Last month I attended a "Zine" workshop at Roos Gallery, a nice little gallery in my town of Rosendale. There were two artists instructing us in various ways of folding, assembling, writing and printing our zines. They also told us about the history of zines that started out as "Fanatic Magazines", primarily produced on photocopiers by fans that followed rock bands and wanted to help promote them. Heige Kim, who owns and operates Roos Gallery, put out a call for entries for a December "Zine" show. All would be exhibited and all would be for sale. Perfect timing for interesting Christmas shopping.

Last weekend the "Zine "show opened with dozens of entries created by dozens of artists. The creative community has embraced the zine and they're not just about favorite rock bands anymore -- they covered personal philosophy, poetry, illustrations, cartoons, favorite quotes and more. They were simple, complicated, photocopied, computer generated, professionally printed, hand painted, stapled, stitched, colorful, and simple black & white. It was a wonderful show. My entry is shown above, my "Weeds" paintings put to a new use.