Blank Days by Jessica Pavone – SEE SAW Comics, Webcomics from the Sequential Artists Workshop

Blank Days by Jessica Pavone

â€œBlank Daysâ€ â€¨The comic is rendered with black, minimalist contour lines over a white background. â€œWhen my husband left, I was eating breakfastâ€”cereal. The tragic and mundane. Since being cut loose, Iâ€™ve found nothing to grasp. Nothing whole or bright.â€ A woman stares blankly ahead. Three stone fruits sit on a (non-rendered) table.

â€œThereâ€™s a conditionâ€”aphantasia. Itâ€™s a blindness in the mind. No images to accompany thoughts.â€ The woman is naked and reclining like an odalisque. Two figures, an adult and child, rest their heads together. The woman poses naked as if before a mirror.

â€œPicture: a winterâ€™s day.â€ A panel of scribbles. â€œItâ€™s your birthday.â€ Another shaded-in panel. â€œYour husband says heâ€™s leaving / you.â€ The woman leans over, fixing her hair. Her face is scribbled out.

â€œNow: picture an adult male / walking out. Is the image well defined?â€ A portrait of a woman with a large, fancy hair-dp. Another of a woman holding a small animal in her arms. They resemble works from art history.

â€œI canâ€™t picture anything on the day he left. The space has no contours and the light is cloudy. Blankness is the image that stays.â€ Three face-less silhouettes of people who appear to be dressed in graduation gowns, one with a cap. Another odalisque-style image of a reclining woman.

â€œBlank Daysâ€ â€¨The comic is rendered with black, minimalist contour lines over a white background. â€œWhen my husband left, I was eating breakfastâ€”cereal. The tragic and mundane. Since being cut loose, Iâ€™ve found nothing to grasp. Nothing whole or bright.â€ A woman stares blankly ahead. Three stone fruits sit on a (non-rendered) table.

â€œThereâ€™s a conditionâ€”aphantasia. Itâ€™s a blindness in the mind. No images to accompany thoughts.â€ The woman is naked and reclining like an odalisque. Two figures, an adult and child, rest their heads together. The woman poses naked as if before a mirror.

â€œPicture: a winterâ€™s day.â€ A panel of scribbles. â€œItâ€™s your birthday.â€ Another shaded-in panel. â€œYour husband says heâ€™s leaving / you.â€ The woman leans over, fixing her hair. Her face is scribbled out.

â€œNow: picture an adult male / walking out. Is the image well defined?â€ A portrait of a woman with a large, fancy hair-dp. Another of a woman holding a small animal in her arms. They resemble works from art history.

â€œI canâ€™t picture anything on the day he left. The space has no contours and the light is cloudy. Blankness is the image that stays.â€ Three face-less silhouettes of people who appear to be dressed in graduation gowns, one with a cap. Another odalisque-style image of a reclining woman.

Published On: July 1, 2024

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One thought on “Blank Days by Jessica Pavone”

Judith Margolis
11/08/2024, 9:59 pm
- Reply
Jessica, this is excellent and very relevant (although my experience is TOO MANY IMAGES.) but you are very eloquent. thank you!!!

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