Items will be live in the online cabinet of curiosity at 8pm CST
Link in my bio
Swipe to see a small selection of stickers, prints and pins.
These curiosities will only be available online for 2 weeks so I make sure there's enough stock for Print & Resist coming up very soon
Today is the spring election here in Wisconsin and in Madison there are many alder people up for election as well as state and county referendums
Today I was nearly # 200 and I almost always vote around 9am, usually I'm somewhere between 30-50 so already one hour in and it's encouraging to know that at my polling place alone folks are turning out
I'm going to share a slightly different perspective on how to vote.
I posted this photo of the poster I designed for @madisonpubliclibrary because this is how I vote and it's not a single issue it's how we connect.
I vote as an intersectional environmentalist- knowing that my vote speaks for the environment AND social justice issues- because environmental issues impact marginalized people disproportionately
I also believe that there's this long standing view that humans hold dominion over nature - that story is simply not true. One species can't ever hold dominion over nature because diversity of species is needed to form lush interconnected web of healthy ecosystems.
In the same way one group of people or government doesn't have the power to decide what constitutes a "good" body. Laws that prevent humans from their own bodily autonomy work against diversity and disconnect us. Humans aren't a monolith and laws governing all humans in a nation, state or locality need to work FOR everyone not dictate what some people want.
I want folks to remember when they vote to vote on behalf of people who may not look like you, share the same culture, age,gender identity, sexual orientation, have differing physical and mental abilities than you AND ALSO vote while holding the land we live on and species we commune with AS sacred as human rights. Environment and human rights are inseparable!
I vote for the world I want to live in as opposed to voting against what I don't like or understand. My attention to the FOR vs AGAINST is a powerful reframe that has only brought more abundance into my life.
Today I urge you to vote with intersectional environmentalism in mind- To vote FOR versus against and feel this sentiment that nature is for everyone
Also keep an eye on the weather friends.
At the beginning of March my dear friend lost her mother ( Peggy) and right before she told me the news Trumpeter swans flew overhead. This year is the first time I have ever seen them at the Cherokee Marsh and it's also the first time I have ever witnessed swans flying. I stood frozen in the front yard for a long while in awe.
I later cried on and off all day not only for the loss I felt or my friend's loss but because I realized I have been grieving a shadow loss for a long while.
When I found out new things about myself ( autism and I fit somewhere on the asexual spectrum as well) that have always been there it's been a wild ride. My body is here in the present but my mind has been even more scattered then it typically is and I am letting it all come and go.
When I heard the trumpeting of the swans I was able to let go. I think I also saw these swans as a goodbye and a hello.
Trumpeter swans were threatened/ endangered for a long time due to over hunting in the early 20th century. Due to their reintroduction to several states in the 1990s I/ we can once again witness this native swan in all of it's glory.
In my own sort of memorial to Peggy, I sent along a letter to my friend+ her family, an original woodcut print " Peggy's Trumpeter Swans" and 2 color risograph prints of the same woodcut because I can't be with them to celebrate Peggy's life.
I share all of this because we don't talk often enough about our grief. We carry it with us and we're never really done grieving because it helps us live and love.
Risograph prints titled " Grief is a cycle" will be up on my website soon in case you want a reminder to help you continue processing whatever grief you may have.
Such an amazing opening reception, juror's words and all around amazing exhibition by @wisconsinvisualartists
So grateful to have not only one but 2 pieces accepted to this exhibition. So humbled to have my installation taking up the middle of the space on the second floor connecting the space and letting the work speak to each other. I made this installation in 2021 without fully realizing how it might evolve in other spaces or welcoming comfort and conversation.
People received welcoming thoughts and heard awards announced while gathering both within and around my piece. I just don't really have words.
Having my friends there supporting me and witnessing other people step close to my woodcut or interact with artwork in general is just such a profound gift to share with others. This exhibition is one of the best I have ever been in or seen. I'm so proud of us Wisconsinites!! 💕💕
Thank you to all the artists, juror's, curators, WVA folks and all those folks who do behind the scenes work. We appreciate you 💓
Views of installation " What Connects us" and "Refinement Artists" on view at Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac. Exhibition runs through April 16. Don't miss it!!
Photos 1, 2, 8 & 10 taken by @artdosemagazineweekly
Photos 3 & 4 taken by @mary_jane_connor
Photos 5, 6, 7 & 9 taken by @lalajean_g
Today is the opening reception for Perspectives 1-3pm.
