About Jacinta:
Since 2001, Jacinta Bunnell has been creating books with Irit Reinheimer, Julie Novak, Nathaniel Kusinitz, Leela Corman and others which offer a way for people of all ages to look at cultural creations of gender and sexuality. If you can get people to laugh at themselves and at ingrained expectations, their hearts will be more open to looking at difficult issues. Once you have opened someone's heart with a joke, a shared smile or a good laugh, you are better able to do the hard work of liberation together. Jacinta hopes that these books offer a critique of children's media and the way much of it introduces us to ideas whose influences we often take for granted throughout our lives.
If you do not see yourself in print anywhere, how do you know you are not the only one that thinks, acts and feels as you? From this query sprung four coloring books: Sometimes the Spoon Runs Away With Another Spoon, Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls Will Be..., The Big Gay Alphabet Coloring Book, Girls Are Not Chicks and the new Spanish translation of Girls Are Not Chicks: Las niñas pueden ser reyes. Jacinta has presented the work of these books, leading people of all ages in the creation of anti-bias BOOKS and empowering people to begin the process of turning their own ideas into tangible media.
photo by Daniel Lofgren
CHRONOLOGY:
Whether it is creating coloring books for THE QUEERBOOK COMMITTEE, designing art packets for Hudson Valley Seed, performing overhead projection shows for Neko Case, conducting interviews for a documentary about Natalie Merchant, art directing music videos for Elizabeth Mitchell, or designing album art for children's musician Dean Jones, Jacinta’s art and collaborations touch upon a desire in us to be more closely connected to the tenderness that resides in our hearts.
Jacinta never had any formal art training, is a student of Lynda Barry, and learned to draw by watching children. Her visual art is inspired by miniature people and toys AND her paintings are constructed primarily from recycled materials. Jacinta’s artwork has been shown at Albany airport, Allegheny College, KMOCA, Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Opus 40, ArtPort, Columbia College Chicago, Starhouse Gallery, TeamLove Ravenhouse Gallery, SUNY Ulster and CANO Arts. She has toured the U.S. and Canada with The Sparkle Kids Action Network, The Gadabout Film Fest, Neko Case, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Julie Novak, and Michael Truckpile.
She believes in cursive handwriting, small towns, lip syncing, her mom’s fruitcake, and having the same best friend since you are two. She lives in a 200-year-old farmhouse in the Hudson Valley with some coyotes, rabbits, hummingbirds, peppermint, and seventeen rhododendron bushes. She is the co-founder of Hudson Valley BRAWL (Broads’ Regional Arm Wrestling League), a costumed philanthropic arm wrestling league for ladies. One time, she recorded a song for them.