This is an archived copy of the {news and the muse} letter that went out to subscribers on April 6, 2024.

My dear, gorgeous human,

Oof, I have some fun and exciting art news to share with you today… if you want to go directly to that, scroll on down until you see pictures! No hard feelings.

But, if you’re like me and you like to read the behind-the-scenes of this creative life and that which pours out on the digital page when I open my computer to write to you, start here at the top:

I am not a jealous person. There is no recognizable envy in my body, except… 

I almost physically ache from late January through early May seeing photos of flowers and budding leaves, shared by friends in places I’ve lived. (And then again in November, when loved ones share images of colorful leaves falling from the trees… weeks after the last colors here have been shed.)

This is a new envy, begun last year: our first winter in Central Massachusetts. Winter here lasts even longer than it does in Boston…

From the moment in the late January 2023 when I saw images of crocuses pop up in Oregon gardens, I yearned for delicate color. 

Every day I would check… is today the day for a new leaf, a brilliant petal? 

It was around mid-April when I wrote down the question, “Is today the day I will see my first leaf?” on a piece of paper on my bedside table. (It wasn’t.) By then, I had seen a handful of crocuses but nothing more. 

This year, I know better what to expect. I have learned to wait, to be patient, to adjust my idea of “Spring.” This year, I am feeling less envious.

I understand that the shift of season here is longer, more subtle. I cannot watch for soft, perfectly shaped, nearly flourescent leaves as indication that the earth is waking up. 

Instead, it is the buds on branches, so small at first that one must squint, and now growing larger, more tender. It is the first lost frog jumping across the road, the first rabbit out of hiding. It is the sound of birdsong, so beautiful after the silence of snow. It is moving a few leaves over on the forest floor every couple of days, squealing when I find a fiddlehead and then covering it back up until it feels warm enough to reach above its oak and maple leaf-blanket on its own.

I can understand why this land has cultivated so many writers, artists, and philosophers. To feel alive while much of life hibernates and rests, one must tend to the noticing as well as the creating in deeply attentive ways.

Knowing that change will come slower is helping to tamp down on the envy that took me by surprise last year. 

I think that the waiting is okay now. I think it is teaching me something. Not only about slow and subtle, but also about trust and faith and the years and months of beneath-the-surface not-for-the-human-eye preparation that goes into the flamboyant abundance that is clear and obvious.  

But still… I must admit, while I sit down and write this during an April snow, my body is eager for vernal sensibility.

So, let’s get on with it, shall we?

I have some very exciting news, and also a reminder about Feast. 

NEWS!! Going Deeper with “Mother Tree Holds theStories”

Roots Grant

I am super, super, super honored to have received a grant from ArtsWorcester to expand my “Mother Tree Holds the Stories” project.

Since buying a home and settling in near the woods, I’ve been thinking a lot about roots and three-dimensional art exploration. (Human and tree roots alike.)

This grant will allow me to explore both, and show and share my nerdy artisty research and experimentation in an exhibit with fellow Material Needs Grant Artists next fall (Fall 2025). 

I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. to explore this. 

If you are out and about and you see some interesting tree roots above ground or stretching over a bank or beneath an overturned tree, please send them my way. 

I am taking any and all photo inspiration from dear ones, and I would love, love, love for you to be a part of this project with me!!

More Here

FREE! Workshop this Month

Women in the Visual Arts Panel

On April 21 from 2-4 p.m., theWomen’s Caucus for Art, Massachusetts Chapter, is hosting a FREE panel discussion and workshop at Main Street Studios in Fitchburg, MA.

I’ll be one of the panelists, talking about an artist whose work I *love*: Jay DeFeo.

After the talk, we’re hosting a fun interactive workshop for all who attend… no special skills necessary, and we’ll provide all thesupplies!!

This event is free and open to all.

More Here

A Reminder

Feast

“Feast,” a Call and Response group exhibition and collaboration between ArtsWorcester and the Fitchburg Art Museum runs March 14-April 21 at 44 Portland Street in Worcester, MA. 

Here you can see my Feast painting through the gallery windows during the opening reception.

See Photos + Learn More

There’s still more to share, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

I’ve got some really inspiring things to share with you soon about ways to come together, my art practice, public art making in community, and more!! 

Lots of good stuff happening, and I can’t wait to include you in all of it.

Sign up for your own copy of {news and the muse} as it comes out!

If you enjoy this type of longer-form content (part news, part muse, part essay)… and you want discounts and first dibs on all the art and workshops and creative fun, you can subscribe here. 

I would LOVE to have you!

Pssst….

This email had a bunch of PS notes… here they are, if you’re curious. (There usually aren’t this many, but… I guess I had a lot of extra stuff to add!)

PS: Has anyone told you lately THANKS for being the wonderfully creative human that you are? I hope so. But in case that affirmation has been overlooked, I’d love to be the one to say it… THANK YOU for being thewonderfully creative human that you are. The world is a better place for thework that you do.

PPS: You may notice if you clicked on the buttons above that they’re taking you to my website. After sending you all over the internet to social media and external outlets a few emails back, I had an epiphany… I wasn’t welcoming you to my internet home! 

So I’ve been tending to the space there, tidying it up slowly, adding a blog, making plans. Social media may come and go, and algorithms are finnicky, but I can always roll out the red carpet for you on my own URL. 

PPPS: If you’ve made it this far, you are true blue, dear one. Perhaps you’d like to be one of the very first to take a sneak peek at the Patreon I’m building for us? 

Perhaps you’d even like to be one of the very first to sign on as a patron? 

That’ll be the space for all sorts of goodies… It’s open now, and it even has a few zines ready for you(!), but I haven’t shared it yet. You’re the first to know… 😉 xoxo

PPPPS: I love it when you hit reply and share with me a recent moment of creative making… that energy is so potent, and it is an honor to celebrate and amplify it through the act of witnessing.