Bootstraps & Best Practices - Joshua Jarrett

Joshua Jarrett is a Georgian artist and student. While experienced and dabbled in painting, drawing, sketching, writing, collage-making, etc., Joshua's most accomplished/substantial/graspable works are his comics. Indeed, these comics are the convergence of his many talents. They are equal parts sketches, drawings, & paintings, poetry, prose, & thoughtful musings, all mixed into mosaic-like art. His first three professionally self-released comics ("Love Poems for Nobody," "Dear Victor," & "Diary") are available to download for free or donation at his Gumroad account, which can be accessed via Facebook or Gumroad itself; additionally, I have reviewed these three comics here. In Joshua's two most recently released comics, "Bootstraps" and "Best Practices," creative visual beauty meets philosophic thought and meditative musings. "Bootstraps," also available on Gumroad, and "Best Practices," available to read on his website here, both delve into autobiographical territories of introspection, philosophy, and peace of mind through creativity.



Bootstraps (2014):

Available on his Gumroad account here, "Bootstraps" is Jarrett at his most thoughtful, intellectual, and philosophic while still, by turns, spending time to examine the self and interpret personal information. Compiled from writings and drawings, which are gleaned from experiences spanning the course of several months, this comic is a prime example of Joshua's mosaic, collage-esque style, for each section is in its own right a distinct work of art. However, when cinched together with an expert eye for detail, "Bootstraps" becomes, not merely a gathering of thoughts, observations, and associated drawings, but a wholly fulfilled story arc, which gains a converging momentum as the pages turn. In this way, the comic's story and thought process is elliptical, tying together the various, seemingly unrelated strands from the beginning and middle into a beautiful braid by the end. This braid is one of self-discovery, self-acceptance, self-actualization. Like the Gordian Knot which much be solved, not through the knot itself, but by means outside of the knot, so, too, must one, such as this comic's narrator, seek to gain an understanding of himself, not through what has happened to him, but how he reacts to what has happened to him--how he reverberates, bounces back, "pulls [himself] up 'by the bootstraps'." If this convergence of theme and subject is not at once clear, give Joshua's comic a second reading, and a third, and a fourth... On a first reading, the final page of the comic may seem to drop suddenly and, as such, could be viewed as just another strand, separate and unrelated to that which has come before it. But this interpretation, I suggest, is trying to understand the comic in terms of the knot itself. To solve the knot, one must think outside the box; to understand "Bootstraps," one must read it repeatedly to see how the strands come together.

Best Practices (2014):

Not really available for download and certainly not (yet) in print, Joshua's most recent comic, "Best Practices," can be read for free on his website, here. This is his shortest comic to date, but is arguably his lushest and most visually beautiful. While his four previous works often exist with lots of empty space, sometimes utilizing said empty space creatively (see: "Love Poems for Nobody"), "Best Practices," in its current form, doesn't even waste time with a title page, evidenced by the opening page to the left. There's too much to express, too much to show for there to be empty space or time spent reiterating facts with a title page. But there is a tradeoff because the writing of this comic is sparse, restricted to the barest of essential "do good" thoughts, which are themselves like steamy wisps of evaporating dew in the sun's morning light: seen, noted, gone. In previous works, Jarrett's drawings and writings complimented each other, but "Best Practices" seems to go a step further. Images lead into the written thoughts or observations and often times these partially expressed words are completed, and fulfilled, by images, surroundings. Furthermore, the images themselves and the words both convey the same story of a life lived quietly, removed from the stresses and fast-paced realities of college life and city-dwelling. One panel reads, "Take Your Time," and is framed by feet standing in bathwater, bathwater which is clear, calm, non-turbulent. In essence, "Best Practices" gently reminds, not just the subject of the comic, but also the reader to stop and smell the roses, to enjoy life, to be content, serene. Thus, Joshua's most recent comic juxtaposes "Bootstraps" stylistically, thematically, and intellectually. While "Bootstraps" is heavy with written thought and mental inquiry, making direct reference to the birthplace of modern-day philosophy (i.e. ancient Greece [see: Gordian Knot]), "Best Practices" is visual, meditative, and, we can therefore conclude, taking us somewhere distinctly Zen.

3 by Joshua Jarrett: Love Poems for Nobody, Dear Victor, & Diary

Joshua Jarrett is a young Georgian lover of drawing, writing, and other artistic endeavors. His work combines poetry and text with drawings/sketches, thus creating comics/zines/ebooks/something beautiful for others to experience/engage with/treasure and love. His first three releases ("Love Poems for Nobody," "Dear Victor,," & "Diary") delve into the personal and intimate, making his work autobiographically distinct, regardless of whether the subject he addresses is a(n unattainable) lover, a friend, an enemy, or simply himself. All three zines reviewed below can be found and downloaded for free (or a kind donation) at Jarrett's Gumroad account, which can be accessed via Facebook or not. NOTE: While Jarrett's work is extremely intimate/personal/autobiographical, I have chosen for the purposes of this review to treat the narrator/voice in each zine as though he were an entity separate from Joshua Jarrett, the Georgian lover of art.

