white picket fence

2016, Good Things Edition

A number of positive things about my year, in no particular order. 

Going to pick up a book from the reserve shelf at the library and thinking of all the joy that will be felt by my fellow book nerds picking up their little gifts

Some songs I listened to on repeat this year:

• Creeks, Bon Iver.
• Eugene and The Only Thing, Sufjan Stevens.
• Supermoon, Case/Lang/Veirs.
• Also, according to Spotify, Love Yourself by Justin Bieber, which I refuse to be embarrassed about, it’s a good song.

I read over 50 books this year so I need to categorize my favorites here.

• Most important: Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates.
• Most fun/enjoyable: Carry On, Rainbow Rowell.
• Best overall, gotta call a tie between Lila, Marilynne Robinson and To the Bright Edge of the World, Eowyn Ivey.

I had some memorable long walks this year: from the Whitney Museum to Midtown Manhattan on a cold bright February day. A long quiet turn around the marsh on the day after the election. All the trips with the kids through the pond park to the grocery store (that walk is probably the thing I miss most about our old house).

I started working lunch & recess duty at the kids’ school’s this year.  That means I opened approximately two hundred Go-Gurts, cleaned up many dozens of milk spills, and told the same kids to “sit on your bottom, stop shouting please” at least a thousand times. Or at least it felt like a thousand times. I also got a lot of hugs, pushed swings every day, and once helped some kids build a contraption out of sticks to get a ball out of a tree. Happy memories!

Zine fest!

My Studio Calico class was obviously a HUGE highlight. I still sometimes scroll through the #sccutandpaste hashtag when I’m feeling bummed about myself, art-wise, and it's always a little lift. I love what all the students made, and honestly, it really pushed me forward in my own work too.

And, of course, these weirdos, always:

I'm trying to keep my expectations for the new year low and empty so I can fill it up with good things without too much pressure, you know? However, I do have a few resolutions that I feel I should share here for accountability's sake:

• Take a shower & make my bed before 8 am everyday (very basic but would change the tenor of our mornings tremendously)
• Send birthday cards to my family ON TIME. 
• Don't wait until the last minute to do everything, (for example, writing my year end review less than 12 hours before the year ends.)

Happy New Year!

the nashville story, part one

a flight that was delayed, then un-delayed, then delayed again for some reason?

okay! Here is the story of my trip to Nashville to film the video parts of my Studio Calico art journalling class Cut and Paste. (which is almost over with and has been so great, but that’s a story for a different blog post.)

First I want to say: I adore traveling alone. I realize this is primarily because I spend most of my life surrounded by people, mainly children who have a lot of needs and tell super long stories constantly. Plus I’ve lived in my town for so long now I always seem to be running into acquaintances, which I usually don’t mind but sometimes I like that invisible feeling you can get in a new city. The quiet and the freedom is refreshing.

Also, I love eavesdropping in airports and it’s so much easier when there’s no pesky friends or family around.

This summer had been a transitional time for me and looking back, the class filmed at the exact right time for me. I had spent a lot of this summer working a TON in my art journals, hashing out ideas for the class and getting accustomed to making a lot of work at once. It wasn’t unlike training for a marathon, really, in that I tried everyday to spend considerable time with my scissors and glue in preparation for one really big day of cutting and pasting. And I had a lot of pending changes in my life and lots of thoughts to hash out, which can be annoying in real life but works out pretty well for my art life. You know?

warm up journalling for the day of filming

I had been so apprehensive about being filmed, but it mostly went away as soon as I started working. Like, how could I be nervous when I’m doing one of my favorite things in the world? And I tried to just talk through my processes naturally, without pretense or pontification, and I think it shows in the class. 

Okay, well, now I’ve written three paragraphs and not approached anything close to what I wanted to tell you, guess I have to split this into two parts. 

So before I start on part two, I want to give a  huge thanks to Studio Calico, especially Lisa Truesdell and the videographer Joe Gomez, for making this all happen. Sharing my work, filming my processes, and having my own space for making art for a day (this adorable AirBnB in the 12 South Neighborhood of Nashville) was an amazing experience.

Cut and Paste with Studio Calico

HELLO I HAVE SOME EXCITING NEWS.

Okay, maybe you've seen this on my various social media outlets, but I wanted to post a bit more about my upcoming art journalling class: Cut and Paste, with Studio Calico. My friends, I could not be more excited and honored to be sharing this with you! There are six lessons in the class, plus a whole group of great contributors... I'm stoked I get to share this experience with some of my BAFFs (Best Art Friends Forever) like Robyn and Natalie. The content is based on my unique techniques, thought processes and workflow, but I hope there is something that everyone can learn to really make art journalling your own & get some new inspiration. 

