welcome to arts, ink.

Joe Leave a comment

Welcome to arts, ink., where our student artists and writers are given a forum to illuminate the Michigan student experience through art. If you want to get a taste of of what arts, ink. has to offer, click on our Summer 2024 Reading List!

If you’re a U-M student from any of U-M’s three campuses, and you’re interested in becoming a weekly contributor, there may be a position available to get paid for your work. We review applications and hire new bloggers twice a year, in September and January. Read more about Blogging Opportunities here!
Email us at arts@umich.edu with questions.

~Sappy Daze~ Day 27

Sappy Leave a comment 

Pretty Little Girl
                      - after Ocean Vuong

Look at her, isn’t she pretty?

Where she’s from, it’s normal to eat fish eyes.

Keep your eyes on her. 

Don’t get too close.

She will soon burst into flames and try to burn you down.

Is this a blurry memory of my dreams or did I dream of someone’s blurry memories?

Oh, I wish she would say something. 

Then I can check that she’s taking deep enough breaths.

That there’s still something left in her little body.

It’s almost like she’s tired of us talking about her.

Why are you crying? 

Oh, no. I’m not drunk, girl. 

I just don’t believe you’ve died. 

The sadness in me ends in her tonight.

- Sappy

Capturing Campus: Four Years

EKArts Leave a comment

Four Years

tears shed with bright panic

at the sight of a new home

alone in a mask

how can one make friends 

six feet apart

I applied for a job

writing poems to regret (not now, but later)

I learned that I hadn’t learned Spanish (or English)

I would start again

in a cold sweat at 1:00 am

as my roommate dry heaved liquid fun 

into a trashcan

I met a person

who asked to sleep with me

I didn’t.

I made art,

spent holidays at home, where things felt wrong

but never went on as long as I hoped

had my future read

embrace who you are, who you love, they said

I did neither at 19 

in Chicago, I was low below the river 

back at work, then to school

again, I met a roommate

Halloween was football and fishnets

nightlife and laughter in Grand Rapids 

I met more writers, more friends 

turned 20 

watched my favorite person graduate

in the fresh June heat

I felt happy for the first time in a long time

I applied for a job

wrote a book I’ll never publish

fed goats and peeled through corn stalks 

ran a club, felt grown

hit another low in the ER (I took my notes to study)

before turning 21 

drank and said goodbye

hit lower than the ground

I thought you couldn’t fall from the floor

stood up, took off to my last year

cried for different reasons

looked long and hard in the mirror 

wondering where the time went

whether it was worth it

I’d like to say it was, so I will

It was worth it.

All of this to say, I am enormously lucky to have lived and grown here. Although my undergraduate years were hard (harder than I anticipated), I have gained the confidence, companionship, and courage to keep reaching. I want to extend my thanks to the arts, ink. program director for providing me with the opportunity to express myself on this website. Thank you to everyone who has read my writing. Your support means more than you know. With that, I hope to see you around. Go Blue! 

A Final Design for the Road

Micey Leave a comment

Well, I can’t finish without a glimpse into my digital sketchbook. I have a cool concept for a Chinese water/lake ghost thrown from the Ming Dynasty to the mid 2000s. This was purely because I think Ming Dynasty Hanfu is pretty and I want to do something with it. Hanfu and its associated hairstyles and accessories can get complicated, which I had to work into my more streamlined schedule. I want to create details that evoke complicatedness without the design actually getting complicated. I’m still hammering it out.

My vision was for a fairy-like character. So that meant lots of feminine features and pastels.

I had to go through a lot of hair concepts before I found something I liked. I like the side-pony because I imagine it would look good flowing around in water.

Here are my attempts at hammering out the cloud collar, which is a fancy upper garment. I had settled on water lilies for the hair, but I didn’t want to repeat the motif for the collar. I want her design to say ‘lake’ instead of ‘lily’. I settled on a design that resembles the fog above lakes.

Here’s the final-ish iteration! I still have a monster form to think about, but I’m happy with how her human form turned out.

aSoSS 55 | Chasm

a-spider-on-state-street Leave a comment

It was so emotional, all the seniors were crying…

Mujo Café, 8:30PM, 4/18/2025

–and i have convinced myself that this is not for you,

the way death will frighten lovers,

the way summer mourns in june–

Has it really been two years? The time has flown by and It’s time for us to part ways. Below are some extra tidbits that I did not get the chance to incorporate. Spend your summer days lounging, doing silly things and laughing at yourself, and opening up to the great big world–and before you know it, dear reader, you and I will be together once more.

Take care~

I’m being mean but I don’t care, that pisses me off!

Union + S. University, 2:30PM, 2/10/2025

…I’m gonna make a bunch of Snapchat accounts and friend you and get your account banned and I said no, I’ve already had two accounts banned! And then he called me chopped.

Mosher-Jordan Dining Hall, 5:00PM, 3/12/2025

You are both such great conversationalists, you both love pop culture!

You’ve heard me say this before, I have the home court advantage at the Duderstadt Center. Anywhere else…

Audio Studio, 1:00PM, 3/28/2025

I think you should submit this to a workshop, like the bar’s pretty low…

Power Center, 6:00PM, 4/9/2025

The central part of Ann Arbor is where all the restaurants and shops are… there’s a really nice natural history museum which would be a really cool field trip, you know, the dinosaur.

Medical Science Research Building, 11:00AM, 4/11/2025

And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you might as well chase the bag while you’re at it.

Cardiovascular Center, 5:00PM, 4/11/2025

LOG_045_RIVER_GORGE

Traveler Leave a comment

The skiff drifts into the cool embrace of the canyon’s hands, a brief reprieve from the relentless light. Air knife-sharp, tongues cleaving to the roofs of mouths for want of a drink, dizzying heat rippling over the surface. The river a shining ribbon of deceit: here, the salinity is so high such that only halophiles can thrive in its waters. Open your mouth and feel the salt crystallize on your teeth; open your ears and hear nothing but wind whistling through winding walls worn down by time. Close your eyes and see the living-red heart-pulse of your eyelids, overexposed, reflecting sandstone and limestone and the rich red of iron, the pale shells of creatures long gone ground into dust.