I can't wait to see everyone's work up together. I got a sneak peek of incredible work last week when dropping off my work. Congratulations to all accepted artists!
If you haven't yet seen my installation " What connects us" (seen on the right in this photo) or my large woodcut
" Refinement Artists " in person this is another chance to see them on view in an amazing space. This show is up through April.
See you all later 🎉
Reposted from @wisconsinvisualartists Perspectives 2023 opens this Saturday at Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts in Fond du Lac!
Multiple floors filled with a rich variety of Wisconsin artwork! A must-see show.
@thelmaarts51 #wisconsinvisualartists
What an amazing opening reception at @liminal.space.gallery !!
I thoroughly enjoyed all the live performances, poetry readings especially @cesledes poems, and improvisational cello accompanying dance and poetry.
So many great conversations, art plotting and connection. Makes me so hopefully for ecological resilience to actually take place ❤️
Go take a look at the visual art in Art of Ecological Resilience up through Feb 24.
Again thanks to @megs.pepin and Cristian Andersson for bringing this to fruition!
After a long pause, including our household COVID quarantine last week ( we're all ok) I'm dropping this detail of Refinement Artists woodcut from 2022.
This Saturday Jan 21 5-8pm at the @liminal.space.gallery in Neenah, WI there is a reception for Art of Ecological Resilience and I'm excited to exhibit this print because it's a great way to start January! ( Swipe to see exhibition details)
In this exhibition artists are sharing our work and exploring environmental change, ways that we can take climate action or imaging what the future holds. We're holding space together to examine things that seem to large to hold. These conversations are so important and I can't wait to have them with this group of artists.
If you are able I hope you can attend, there are live performances at 6pm.
The exhibition runs through Feb 24th and I encourage you to stop in if you can't make it to the reception. Liminal Space Gallery is located inside the Valley Academy for the Arts in Neenah, WI
Extremely grateful to be in this community with you!
The Eastside Winter Market has come to a close and yet again I'm feeling great about :
How our volunteer team at Communication came together to plan/ execute this event
Being a witness and advocate for problem resolution with community of vendors that respect , care and work with each other to ensure success for all vendors!! - Can this please happen everywhere!!
Seeing how many folks had zero issue with wearing masks. Again community showed up to support artists, musicians and small businesses
Hearing that vendors did well again this year, a handful again mentioning this was their best market of the year ( or ever!!!)
Being able to sell my own work this year and share a booth with @sturgeons.designs and her boyfriend Cass. Being able to step away multiple times to wear different hats and trust that any sales were taken care of is an amazing thing I've never experienced before!!
Raising $300 for Madison Area Transgender Association from sales of my work!! 🎉
Getting to check in with the greatest bunch of vendors, it's an honor to create this space together!!
Even though I'm forever nervous about interviews and being on video, I feel pretty good about being interviewed by NBC 15 news in Madison about the market and why/ how we cultivate this market ( Thanks Shaina!!)
The Eastside Winter Market is/ was an extension of Communication, my artwork and how we want our community to care for each other all the time .
It's like the circular nature of my most recent woodcut We Carry Us featured on the mystery bags behind me
Thank you!!
Booth and market 📷 By Cass, @jenniebee
Happy Halloween 🎃
Dryad/ Elf costume from this past weekend and our small group of elves.
It's interesting dressing up as something that people may not have language for. It's fun because people can appreciate this costume without having to know. I suppose that sentiment is one we all seek.
Much of the items that create this costume where created with things I already had on hand or that nature presented to me with relatively few items that were purchased.
A group of us were planning to dress up as orcs and elves but part of our party couldn't make it. If you swipe through you can see our elven party of woodland elves.
It was fun creating a costume with / for nature. I wish we could all embody the spirit of trees as Dryad's do, I think it's even possible without a costume
Like I said in my stories... Don't mess ( I said a different term before 😂) with the forest or I'm coming for you.
It's been awhile since I have talked about myself apart from my work
Usually I share a photo of my face when I share like this but I'm feeling like this risograph print is a fitting portrait of my brain, my values and what I'm about to share
I find it very difficult to share on social media this year because I came to the realization that none of us can ever fully capture the complexity of our lives here in this space. Part of my deepest need is to be understood and I cannot fully show up or share of myself in the ways I want to. Social media requires that we translate or simplify our beingness into tidbits and I don't think this truly captures or honors any essence of life, of grittiness, of real struggle.
