Touch base with subscribers
What I think I'm doing here and a few recommended 'stacks.
As a relative newbie to Substack myself, I’m still learning how this thing works. I’m a creator, but also a reader of course. I think I am following 109 other ‘stacks when I last looked, too many to keep track of. I get so many notifications by email that I’m going crazy. I’m going to turn them all off, but it has to be done one by one from settings (in case you are having the same problem.)
Today I would like to tell you about a few of the ‘stacks I subscribe to just because I love them and am learning so much every day in ways I would never have imagined possible. Below is a screen capture of ‘stacks I have checked the ✅ Recommend box for. I’m not going to review all of them, just a few.
by Kent Peterson
Peterson is what I’m going to call a journeyman Substacker, meaning he is working it daily with interesting, accessible, mostly biographical material. His Substack is exceptional because he types his posts on an actual typewriter, illustrating them with rubber stamps that he makes by hand, then takes a pic of and posts the pic to Substack, It’s weird and wonderful, imaginative and pragmatic all at the same time. Did I say it’s free? That’s right, no paywall whatsoever. Thank you Mr. Peterson. The world could use more like you.
by Jason Chatfield
Jason Chatfield was the first professional (as in making a living) artist I subscribed to on Substack. He’s a prolific ‘stacker, with three different ‘stacks: New Yorker Cartoons (linked above), Process Junkie and
They are all fantastic. He writes beautifully with lots of pictures and drawings (flawlessly edited and laid out I might add). He lives in New York City where he also does standup and live sketching gigs (doing caricatures), has a partner, and a baby! Gadzooks, how does he do it? Or… how many of him are there, really? Fess up, Jasons.In this vein, I also follow
, to which Chatfield contributes. It’s a compilation of cartoonists, each week on a particular theme. Fun.I’d like to follow more professional artists and cartoonists but have not looked very hard. I have quite a lot on my plate as it is.
I also follow any number of people who do Notes on art regularly, mostly historical work, some original work. It’s kind of like eye candy. Delightful.
by Chris Hunt (currently on hiatus)
Readymades’ posts pop out because they use a solid block of colour for their image, which is irresistible to someone like me with a graphic arts and fine art background. Like Pantone colour chips, they are simply yummy. Hunt posted short, smart texts about the current state of the visarts, which is generally dismal. Before Hunt put the ‘stack on hold, he said he was looking into NFTs (non-fungible tokens a.k.a. digital artwork traded online like bitcoin) for promoting his art. I hope its working out for him and that he reports back. BTW the name “Readymades” refers to the work of artist Marcel Duchamp, who I discussed a few posts ago. Duchamp arguably made the last work of art when he declared that anything that you choose to see as art, is art, after which there is nothing to be done, and yet … contemporary art carries on.
by Nishant Jain
You might recognize the drawing style. Jain is a pro. He calls his work “sneaky” because he draws people surreptitiously, where he finds them, on the street, in cafes, libraries, parks, etc. He has a confident, steady hand that captures poses with the utmost economy. It’s a treat every day to see pages from his sketchbook.
Ms. Henley is a journalist who fled the CBC when bias started getting in the way of the work of objective reporting. Lean Out is special because it’s not all about her, her own writing and thought. It’s truly a “publication.” Henley interviews people once a week, posts the audio and then follows that up with a transcript. Audio is free, transcripts you have to have a paid subscription to read. The people she interviews have often just published a book, and the material is reliably critical of the mainstream that has been gripped with wokeness and can’t seem to get back to its ethical base. She’s having an enormous impact, and with changes in the US administration, people everywhere are starting to reconsider the slanty-ness or skew of media. (If only #47 were not such a miscreant.)
Other politically-angled ‘stacks
I follow a number of Substack’s similar to Henley’s, links below.
I’m not ashamed to say I’m a disaffected leftie liberal. I was pretty much a socialist back in the day, way back,1 moved to the middle over the course of my working life but was then unexpectedly set back, or set off, or cast adrift, or left behind from the cultural milieu to which I felt I belonged.
Now I’m looking for alternatives. I still believe in the things I’ve always believed in — equality, income security, sustainable, secure nation states — but I’m wary now. I believe the left and liberal centre have become so tangled up in ideology that they are incapable of leading actual change.
In my search for alternatives, I have found these Substacks pretty interesting and helpful:
, , , , .
Outside of Substack I also subscribe to, and highly recommend, Compact Magazine, which is similar to Lean Out and The Free Press insofar as it is working at countering the repressive monoculture of mainstream media and academia. For the record, I once did but no longer subscribe to digital or paper versions of The (Toronto) Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the New York Times, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Walrus, and The New Yorker.
As for my part…
I like to think I am contributing in my own way to what I see as a much needed course correct in media, popular culture and the arts. Let’s call that a goal.
I’m trying to sort through my feelings about politics, and (to be honest) life in general, through substacking. I’m a bit all over the place still but I think there are some coherent threads emerging.
On Originality is a series of posts exploring the question What makes something original? by looking at, and writing about, some of my all time favourite cartoonists and artists. I believe originality is a useful way of looking at art and culture in general. It is, as I am finding, a poorly understood concept.
On Conservative Aesthetics is a series of posts through which I am trying to understand the conservative mindset by looking at what I know best, the visual arts, including fine art, graphic art and cartooning. As I’ve said before in the series, it’s a hard slog but I think I’m making progress.
Thanks for reading. I hope you find some of the above noted ‘stacks interesting.
One day I will post a bit of my political back story. For now I hope it will suffice to say that the first “adult non-fiction” book I ever read was a biography of Louis Riel, a Metis who established a provisional government that negotiated with the Government of Canada to found the Province of Manitoba, where I was born and raised. Riel believed in the integration of the Metis and First Nations peoples and that Manitoba should be independent of federal control. He was eventually arrested, tried for treason and hung.
Thank you for the mention, Robert! This is a great list, and I also read many of them.
That's a different 'Kent's Substack."