Six Projects + Learnings of 2023
In the spirit of the season, I’ve spent this sleepy post-family-gatherings day looking back at what I made last year and thinking about what I want to make next year. More on that to come, but for now, here are six projects from the past 365 days, and a little learning from each.
One — Katahdin Woods & Waters Nat’l Monument map for Trails Magazine.
The Learning — Leave room for the unexpected full-circle moments. Last winter, I was overwhelmed teaching and (guiltily) left kind but time-consuming commission requests from strangers unanswered, which ended up meaning I had the chance to say yes to a quicker project that combined lots of things I love: print media, collaboration with friends, and the topography of northern Maine.
Two — our wedding invites, etc.
The Learning — It really takes a village, and that’s the most fun part. So many folks get credit for bringing this vision to life with me, including: Share Studios with the paper, Directangle Press with the risograph and letterpress, Sam with the flora and fauna choices and nature facts, mom with the sewing, and dad with the editing-every-typo-by-hand. Truly better together!
Three — the Woodland student mural.
The Learning — This one is also about collaboration and trust. It’s a stretch for me to include this in my personal art project list, because it was really done by a bunch of second-to-fifth graders with my oversight. I was just blown away watching them trace each other and come up with ways to visually represent community and nature, individual and whole, while practicing nonviolent communication scripts: “I notice… I feel… I wonder if…”
Four — journal pages from Norway.
The Learning — This one is more personal; I’m still learning about how I want to balance the personal and public in my art practice. It’s all personal! And a lot of it ends up public. I made these pages just for myself and eventually decided to share some, while keeping others held between the journal covers. Sharing and not sharing are both cool.
Four — The Reflection Collection.
The Learning — Make the things you’ve always wanted but haven’t been able to find. If you can imagine art and you haven’t seen anything like it before, that’s a good thing! This is a collection of things that I just felt needed to exist.
Five — The Through Line Collection.
The Learning — Doing it for the process > doing it for sales. This felt obvious when I was making, but when things didn’t sell immediately, I had to- or got to- remind myself of the value inherent in the process: the collaboration with my mom, the journey of envisioning a totally new thing, the meditative flow of stitching.