Mastodawn

I finally finished the illustration for the last chapter of my new essay, called Nightfall.

This fall got busy and I had to keep putting this drawing off. Feels really good to finally cross it off -and to have all the illustrations done. I still have some copyedits and finishing touches to do on the essay itself, but it's almost there.

You can read it here:
https://www.jayperry.works/longform/2024/nightfall/1/

#illustration #essay #writing #bats #ink

Jay Perry Jan 21

Some photos I've been taking on walks around my neighborhood.

Winter around here gets a bad rap. Gray, dark, bleak. But the longer I live here by the Patapsco River, though, the more I can’t help but fall in love with the way sunlight behaves this time of year.

https://www.jayperry.works/blog/2026/01/19

#blogpost #photography #winter

Jay Perry Jan 20

We adopted a new dog last week, a 3 1/2-year old greyhound we named Penny Jane.

https://www.jayperry.works/blog/2026/01/14/penny-jane/

#dogs #greyhounds #blogpost

Jay Perry Dec 8

I visited Montreal a few weeks ago for a conference. This was the first time I've been there and I hope it won't be the last - it's such a beautiful city.

https://www.jayperry.works/blog/2025/11/14/visit-to-montreal/

#blogpost #montreal #landscapephotography

Jay Perry Feb 11, 2025

Chapter 6 of my essay, Nightfall, is up!

When I watch bats or birds fly, I often wonder if it feels like swimming. Do they experience the wind as a fluid they're suspended in? Does the air become a more material thing to them as they feel it moving over their wings, holding them aloft? Can they feel their 'buoyancy' change as they climb or dive?

When I swim, I find that I feel... different. Time slows down. I feel a sense, as Akiko Busch put it so beautifully, of 'a vast remove.'

https://www.jayperry.works/longform/2024/nightfall/6

Jay Perry | Nightfall, Part 6: Swimming in the air

Jay Perry

Show thread

Jay Perry Jan 16, 2025

I’ve posted this chapter without an illustration, temporarily, for the sake of getting it out sooner. I’d hoped to have the chapter ready earlier this month. But I’m working on the picture, and will add it as soon as it’s done.

Jay Perry Jan 16, 2025

The 5th chapter of my new essay is up!

This chapter is about how we orient ourselves in the world in a very specific way: up and down, land and sky, figure and ground. What might it feel like to escape (or abandon) that? Is our sense of 'figure' and 'ground' essential to our human consciousness? Without it, would we become ...something else?

https://www.jayperry.works/longform/2024/nightfall/5

#blogpost #longform #essay #bats

Nightfall, Part 5: Figure and ground

Jay Perry

Jay Perry Jan 2, 2025

I took a short walk the other morning. There'd been rain overnight and all the trees were covered in tiny water droplets. The air was awfully humid. As the sun rose everything dried out and it turned into a beautiful day.

https://www.jayperryworks.com/blog/2024/12/30/photo-walk-12-29/

#blogpost #photography #myneighborhood

Photo walk

Jay Perry

Jay Perry Dec 20, 2024

I got a new camera recently, and it got me thinking about what photography means to me, and how our expectations have changed, over the years, about what a camera is.

https://www.jayperry.works/blog/2024/12/19/machines-computers-and-in-between/

#photography #videography #blogpost

Machines, computers, and the in-between

I got a new camera last week. After saving up awhile and doing a lot of obsessive research, I brought home a shiny, black Fujifilm X-S20. I surprised myself a little when I chose this particular camera. It’s not the type I usually go for. But I also find myself excited by the new possibilities it offers.

Jay Perry

Jay Perry Dec 16, 2024

Some in-progress pencil and ink drawings for an illustration for my new essay.

A bit more about the process on my blog: https://www.jayperry.works/blog/2024/12/12/inking-the-illustration-for-chapter-4/

And the essay itself: https://www.jayperry.works/longform/2024/nightfall/1/

#illustration #ink #gouache #penandink #blogpost

Making the illustration for Chapter 4 in Nightfall

Here's some in-progress snapshots of the drawings I did for the 'Landing on the ceiling' illustration. The chapter is about bats' remarkable ability to land upside-down, and I thought I'd make a picture of some bats coming home to roost on the ceiling of their cave.

Jay Perry