{"id":93090,"date":"2015-12-29T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=93090"},"modified":"2015-12-21T12:23:15","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:23:15","slug":"long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Story Short: In the Studio with Aidan Koch"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Amanda Hakan<\/p><\/div>\n

On Aidan Koch<\/a>\u2019s cover for our Summer issue<\/a>, six panels depict a woman lounging and reading and ruminating at the shore. Each panel exists both as a discrete event\u2014here, she looks at her book; here, she shades her eyes\u2014and as one sentence in a paragraph about the woman\u2019s day at the beach. The issue also features Koch\u2019s comic \u201cHeavenly Seas,\u201d the story of a woman who travels to a tropical location with a man she doesn\u2019t love. It is twenty-eight pages long and contains just over a hundred words of dialogue and no narration. The difference between \u201cHeavenly Seas\u201d and the cover sequence is like the difference between Lydia Davis\u2019s long short stories and her very short ones.<\/em><\/p>\n

Koch, a native of Olympia, Washington, is the author of three book-length comics\u2014<\/em>The Whale, <\/em>The Blonde Woman<\/a>, and, most recently, <\/em>Impressions<\/a>. She also makes sculptures, ceramics, and textiles that reinterpret the classical motifs that appear in many of her comics. Her narratives are elliptical, fragmentary, and open-ended; it seemed appropriate to include\u00a0\u201cHeavenly Seas\u201d in an issue that is largely about translation. Last month, I met Koch at her studio, in the basement of a tatty mansion she shares with eight other artists and a corn snake named Cleopatra, in Bushwick, Brooklyn.<\/em><\/p>\n

Where did the story for \u201cHeavenly Seas\u201d come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d been trying to think about how to utilize the idea of traveling. I\u2019d read a couple of Paul Bowles books, and I liked how well he captured the mindset of how foreign places can seem to the traveler and how that\u2019s seductive but also scary. He also thought about people\u2019s attitudes in different countries and in confronting different cultures. That\u2019s something I\u2019d been considering, since it\u2019s a big part of my life. I\u2019ve been traveling constantly for the last three or four years. I left Portland in 2011 to travel and just didn\u2019t stop. I went to Spain and Turkey, then I was in Scandinavia and around Europe. My book Field Studies<\/em> documented 2012, when I lived in a different room in a different city every month, just because I didn\u2019t know what to do with myself. I thought maybe I\u2019d figure it out along the way. Read More >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year! On Aidan Koch\u2019s cover for our Summer issue, six panels depict a woman lounging and reading and ruminating at the shore. Each panel exists both as a discrete event\u2014here, she looks at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20653],"tags":[18323,35,8513,131,19209,18161,8755,576,67,4301,501,19208,123],"class_list":["post-93090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2015","tag-aidan-koch","tag-art","tag-color","tag-comics","tag-impressions","tag-issue-213","tag-italo-calvino","tag-lydia-davis","tag-painting","tag-paul-bowles","tag-susan-sontag","tag-the-blonde-woman","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn the Studio with Aidan Koch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The artist on travel and Lydia Davis as inspirations for the cover story in our Summer issue.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Long Story Short: In the Studio with Aidan Koch by Nicole Rudick\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 29, 2015 \u2013 We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!On Aidan Koch\u2019s cover for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-29T14:00:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"497\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Rudick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nicole Rudick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nicole Rudick\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/704545a416a4003f79960597eda16ea7\"},\"headline\":\"Long Story Short: In the Studio with Aidan Koch\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-29T14:00:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":430,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Aidan Koch\",\"art\",\"color\",\"comics\",\"Impressions\",\"Issue 213\",\"Italo Calvino\",\"Lydia Davis\",\"painting\",\"Paul Bowles\",\"Susan Sontag\",\"The Blonde Woman\",\"travel\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Best of 2015\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/\",\"name\":\"In the Studio with Aidan Koch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-29T14:00:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"The artist on travel and Lydia Davis as inspirations for the cover story in our Summer issue.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Long Story Short: In the Studio with Aidan Koch\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/704545a416a4003f79960597eda16ea7\",\"name\":\"Nicole Rudick\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3919c879d9238d0b76c8694fb718a056d281636d609611dec99a905095597623?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3919c879d9238d0b76c8694fb718a056d281636d609611dec99a905095597623?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nicole Rudick\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/nrudick\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In the Studio with Aidan Koch","description":"The artist on travel and Lydia Davis as inspirations for the cover story in our Summer issue.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Long Story Short: In the Studio with Aidan Koch by Nicole Rudick","og_description":"December 29, 2015 \u2013 We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!On Aidan Koch\u2019s cover for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-12-29T14:00:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":497,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nicole Rudick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nicole Rudick","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Nicole Rudick","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/704545a416a4003f79960597eda16ea7"},"headline":"Long Story Short: In the Studio with Aidan Koch","datePublished":"2015-12-29T14:00:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/"},"wordCount":430,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg","keywords":["Aidan Koch","art","color","comics","Impressions","Issue 213","Italo Calvino","Lydia Davis","painting","Paul Bowles","Susan Sontag","The Blonde Woman","travel"],"articleSection":["Best of 2015"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/","name":"In the Studio with Aidan Koch","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg","datePublished":"2015-12-29T14:00:13+00:00","description":"The artist on travel and Lydia Davis as inspirations for the cover story in our Summer issue.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/tumblr_mtwescv4yi1qjao1ko7_1280.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/long-story-short-in-the-studio-with-aidan-koch-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Long Story Short: In the Studio with Aidan Koch"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/704545a416a4003f79960597eda16ea7","name":"Nicole Rudick","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3919c879d9238d0b76c8694fb718a056d281636d609611dec99a905095597623?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3919c879d9238d0b76c8694fb718a056d281636d609611dec99a905095597623?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nicole Rudick"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/nrudick\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93091,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93090\/revisions\/93091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}