Hi! I'm off work recovering from surgery this month so I've had a lot of time to work on art and music. I designed a poster using all my car drawings from last month and made a run of 11x17" risograph prints.
"The Age Of Doubt Is Over", 11x17", seafoam and coral ink (violet on #5 and #6) risographed on various colors of cardstock (#4 repurposed concert flyer), Nov. 2025
I also redesigned my website using cropped sections of the prints:
https://maxwickstrom.com/, website (html/css), Dec. 2025
This month, I've been trying to take inspiration from things that hold no nostalgia for me. I have a strong suspicion that the present has always felt like a hideous abberation, so I may as well draw it as carefully and lovingly as if I was already viewing it through the lens of nostalgia.
Sketchbook pages, Nov. 2025
My roommates watch Armored MMA sometimes. I don't have any strong feelings about the sport, but I like the image of cartoonishly dressed knights in a normal MMA cage surrounded by brand logos and colored strobe lights. So I decided to draw "Guys Vaping at Armored MMA Event".
"Guys Vaping at Armored MMA Event", 5.5x8.5", ballpoint pen on cardstock (background texture added digitally), Dec. 2025
This is a newer version of the song I sent a demo of a couple months ago. I think it's pretty close to being finished:
I'm trying to think of ways I can avoid defaulting to comfortable nostalgia in my music too. I've been interested in the harsh, abrupt editing I see in short-form video content. My main exposure to it is when someone sitting ahead me on the bus uses TikTok with the sound turned up and I can see their screen reflected in the window. Since the actual content is usually too unfamiliar for me to understand, I just focus on how the videos are stylized and edited, which ones successfully hold the user's attention and which ones get scrolled past immediately. The speed makes me feel disoriented, uneasy, and motion sick.
Inspired by this, I've been trying to make ultra-condensed music. I broke up the songs I've written into small sections that I'm mixing separately and splicing back together, trying to completely cut out any parts that might be boring or repetitive. These are some unfinished sections with just vocals and rhythm tracks so far:
Haven't scheduled anything, hopefully soon though!
1. "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" - Beth Orton & The Chemical Brothers
2. "Prime Mover" - Joan As Police Woman
3. "Message Personnel" - Dot Allison
4. "Lightworks" - Raymond Scott
5. "Mignight Sun" - Nilüfer Yanya
6. "I Don't Miss My Mind" - Kim Gordon
7. "WILHELM Show Me The Diagram (Function Of The Orgasm)" - Rip Rig + Panic
8. "Zarigani" - Mei Semones
9. "Pendulum (feat. Michelle Willis)" - Hiromi's Sonicwonder
10. "Silly" - Deniece Williams
11. "A Perfect Day Elise" - PJ Harvey
12. "Cold" - Annie Lennox
13. "Fascination" - Everything But The Girl
Comments? Questions? Ideas? Song/movie recommendations? What are you working on? What have you been thinking about? Contact me at max@maxwickstrom.com, I'd love to hear from you!
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