I'm really hoping the class will be super interactive. I plan on being involved as much as I can in the message boards, answering questions, and interacting with students on Studio Calico as well as on Instagram. I want it to seem as much like an in-person class as possible with lots of chances to get to know your fellow classmates and all share with each other. 

Also, hello, how cool is this promo video?

 

This is really a dream come true for me, and I hope you'll join me. Thank you friends!

chicago zine fest recap!

Even though it was more than a month ago, I still want to post a recap of my first zine fest! Chicago Zine Fest was held this year at the Plumbers Union hall in the Near West neighborhood. It was a really nice venue & the event ran super smoothly & felt very well organized. I was really glad to have been accepted to table this year. 

Overall the day went really well. I didn't have any expectations about what I would sell or even how many people would stop to look at my stuff (this fest is HUGE, over 200 tables, which is easily overwhelming to anyone visiting.) But I was pleasantly surprised. Advice for Modern Life was my biggest seller; it was really neat to watch all kinds of people pick it up and read it and laugh or smile to themselves. I was glad that the people at other tables nearby were friendly and interesting to talk to when there was down time. It was a lot of hours but it flew by, really. A short but exhausting day. 

I had stressed out a bit beforehand about having enough merchandise or how my table would look, but in the end I had plenty of everything and my display (a simple tablecloth with my zines held in vintage dishware) was more than adequate. I probably brought 15-20 of each of my zines, and a few each of my letter prints. This event did make me think I should branch out a bit as far as my range of products goes; pins and patches were big sellers at a few booths near me, I saw some neat postcards and stationery too. Just another item on the to-do list of "things to find the time to accomplish."

I did have one puzzling exchange late in the afternoon. A younger guy came by and flipped through one of my Cinnamon Toast zines and asked me "what made you decide to write a zine about your kids?" I can't exactly remember the conversation that followed, but we talked a bit about babies and how kids get progressively more interesting when they're older. But afterwards as I reviewed the day, that stuck out to me. I can't imagine that someone would ask anyone else at the fest "what made you decide to write a zine about art / punk music / veganism / etc?" The kids are a part of my life, just like other people write about parts of their own lives;  it made me feel a bit defensive, honestly, to think that others might not view children and family life as a valid topic.

I think part of my apprehension about being there was that I feel SO different from the younger urban subculture that makes certain kinds of art and zines. I didn't exactly feel out of place, I have enough self-confidence to hold my own in almost any situation. But it certainly turns the tables of my regular life where I'm a caucasian woman in a city of caucasians, a mom in a city full of moms, a Christian in a city full of religious types. You know that old saying, "do something everyday that scares you"? Well, I think doing this event counted for about a week's worth of scary things. Not to say that I was "scared" really, but it is definitely something that's outside of my comfort zone and forced me to stretch beyond my normal life and routines. 

I have a small history in my life of things that I agree to do, or fall into somehow, and then once the event actually arrives, I think "holy crap what have I done?" (study abroad in college, moving to Chicago without a job, leaving the workforce to stay at home with the kids) BUT, once I get over the initial panic, it goes so well I can't believe I was ever apprehensive. Zine fest was one of those things. 

2014/2015

 

In 2014 I...

...loved walking David to school, singing Taize songs in church, going to Tuesday afternoon yoga, reading library books, and having picnics with Norah in the treehouse

...made a zine, dozens of paper packs, 20/26 of an illustrated alphabet, and countless art journal pages

...spent four happy & peaceful days in New York City with my mom

...left a lot of projects unfinished

...played a shameful amount of Candy Crush

In 2015 I will

...still love walking David to school, singing Taize songs in church, going to Tuesday afternoon yoga, reading library books, and having picnics with Norah in the treehouse

...make more zines, paper packs, and art journal pages

...finish my unfinished projects

...spend some happy (though probably not as peaceful) days on a yet to be determined family vacation

...not play a shameful amount of Candy Crush (I deleted the app in early December and it was one of my best decisions of the year)

You can see here that 2014 was actually pretty good and I don't have a lot of plans on changing that up in 2015. Taking care of my family, taking care of the house, making things, being kind, learning... that's all I want. Keeping it simple. 

Happy New Year to you, my friends.

collage book pages and other odds and ends

well hello there! I have some pages to share today, but let's start with a few other bits of news. 

1. I updated by "about" page, or rather, I actually made an about page. It's here, or you can click on my little speech bubble profile picture over to the left. I never really know what to write, but I do know that I personally ALWAYS read profile pages whenever I discover a new blog, so it was kinda silly to not have my own. 

