FORWARD:
WE HAVE ENDEAVORED TO PRESENT TO YOU A PANORAMA OF LIFE AT THE QUEERBOOK COMMITTEE, AS A RECORD OF OUR LIFE HERE AND EVER AFTER, DURING DILIGENCE AND LEISURE, WHICH AT TIMES MAY APPEAR THE SAME. IF THIS RECALLS MEMORIES OF LIFE ON CAMPUS, REFLECTS THE LOVE AND DEVOTION WE FEEL FOR YOU (THE HONORED STUDENTS OF COLORING BOOKS) or IF YOU SPENT SENIOR SKIP DAY COLORING, THEN WE HAVE FULFILLED BY EXAGGERATION OUR PURPOSE. HEREIN LIES A RECORD OF THE MULTITUDINOUS THINGS WHICH MAKE UP THE INTANGIBLE EXISTENCE SOME MAY CALL THE QUEERBOOK COMMITTEE. EVER ONWARD...
INTRODUCTION:
Since 2001, Jacinta Bunnell has been collaborating on coloring books with Irit Reinheimer, Julie Novak, Nathaniel Kusinitz and Leela Corman 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. We hope that these coloring 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..., Girls Are Not Chicks and The Big Gay Alphabet Coloring Book. Jacinta has presented the work of these books at Vassar College, Bard College, Sarah Lawrence College, Simon's Rock College, The 519 Centre, Homo A Gogo, Girls' Leadership Worldwide, Bluestockings Bookstore & Activist Center, Zine Archive & Publishing Project, SUNY New Paltz, Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative, In Other Words Bookstore, Reimagining Girlhood Conference, True Colors Conference and Common Threads Conference, 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.
CHRONOLOGY:
Whether it is creating coloring books FOR THE QUEERBOOK COMMITTEE, designing art packets for the Hudson Valley Seed Library, 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 Grammy-winning 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 Allegheny College, KMOCA, Anvil Gallery, Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Columbia College Chicago, Starhouse Gallery, TeamLove Ravenhouse Gallery, SUNY Ulster and Roos Arts. She has toured the U.S. and Canada with The Sparkle Kids Action Network, The Gadabout Film Fest, Neko Case, DavEnd, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Julie Novak, and Michael Truckpile.
Due to challenging weather circumstances, Jacinta was once trapped inside a log cabin for a week eating only her mother’s fruitcake for survival. 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 small animal hotel in the Hudson Valley with some bears, coyotes, rabbits, hummingbirds, one plum tree 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.