Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Conversation begins at 10:45
With THE EMPTY LOT (Fantagraphics Underground, bookshop.org/a/4669/9798875000164), artist Mia Wolff (wolffland.com/) brings together 100 paintings from more than 40 years of her oeuvre. We talk about how she found the thread & structure for the book, the patterns that emerged as she re-ordered the pieces and stitched them together with new illustrations, comics and prose pieces, and how you can make a joyride of a monograph by introducing your cat into the scene. We get into her dream of catspiders that inspired her for decades, the game of exquisite corpse she's been playing with Jim Woodring (chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-192-jim-woodring), and her history in art and side trips into a trapeze act with a circus and teaching martial arts. We also discuss the graphic novel she's working on and how that art parallels her painting, why The Empty Lot has an afterword in the form of a page-by-page tour-conversation with Samuel R. Delany (chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-212-samuel-r-delany), her love of transparency & translucency and why her paintings of water are so magical, the tension of her pitch meeting with Gary Groth, and a lot more. Follow Mia on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/wolfffish.bsky.social) and Instagram (instagram.com/wolffming/) • More info at chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-621-mia-wolff • Support The Virtual Memories Show via patreon.com/vmspod or paypal.me/vmspod and via our e-newsletter, buttondown.com/vmspod
Conversation begins at 10:45
With THE EMPTY LOT (Fantagraphics Underground, bookshop.org/a/4669/9798875000164), artist Mia Wolff (wolffland.com/) brings together 100 paintings from more than 40 years of her oeuvre. We talk about how she found the thread & structure for the book, the patterns that emerged as she re-ordered the pieces and stitched them together with new illustrations, comics and prose pieces, and how you can make a joyride of a monograph by introducing your cat into the scene. We get into her dream of catspiders that inspired her for decades, the game of exquisite corpse she's been playing with Jim Woodring (chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-192-jim-woodring), and her history in art and side trips into a trapeze act with a circus and teaching martial arts. We also discuss the graphic novel she's working on and how that art parallels her painting, why The Empty Lot has an afterword in the form of a page-by-page tour-conversation with Samuel R. Delany (chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-212-samuel-r-delany), her love of transparency & translucency and why her paintings of water are so magical, the tension of her pitch meeting with Gary Groth, and a lot more. Follow Mia on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/wolfffish.bsky.social) and Instagram (instagram.com/wolffming/) • More info at chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-621-mia-wolff • Support The Virtual Memories Show via patreon.com/vmspod or paypal.me/vmspod and via our e-newsletter, buttondown.com/vmspod
