Hi everyone! This month, I'm still catching up on making gifts for people. A friend said they liked this drawing of mine from 2024 so I decided to do a run of risograph prints.
"How Close You Can Get", 5.25x7", seafoam and red ink risographed on various colors of cardstock, Jan. 2026
I also made a digital collage of my friend Farting Chuck's drawings and risographed some posters for them.
"Chuck World", 11x17", flourescent pink and cornflower ink risographed on various colors of cardstock, collab with Farting Chuck, Jan. 2026
For some other friends, I sewed these plushies using scrap fabric.
Plushies made from scrap materials, Jan. 2026
I saw a reddit post proclaiming that "ELSAGATE IS BACK." I first remember hearing about Elsagate when I read this article in 2017. Personally, I don't find it any more offensive than the gross clickbait ads that were all over childrens' websites when I was a kid in the early 2000s. The only major difference I can see is that this is, god forbid, ©copyrighted American property being desecrated instead of just photoshopped images of rotting fruit or toe fungus.
I've never watched a Spider-Man movie. Frozen is insignificant to me except for possibly being the most visually bland-looking piece of children's media I've ever seen in my life. But when I see Elsa and Spider-Man contorted through the lense of surreal internet fetish content and AI-generated clickbait, I find a lot of the resulting images to be beautiful and interesting. Evolved purely in the ecosystem of the algorithm, based entirely on which thumbnail images are shocking enough to get the most attention. These ubiquitous characters, their likeness unavoidable even for adults who have no interest in their franchises, become vessels for our most base fears and fascinations.
I drew Elsa and Spider-Man with their AI shadow baby, and added some collage pieces I cut out from a pamphlet advertising some kind of Christian doomsday seminar that got left in our mailbox.
"Elsa and Spider-Man in the Garden of Eden", 5.75x7", ballpoint pen, marker, and collage on cardstock, Jan. 2026
On Christmas, I wrote and recorded a song called "Pregnant Elsa Slime Injection". I was imagining a near-future dystopia where everyone is constantly listening to their own private, personalized stream of AI music created special for them, moment-to-moment, based on continuously collected behavioral data, tailored perfectly to the listener's mood and surroundings. It could provide both endless novelty and endless familiarity: every song could be brand new, never-heard-before, yet riskless and unchallenging to each individual's taste. Advertising would be worked in seamlessly, barely consciously perceptible.
1. "Marieke" - Jacques Brel
2. "Mend (To Fix, To Repair)" - Elsiane
3. "Real Story" - The Comsat Angels
4. "Near DT, MI" - Black Midi
5. "Strange Street Affair Under Blue" - Tim Buckley
6. "The Love Thieves" - Depeche Mode
7. "Spells" - Backxwash (feat. Devi McCallion)
8. "Track Five" - Scott Walker
9. "Carryout Kids" - Spoon
10. "Lovers Are Strangers" - Michelle Gurevich
11. "Kung Sakaling Iibig Muli" - Rey Valera
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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