I have recently discovered that part of my personal and perhaps life long struggle that I didn't recognize until recently is because I am on the autism spectrum ( thanks to parenting a child that we are finding is also on the autism spectrum)
Part of what makes this difficult is that my whole life my need to somehow fit in has meant that I sensor myself, constantly retranslate, always grasping for words that don't really convey the depth that honors me. I want to be seen. It's likely why making art is so necessary for me.
Each of us is a complex web of organisms, experiences and factors. We exist within constructs and systems that reinforce difference, comparison and competition and it doesn't suit any of us.
What if to truly feel like ourselves we have to treat all beings as tiny but also expansive universes, each of us unique balls of cells but connected in ways we cannot even fully comprehend. We know we, humans don't have the capacity to fully grasp a/ many universe(s) so it might just be we cannot fully understand each other. However we do know that beings( universes) may contain similar or different qualities , interests, opinions and exist together.
I am autistic, I contain multitudes and that's okay because we all do. Let's use that to build new ways of caring and supporting each other in the complicated ways befitting universes
Thank you for such a lovely evening!!
Last night Women’s Forward Fund
Shared winners and finalists at Giant Jones Brewing among an exhibition of Women's Work.
So thrilled to be among the finalists this year. 😁 Extra Super thrilled that Jennifer Bastian
and I were both named finalists! It also feels like a win for Communication too, in fact many of our shop artists have work in the exhibition!
Congratulations to the other finalists Angela Johnson, J Myszka Lewis and Sarah Stellino.
And So so happy for Winners Lilada Gee and Katherine Rosing both of whom are amazing and deserving artists. ( Go follow all of these amazing people!)
Women artists really know how to support each other!! Met so many social media friends in person for the first time and connected with many more women artists that make our community rich.
Thanks to @usernamebird , @brenda_baker_art , @augustamarine , @dane.arts, To jurors @gail_simpson877 , @adriana_barrios_art and Simona Chazen 💕 and the community of folks that made this possible.
Thank you all, incredibly grateful !!
A sample of glorious DTails from the Farm Art DTour this weekend with friends.
As is to be expected these DTails do not fully encompass the experience of the senses.
If you're in Wisconsin you just have to indulge yourself!
Farm Art DTour is going strong til Oct 10 so git yourself a map and go explore the farms, art and rural charm.
Thanks to all the landowners, vendors, artists, volunteers and @wormfarm_ institute @fermentationdtour family for another amazing year!! If you can donate to keep the DTour free and accessible
These posters are now available 😎
Nature is for Everyone
Pick one of these up at @madisonpubliclibrary now ( they're free cuz the library loves you!! )
And if you can, go on a walk with the naturalist in residence, John Newman and learn about the flora and fauna in your neighborhood. Fall is prime time for getting out into nature and noticing the lives around you.
The lives of animals , plants and other organisms are also included in the sentiment " Nature is for everyone." When we connect with them and care for them we forge stronger connections with the Earth and each other.
It was so great working with @g0g0g0mez and @madisonbubbler on this project. 🍁🍁🍁
The whirlwind of this past weekend 2 events, 3 days, representing myself and 2 other organizations.
Thank you so much to @dane.arts for putting together such an amazing 2 day outdoor event. I met a ton of new people, new artists and familiar online faces I have never met in person. I sold a bunch of work, but more importantly connected over your stories about what my work means to you.
Thanks in particular to Mark Fraire, Augusta Brulla ,Justin Duris and all the DABL volunteers for creating this opportunity for individual artists.
Also helped spread the word about Northside Arts Collective ( not pictured) though Rhiannon Gurley had lots more conversations about that.
AND I spent some time in the @communicationmadison booth chatting with people, and informing people about @fwdtruth and to sign the petition to stand with the Triennial Artists. Highlight of my time at the Willy St Fair was watching teens pick up handfuls of condoms and educate me about the flavored ones ( stay away from strawberry )
Thanks for supporting artists, for buying local and for connecting Madison!
Sharing some very impromptu photos of a brand new collection I'll have for you at @dane.arts buy local next Friday and Saturday ( OMG a week out already?!)
Collection Queer by Nature includes accessories like reversible printed collars and ties, as well as earrings and pins made using scrap from cutting out other accessories. Zero waste baby!!
Everything made using sustainable materials. One side is printed using risograph printers which print with non toxic soy/ rice based ink and collars/ ties are hand painted/ drawn on the opposite side.
