Melissa Guion is a musician, graphic designer, radio DJ, and multidisciplinary artist from New Orleans, LA. She makes music under the moniker MJ Guider, performing nationally and internationally, and releasing music on Kranky, Constellation Tatsu, and most recently modemain - an imprint she launched to serve as a conduit for future collaboration and collective contribution as well as her own music releases through multimedia editions. She founded the experimental radio program Night Gallery on WTUL and produces visual work across a variety of mediums.

This past week I’ve been working on some ongoing projects. One, ongoing for 10 years as of this summer, is a radio show. I started doing Night Gallery on WTUL in the summer of 2011 from 3-6 AM on Sunday mornings. To kick off commemorating that milestone, last Friday I put together a show of all music from that first year. Revisiting music from only 2011 was fun - there were so many great releases that year! Or at least there was a lot of music that I really loved. You can listen to it (or whatever my latest show is when you’re reading this) on my link site: mjgui.com

A related project got me thinking about diving back into screen printing. I haven’t screen printed anything in years and don’t have a great setup to do it at home. I could (and probably should) let someone else handle that part of the project, but I’m always looking for ways to keep things in-house even if it’s beyond my means in some way, or just kind of a dumb idea. I really enjoyed screen printing, though, and I’d like to be able to introduce another way to regularly produce printed work.

That planning had me thinking about how I tend to work in a vacuum. Part of it comes out of being curious and wanting to teach myself new techniques. I also get a lot of enjoyment out of the problem-solving. And growing up without other kids around the house, I spent a lot of time making and doing things alone. This established an “I can do everything myself” mentality that I’m often pushing up against in my artistic practice(s).

A seemingly very obvious reason for not DIY-ing every last thing is pure logistics. I’m all about using only what’s readily available. My home printer gets put through its paces on a regular basis and I have a production table next to my desk that’s always covered in / surrounded by multiple projects’ worth of mess. My music setup is minimal and I do everything on my recordings myself, right up until mastering. I don’t prefer to spend much time and energy introducing new equipment, nor is that even financially possible most of the time. There are benefits to the I’m-an-island style of working, but of course there are plenty of things outside the scope of what I can realistically do.

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As time goes on I see more and more great opportunities for collaboration, and am energized by the possibility of forging things with artists whose work and spirit I admire. The collaborations I’ve engaged in - past and present - have been extremely rewarding. I’m increasingly more inclined to reach out when I’m feeling isolated in my work and could use outside expertise or perspective, or just want a new experience or to connect with someone else’s process. A personal goal going forward is to engage in more meaningful collaborations and make things with other people more often. I’m formally submitting that to the universe.