In my early discussions with Amanda Rheaume about this pair of singles, they were an intentional departure from her earlier work, which gave us more creative freedom to explore a more gritty visual journey for the release. Listening to the music I was inspired to take the project into the realm of underground queer ‘zines of the 80s and 90s. Overall I wanted to reinforce the rough raw feeling of the Intruder track. Historically zines are unedited, personal and allow for self expression that is often pushed to the margins. What a perfect way to share the intensely personal narrative of the Intruder lyrics.

We developed a 10-post seamless carousel zine that starts with the Intruder cover and ends with the Flowers cover. In between a variety of mixed-media collages were used to carry the visuals for the intense lyrics. Some overtly sexual in nature (like the third slide with the “But you f**ked you boss” lyric), and others more cerebral (like the eighth slide where a “biological” clock is floating away on a child’s chair). The burnt, wet, and torn pieces of paper, skewed type, scrawled marker, and the cut up photos all reinforce the world consuming fires of a sapphic breakup. This passionate theme was carried through the Lyric Zine digital marketing piece.

The zine concludes with the Flowers cover art, which includes the same tone and similar elements to the Intruder cover to tie them together conceptually as a bookend pair. The Flowers concept is more focused on romancing the self. The sensual lips dripping into the violet flower an abstract depiction of the act of self love. This is reinforced by the intentional placement over the sun-kissed woman’s body beneath the torn paper. Violet flowers have been a symbol in the lesbian community going back to the poetry of Sappho in ancient Greece. The beach sand a somewhat obvious tie to the song lyric, “…write my name in the sand…” I kept more of the warm colours here in contrast to the more stark black and white elements on Intruder, giving the feeling of warming up to a brighter future.