Postcards in the Air : 2026

"The creative adult is the child who survived.”

Quote from Ursula Le Guin

One side of a gessoed signature

Reverse side of gessoed signature
(each signature is folded in the middle and
on the fold you can see in the photo.)

Sitting next to a pile of torn paper, some with marks made with marking pens, fountain pens, and colored inks and others from watercolor failures, I realized that in the last year and a half, I hadn't done much "messy creative" work. Because of our move and all the unpacking and sorting, I had limited myself to watercolor and hand lettering exercises, both techniques that are for me not usually messy, and are more disciplined and intentional than other techniques I've used. My messy art-self felt sleepy and stiff as I looked for ways to apply torn bits of paper, scrawled lines of paint, brushed ink across gessoed paper, and splattered diluted ink across paper. My body was remembering the fun of being messy and the results that occur when I'm not trying to fit letters between two lines or merge one color of paint carefully with another. All of these processes, the careful and the messy, make me a better artist, but I had neglected the fun part for too long.

One side of second signature

Reverse side of second signature

After finishing two online mixed media classes, I combined the techniques from both classes to start an art book. The class that began this combined project was Andrea Chebeleau's Creative Practices Journal. The journal is intended to be made over a year with each signature representing a month's work. My book instead will be finished after four signatures by the end of January. (Once I get going, it is hard to stop.) The first instruction for the journal was to take 12 manila folders and cover them with gesso. When I read that instruction, I realized I would have a hard time covering the 12 pieces. I no longer have the space where I can lay out that much material and roll gesso on all those folders at once. I limited myself to four folders instead. I then used the gessoed folders to paste the mark-making papers that I had created in Crystal Marie's Rust and Alchemy class.

Two complete signatures of my Creative Practices Journal

I returned to making art while we lived in Japan and I took a botanical illustration class. As I washed over the paper with watercolors and pushed the paint to the edges of the flower petals, I realized I could still do the work. The class motivated me to get out my rusty supplies again.

Botanical illustration in watercolor

Once back in California, I hoped to combine my writing work with my artwork and took a letterpress class at the Center for the Book in San Francisco. Though I loved doing the slow, meditative process of setting up a press to print, inking the press, and rolling sheets of paper through, I wondered how I could set up my own print shop, acquire all the equipment I would need, and find a place that needed my printed results. I also didn't want to limit my art activities just to printmaking. So I changed direction.

Letterpress booklet: "Do You Know Cats?"

I took some classes in mixed media, eco-printing, calligraphy, and watercolor. I found taking classes to be an important part of my process of discovery. Working around other creatives stimulates me in new directions. I've taken online classes from teachers in Uzbekistan and the Netherlands, and from many parts of the United States. These classes have introduced me to ideas that I might not have considered without the exposure to ideas from people from around the world. In the process of taking classes, I've refined what I want to do in art: make art books, paint with watercolor and other water-based media, practice hand lettering, and produce mixed media constructions. I am not one to focus on just one technique so I will never be a master of any. But at this point in my life, I want to have fun with these creative endeavors.