teeth Press:

The three of us leaving the Symposium and to my parent’s house for dinner:

My Mom supporting the Zine Symposium with their offical logo tee:

Gina and Josh relax after a long day…note that Josh is also wearing a Zine Symposium tee.

Of course I didn’t network nearly as much as I had hoped. I regret not being able to finangle Sunday into my Zine experience, but Friday and Saturday were ample enough time to try and make my mark. I managed to donate my zine to the local Seattle Zine Archive and Publishing House, rubbed shoulders with Microcosm Publishing, and expressed admiration for Tugboat Press. We returned home to find our real estate agent with the keys to our new house and a bottle of champaign. Now that the fun is over the hard work begins!