Relearning.

2023 is a year of transition. I left my Creative Director job in January and began the work of building a fully creative life. It’s a time of unlearning office patterns, and being intentional about new habits that springboard to fresh thinking, happy surprises, mistakes to learn from, and on-going connection to my creative community (a furniture maker, an elderly printmaker, a master oilpainter and a flax grower (among many others).  These days include painting, teaching, designing, writing, organizing and community engagement in my village and grassroots organizing in my larger community.

In my sunny home studio I’m putting on my paint-crusted apron and squeezing out the acrylics on my palette. An extension of the studio is the garden where principles of design, color and aesthetics are just as juicy and exciting. 

My studio is the former taproom of an 1830s brick house.

In 2017 we bought The Little Brick, after a few years of sitting empty. It took 11 months to banish the mouse nests, open up a few walls, strip acres of wallpaper, tear out falling ceilings and repair plaster walls. Then we sanded uneven floors on our hands and knees. And did thousands of other difficult—yet satisfying—tasks.

We set about thinking of it as a 2,000 square foot art project, beginning–as you do–with painting the refrigerator yellow.

We hired two carpenters, an electrician and a plumber to do what we couldn’t do ourselves. And now we live inside the result of all that labor. We’re keeping the mice at bay, and cooking, gardening, writing and making art…the direct manifestation of a pivotal moment for me as an artist.