Love Poems for Nobody (2013):

"Love Poems for Nobody" is definitely for somebody, but as to who that somebody is, the narrator never says. This ambiguity is not done out of coyness or intentional meanness, but rather because these poems and drawings (which certainly and intentionally resemble the doodles of a lovesick person) function as scattered thoughts, images, and half-sentences running within and throughout the internal mind--in this instance, the narrator's. There's a cute, quite musing going on in the narrator's head, a musing which we are very graciously allowed to witness. While starting out as seeming superficial and "cute," the poems/drawings gain emotional weight until, collectively (and) at the end, they summon within any reader whose love has gone unrequited a broken heart in solidarity. In some of the opening poems, the references made to magic and astrology convey a longing deep enough to grasp as straws. Later poems, such as "So" and "Pasttime," mong others, show us actions and attempts made at gaining notice from "Nobody;" romantic notice, and sometimes sexual. As the zine progresses, such longings and attempts give way to reflections about (hinted at) failures/rejections, particularly in "Personal Work" and "Catalogue," the latter ending: "a home with me / Without you." The final poem, "Jasmine Buds," gave me a "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" vibe, but just because of the title and the accompanying drawing: a leafy vine with flowers. The final poem itself, while being the zine's culmination of the reflective, aloof narrator, signifies that a decision as been reached, though what has been decided is left to speculation. A quick read which will nonetheless leave the reader moved, "Love Poems for Nobody" is an intimate, clear-cut look into the thoughts and feelings, hopes and reflections, of one (and anyone's) everyday life.

Dear Victor, (2013):

"Dear Victor," is a letter to a friend in a spooky disguise. While the letter to "Victor" is not, in itself, spooky, the words, when taken abstractly and coupled with night- and/or Halloween-themed drawings, give the zine a haunted quality. Starting as any letter does, there is the ice-breakers: How are you?; I am fine. Of course the weather is then mentioned, as weather invariably is, but it is at this point that the zine's atmosphere/"mood" changes to something eerie. In Jarrett's zine, like in Bram Stoker's "Dracula," the mood or atmosphere of the outside world (in the park, on the sidewalk, through the graveyard) gets...weird. As "Joshua's" mind wonders during the writing of his letter to "Victor," the thoughts become increasingly influenced by the Halloween/autumn season. The writing gets much more spaced out, each tiny passage given its own drawing; the more spaced out the words, the more the drawings and passages--both separately and together--seem bizarre, spooky; metaphysical. This makes "Dear Victor," all the more compelling. What connection exists between writing a letter to a friend who is away during the autumn? Certainly, there is a lack within "Joshua" while "Victor" is away, a lack which seems to be reflected in the exterior world: leaves die and fall, animals take on darker shades, the moon is more mesmerizing than usual. The final page is a return to reality, but a return informed by knowledge, as though the mental journey of writing the letter has brought consolation, though for whom is left ambiguous. The final words, "I know wherever you are... / you'll always come home," are a reassurance, not for "Victor" alone, but for "Joshua" as well. A letter, a comic, a plea, a spooky journey, "Dear Victor," is a zine for anyone who misses a friend and/or anyone who is alive during autumn.

Diary (2014):

Jarrett's third effort, "Diary," is like his b-sides, which I thought immediately after finishing it for the first time. If "Love Poems for Nobody" and "Dear Victor," are his finished/polished products, "Diary" is the sketches, the drafts, the lead-ups to the previous two. "Diary" is staccato: sometimes the drawings flow and go on for a page or a few, but sometimes they're completely different and just the best of practice drawings. But this is not to imply in any way that "Diary" is an incomplete or unthoughtful work; on the contrary, "Diary" is a rather appropriate name in that the zine works as a segmented view of an individual's life, viz., Joshua's. Some of the drawings and/or text are singular per page/train of thought, like those seen in "love Poems for Nobody," but others are simply cute drawings or practiced profiles. One standout comic/poem, which I will refer to as "HOT," is moody, physically nauseating, much like the character in "HOT" feels...and who had not felt similarly after a night of wicked fun? While some of the poems/lines/thoughts/half-sentences serve almost as the titles of the drawings/comics/sketches in "Diary," the inverse is also true: said 2D art often seems to be the titles for his poems/text. Perhaps a more accurate description, though, would be that Jarrett's drawings act as the fulfillers of his words and visa versa. Interestingly, whereas Jarrett's/the narrator's previous two zines only (maybe) hint at homosexuality, "Diary," in keeping with the theme of an actual diary, is much more open and up front about his sexuality. Jarrett's "Diary" is honest, intimate, inviting; he's not afraid here to admit that he experience self-doubt, fragility. As such, pain can be associated with flowers and unfinished comics sometimes have more to say than if they had been "finished." At times, deep, very nearly philosophical themes/ideas are touched upon for reflection, but then abandoned for continued drawing/writing, for everyday life. "Diary," then, seems to exist at the intersection of one's real, everyday life and one's passion for art; trying to find the connection to retain one's passion while also trying to make sense of one's life (school, work, friendships, family, relationships, and, perhaps most importantly, alone time).