April Newsletter
NO. 21 | April 2023
Hello sweet, spring friends. It is actually not spring in Chicago, but it is spring in my heart. Through March, I have gained some steadier footing (thank goodness), but find myself straddling timelines.
A long time ago, I wrote in a random note, “there is no ‘soaking it in;’ it’s here and it’s gone.” Why I wrote that, I do not know. But I do know what it means to me now.
In the fall, I’ll be leaving Chicago. This is my eighth year living here! That’s such a long time! But I’m ready to go. And I’m excited to go! So excited, in fact, that I find myself spending quite a lot of time daydreaming about where I’m going—looking at Zillow, imagining futures, eschewing the irritations of my current day-to-day, missing Emilio. But I also have a deep seated love for this city. It is the only place I have called home in my adult life. And so much about it is a delight! I want to soak in every last moment I have here—in an apartment I love from floor to ceiling, with the friends I’ve shared my time with for so long, in a metropolis of food and memories, near my glorious Lake Michigan. (You’ll certainly be getting more writing from me about this goodbye.)
But like younger me once wrote, “there is no ‘soaking it in.’ Especially for someone with as bad a memory as I have, when things are over, it’s hard to slice it any other way: they’re over. So as much as I want to leave in a few months feeling like I absorbed everything about this place that I could and took it with me, I don’t think it’ll feel like that at all. It’ll feel like goodbye. It’ll feel inaccessible. It’ll be the past!
The good news is, that, right now, it’s the present! Future me won’t have what present me does. She’ll be great too, but I better make her jealous while I still can.
Part 3: The Endless Loop
This month’s blog post wraps up the series on being a Jack-of-All-Trades Maker, and the positive feedback loops that we hope to create as artists and creatives.
This is the last month the shop will be open! If you’ve been eyeing anything, now’s the time.
This week I’m sharing the work of Kim Smith! In the time I’ve followed her, she has largely created gorgeous pieces of animals in their natural landscapes. But, recently I’ve been obsessed with her character work (like above), and appreciate the personality and intensity of her characters. Her work is obviously stylized, but maintains a lovely level of realism and detail. Such dynamic compositions, poses, and choices. She also has many picture books!
Left: Insta loved this shirt, so you get it too! Sewed from gauze I bought on a trip to NY last summer. It’s the #petulapattern
Right: I am nicely settled into an illustration sprint right now. I’m sketchbooking and working on a picture book project—figuring out the rendering, colors, and materials. This is a project I’ve been working on since 2021, and it still brings me a ton of joy to make progress on it.
☆ Cute AND Magical
☆ Bye Lori, and hopefully, hello to Brandon Johnson! If you are in Chicago, please vote in the mayoral run-off election (4/4 or earlier!)
☆ My friend Luke has started a substack that I’ve found super refreshing in recent weeks. There’s something so nice about opening up a friendly email.
☆ Absolutely loved this post about gardens/flowers in art (mostly images!)
☆ In an LDR with my vegetarian boyfriend, so that means I feast on spicy shredded pork.
