Checking in

My former advisee and the half-siblings she met when she connected with her birth father

​It’s early May and I’ve finally gotten a chance to process all that has happened so far this year. Living as an Itinerant Illustrator for the last two years has been completely fascinating, but often makes it difficult to take stock in what I’ve accomplished and where I have been. I’ve created a life where every day is different and I am in a unique position to say yes to amazing opportunities, or to go where I am needed, so when people ask “What have you been up to, lately?” my mind often goes blank. My to-do lists are littered with posts I’ve neglected to make, or experiences I mean to write about, but sometimes, I just need to stop, summarize, and move on.

So here’s my summary of the year so far:

January- My Great Aunt suffered a stroke at the end of 2023, so I drove from Colorado to Florida via Taos, Dallas, and the Gulf Coast to pack up her home so it could be listed for sale and she moved across the state to an Assisted Living facility. I spent 14 hour days going through her home, pairing down which items needed to be saved for the family, clearing out closets and the garage, and shredding old case files from when she worked as a clinical social worker in Laramie, Wyoming in the 90’s. Mary had saved so many things from her career that she hoped to one day include in a book she planned to write, and I was struck by the literal weight of deferred plans and expectations as I carried bag after bag of shredded carbon copied paper. My own deferred plans manifest as files on cloud storage, unused concert tickets, or line items on to-do lists that get transcribed week after week, until they are eventually replaced by some other priority. Perhaps this summary will help eliminate a few of them.

On a lighter note, my series on the fans I met at the Women’s World Cup was included in Theispot’s 2023 Top Design Highlights, and I drove to Philly to see National Treasure Gritty at the Avalanche/Flyers game with some old friends.

February- While standing in line at a coffee shop I got a text message from a friend about a trip he thought I’d be interested in taking. 30 minutes later, he convinced me to get ready for a two week paddle in Northern Baja with him and his old climbing partner, who also happened to be a former US Senator and President of Outward Bound. I’d spend the next 6 weeks searching for dry bags on Facebook Marketplace.

Artistically, I completed two murals for the Walmart Community Mural Program through NowArt LA. This takes my total count of murals in Virginia to 5, and I keep looking for a window of time to go see them where they are installed. In the meantime, I returned to Colorado Springs for another two weeks so I could go to the dentist since my health insurance is still based in Colorado. I also had two pieces shortlisted by Communication Arts.

March- My “Last Warriors” Illustration for Eight by Eight Magazine was included in the “Seen and Noticed” section of 3 x 3 Magazine. Not sure what my luck with numeric-named publications is about, but I’ll take it! 

The second half of the month was spent kayaking around Angel de la Guarda, the largest island in Mexico. It was rugged, it was challenging, and it was beautiful. I’m optimistic that a longer and in-depth post about that experience is still forthcoming, but I still haven’t written up my month in New Zealand, soooooo…..

April- This past month has been spent catching up with commissions I put on the back-burner while I was on a desert island. Three especially meaningful pieces were a memorial pet portrait of Lexus for my Uncle Jeff, an illustrated map of Seven Oaks, a meditation retreat my mother has been working hard to take over and get up and running, and an illustrated scene of a woman with her half siblings hiking in Yellowstone for my former Advisee. My portrait of the Last Warriors was selected for publication in American Illustration 43 and they can also be found in the Illustration West 62 Online Archive.  It’s great to see those women get so much love! I also spent a beautiful weekend walking around Southeast DC with one of my former students, enjoying the spring blossoms and stubbornly ignoring my tree-pollen allergy.

Peppered throughout all of this has been house-sits all over Maryland and DC (in addition to art, I have become a professional House Guest). I've been watching Playoff Hockey and reading too many books. The to-do lists litter most surfaces and I am covered in dog hair all the time.

I’m happy 🙂

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"The Pump" Mural for the Walmart Community Mural Project

Midlothian Mural for the Walmart Community Mural Project

Illustrated Map of Seven Oaks for IMCW

Lexus- Memorial Pet Portrait