Hi Reader, It's Spring Break for my kids this week, and we're staying put in Portland this year since we're going on a big adventure to England this summer (my little family of three's first international trip!). which means I'm doing the ultimate juggling act right now, trying to work with 2 kids here 24/7 and also make time for fun stuff so they're not just sitting around in front of screens. Basically I'm bouncing between things like zoom meetings to going to the pool to hosting live...
8 days ago • 5 min read
I turned the drawing I shared in my email last week into a repeating pattern! Hey Reader, Happy Tuesday! Today I've got pattern design on the brain, and it's always a good day when I get to focus on patterns because making them is pretty much my favorite creative thing ever. :) I'm working on designing a new fabric collection right now, which has been super fun but I've also felt a bit rusty. I don't like feeling rusty, but I know by now after being a working artist for so many years that the...
22 days ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader, When I was in college, I remember learning that to be a successful artist in the world, you have to find your niche and your signature style, and then make work like that forever, never straying very far from your chosen medium or recognizable look. (Maybe that's not what they were actually teaching us, but that's apparently what I absorbed and what I remember!) I remember thinking then that it would be so BORING to just make the same kind of thing over and over for years on end,...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader – Happy 2025! Can you honestly even believe that's the year we're living in?! It's been a minute since I've written a Tuesday email, and I'm happy to be sitting down at my keyboard right now, channeling whatever's meant to come through my mind, my heart, and my fingers in this moment. Today is my second day back in my quiet studio after a wonderful and much-needed 2 week winter break. My kids and I didn't travel anywhere and mostly just hunkered down together at home, which was...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader! I hope you're having a wonderful week. I'm enjoying a quiet Thanksgiving week at home this year with my kiddos instead of traveling to see family like we often do (well, more like a "quiet" week – I hear C and G bickering about something in the background right now, which is pretty standard), and it's funny how things work out so perfectly sometimes... We loosely planned to go to California for Thanksgiving and then decided to go in December instead. Then we made plans for a...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader! The refrain-on-repeat in my house right now is "I'm sooooo excited for Christmas!". I wonder how many times I'll hear that between now and Christmas morning? 1,000? A million? Infinite? I still remember that feeling so well from when I was a kid – the bouncy, tangible anticipation so huge I could barely stand it. Waking up in the middle of the night on Christmas to sneak into the living room to stare at the presents under the tree in awe. Removing one torturous ring each day from...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, What a day here in the United States. I took myself for a long walk earlier today to absorb the news and to wrap my mind around the huge changes coming our way that will impact us in the months and years to come, both here in the USA and around the world. Wherever we each fall on the political spectrum, we're ALL on the human spectrum, and I think most of us can probably agree that there's a lot of darkness in the world right now. A lot of division in this country, and a lot of...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader! The other day I mentioned the Art Bundles For Good giveaway, and I wanted to send you a quick note today because the giveaway is officially open, and I don't want you to miss it if you love online art classes! If you've never heard of the Art Bundles for Good, this is the 9th bundle and it's a really cool thing! The creator and organizer, John Bardos, has gathered more than 80 artists this year (including me) who are contributing 90+ art courses and resources with a total value of...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader! Every other Tuesday I spend a couple of hours with my friend Becky Hershey and the ladies in The Inner Magic Art Club, and my favorite way that we describe what happens inside the club is that it's "always exactly what I didn't know I needed". We gather together to take a pause from our busy lives, to show up for ourselves and for each other, to make art in community, and then to talk about it. But I feel better after every single time we gather. Sometimes it feels hard to make the...
5 months ago • 3 min read