If you peeped my stories you may have seen this first photo of me sporting a removable printed collar yesterday
I couldn't resist printing a small edition of risograph prints and cards. Plus I even sourced eco friendly stickers 😎
Scroll various photos to get a tiny preview of eyeball pins hand printed/colored/ embellished on scrap paper leather( slide 2-3), one of the stickers I'll have ( slide 4) and all the info about the market ( slide 5)
Dane Arts Buy Local is going to be a blast and it's starting off Willy St Fair in style, plus it's close so you can head over to the Fair on Saturday. I can't wait to see your faces take in these curiosities. So stinking excited!
Stay tuned for more detailed previews and info about % I'm giving to mutual aid coming up next week.
Past few months have been a struggle but I keep reminding myself " I contain multitudes" and it gives me permission to exist in complicated ways that society typically doesn't see or honor.
We can feel multiple emotions at once.
We can suffer and also recognize there are those who suffer greater hardships without minimizing our own.
We can see how many human created systems are detrimental and dream up new possibilities for how we can exist in this world.
We can struggle and be curious
We can become entangled in systems that no longer serve us and yet see that those entanglements can provide the impetus to change.
We contain multitudes.
In our bodies
In our hearts
In our minds
With the environment
With each other and all life
On this earth.
Let this be a reminder that our independent experience doesn't dictate the experience of other life.
I want to live in a world where the space we give each other is enough for each of us to flourish in the ways we need, in the ways that nurture the earth.
2 layer woodcut for @reliefconspiracy 2022 postcard exchange.
A pretty cool article came out a few days ago online and comes out tomorrow in the physical @wistatejournal about my home away from home @communicationmadison.
It's such a great summary of our space and I'm glad to see that Gayle Worland touched on so many of the things we chatted about and that a range of voices are presented here beside my own.
Link to the article here.
Thanks also to Amber for these awesome photos you can swipe to see a few here.
Can you tell I'm passionate about Communication and the communities we continue to serve 💓
Today I go to pick up my installation " What Connects Us"
My lovely friends Mary Jane, Erin and Kara made a trip to see the TMA Contemporary Exhibition this past weekend and sent such a lovely message.
So grateful to hear from them 😊
Folks if you have friends that are artists, taking the time to tell them you appreciate their work is another way of supporting their work.
The more we reinforce these kindnesses the more the arts become a tighter interconnected web that is fully recognized for the sustenance is gives us all.
Take a couple minutes today and tell an artist friend how much their work means to you.
Snapshot from 3 weeks ago from my first solo vacation in as long as I can remember...
From Madison to Austin to San Antonio and back
I took one backpack for 1 week and because I always wear multiple hats, I packed 2 and bought another there.
I share because:
I haven't posted in awhile,
I have learned some new things about myself,
I am taking time to figure some more things out,
And
I want you to know that I'm still here, still curious, and I am leaning into this in-between space I find myself in right now.
It's not good or bad it just is.
It's important to me to take time to exist without pushing myself so hard.
These photos remind me that holding this in between has meant reconnecting and being present with many friends I haven't seen in many years. It has meant rest, reprioritizing, dreaming. Much of what has transpired I have no photos of and that is also freeing.
It's a hard time for lots of people to wade through. Futures unclear for body autonomy, environmental protection and more BUT these moments of connection, community and support ARE a great reminder of what is important, that we already have everything we need.
❤️❤️❤️
After hundreds of shirts and prints have been made with the public it was time to clean these blocks up a bit. Luckily I have a fun new hand held mini rotary tool to clean up the fine details relatively quickly.
I really really adore teaming up with local environmental non profits like @wisaltwise to create woodcut blocks that can help spread a message, help print wearable art that serves as a reminder about advocacy efforts and connect with people while they print.
It's so incredibly fulfilling to be able to connect printmaking+ environmental advocacy+ community together.
This artist+ non profit Collab means that together the message, the art and the experience is more accessible ( Free) AND the artist ( me ) gets paid a fair wage.
Tomorrow at the Marquette Waterfront Festival in Madison I'll be helping folks print these blocks on upcycled clothing from 12-4pm ( hoping the rain stays out of the forecast)
Come on down and rechristen these newly cleaned up woodcuts by printing a shirt or bandana ( also for pets!) and have a lasting reminder to keep salt out of our freshwater. ( road salt and water softener salt).
Thanks to WI Salt Wise ( and all the orgs that make this up) for all of your collective efforts 🌊