2. EXCITEMENT!! And other words with exclamation points!! I am over the moon to be a contributor to Ashley Goldberg's new class from Studio Calico, called paint.plan.play. It's gonna be super fun, I can already tell. The class doesn't start until November 1 so you still have plenty of time to check it out. 

3. I'm somewhere between "busy beaver" and "chicken with it's head cut off" on the scale of anthropomorphized levels of activity around here. I'm working to get materials ready for a holiday show in November, volunteering for our local PTA, organizing a bridal shower, AND still trying to finish up a new zine for my etsy shop. The sheer quantity of STUFF i have to do/make/go to for all these things really hit me this week. My normal lifestyle is more sloth/manatee than beaver/beheaded chicken, so I'm just trying to keep it all in order without freaking out and/or neglecting my family and personal hygiene. Wish me luck. 

Now onto the art! Which I made to keep my mind off all that other stuff!

I'm pretty stoked on this new sketchbook I bought from Kinokuniya, the amazing Japanese book/stationery store my friend Robyn and I went to last weekend. It has everything I look for in a sketchbook: smallish, unique page size, high quality paper, and spiral binding. I did a quick search and it looks like my size (about 5.5" x 7.5") isn't available online, but different sizes are here (good ol' Amazon.)

It feels good to just make things without any kind of real necessity. Just for fun, just for me (and I guess, you know, YOU, reading this...). In some ways they remind me of the work I did years ago when I first started to make mixed media journals. I think getting back to your roots is always a good thing, right?

early october

The kids and I went to visit my parents this weekend. I feel SO incredibly lucky to have the family I do, and to be able to visit my hometown again and just completely relax. I feel like my real self when I'm there, you know? It's so comforting. 

Also, I get all my best thinking done while driving on I-80 and I-88. This time of year is gorgeous in Iowa. I've always thought there's no color more beautiful than that of a soybean field in October. And now that the kids are older, the car rides go so smoothly, and the trips are enjoyable rather than stressful. We listen to music and look out the window and notice cows and sheep and hay bales. Sometimes they nap. Sometimes they play games on my old iPod. It's a really special time for me, especially since I have so many memories of driving through rural areas as a kid, too. 

I've had a lot on my mind lately, and this weekend was exactly what I needed to unclench my thoughts a bit and let myself relax. 

I hope you all have a place like this for yourself, too. 

mistakes & instincts

First, a story. 

On Sunday, I made a mistake. What I had thought would be a fun little good deed ended up being NOT good for a few people. Everything turned out okay in the end, but it could have been disastrous, and I spent half the afternoon crying and feeling awful about my actions. 

Yesterday morning, before any of this happened, as I drove through my neighborhood I saw a giant hawk swoop down and grab a small creature in it's talons and fly away again. I love seeing that kind of real wildness happen, a little nature magic in the middle of my suburban ordinaryness. And I immediately felt a pang of jealousy towards the animal kingdom. How would it be to live so elegantly and instinctively?

Being a human being, especially one trying to find the right way to live in our broken world, is so complicated sometimes. 

When I was working on this today, I realized that THIS is my glimpse of the hawk's instinctive life. Working on these pages turns my chattering, second guessing, nagging brain off, and something deeper breaks through. 

My newest methods of cutting up collages and rearranging them has been a surprisingly joyful and satisfying experience. I've learned that mistakes aren't an end, they're the begining of something new and usually better, more complex and more interesting. And realizing that through my work gives me hope that it can happen in life, too. 

(nothing ventured, nothing gained)

just a monday night

Just a few photos of a regular night at the Licht house. In black and white... because why not?

my favorite tools. 

a stack of pages for a new zine I'm working on. 

Norah always insists that we take pictures of ourselves. This girl would be SO into selfies if she was old enough to have her own instagram.  

old journal pages

I was looking through my iPhoto library and found these images. I realized I finished this entire journal/collage book last year and never posted anything in it. I'm sure it was partly because of my blog hibernation, and because most of it is too personal or messy. I was experimenting with some new styles but not feeling really satisfied with the outcomes. 

 

 

I'm feeling in-between on everything right now. I started the process of applying for a graphic design job (part time and nearby, which would be perfect!). I have so many ideas for my own shop and art and future projects, but nothing tangible has come together yet. And most afternoons what I really want to do is play with the kids and read and run around the yard and put my feet in the pink plastic baby pool. 

Isn't this always me though? Usually a little restless. I think I'm getting better at accepting that.