April is the cruelest month
being flinged into spring
Greetings newsletter pals, and happy last day of April! I couldn’t resist a little T.S. Eliot title reference - April really is a wild transition month: suddenly the sun is out until 8 PM, and everything feels buzzy and hectic and your energy levels are still catching up with the new seasonal rhythms. Ahhhh Spring!
MEANDERING THOUGHTS
Honestly, I don’t feel like I have much to work with this month, as far as topics - I’m scrambling to keep up with my work load and establish new routines as I enter my busy season. It’s often not the physical work that gets overwhelming, but the mental load of having to juggle multiple projects in various stages and not feel like you’re constantly forgetting something. But it gets easier every year, and for that I am grateful!
Perhaps I can take a moment here and poll YOU the reader on ways you’ve found helpful to deal with overwhelm and burnout. How do you carve out time for artist dates (à la The Artist’s Way) and finding inspiration? How do you develop a practice of “filling the well” & completing a creative cycle on a personal project (ideation through execution) while also doing client work? How do you plan your days based on season and your own energy levels? What systems and tools do you put in place that protect your time and sanity?
I’ve currently been toying around with the idea of splitting the day into three portions, and creating habit menus. I think my next step will involve being ruthless about screen time. My current habit of trying to devote one day a week to personal work (Mondays) tends to get overrun by the mundane - house cleaning, self care, doing taxes, etc. Do any sign painters out there subscribe to the four day work week and actually follow through on it?
In any case, I know I will get better at this through practice and time, and I am more than grateful for all of the work. I also possibly think it’s normal to feel this way around this time of year? Anyone want to corroborate that for me?
IN THE STUDIO
After all that complaining about not knowing how to carve out time for personal projects, I now bring you - ta da! - a personal piece I did last month. Granted, it was for a group art show (I always need a reason and a deadline it seems) - but I used the prompt to make something I had been dreaming about, allowed myself to experiment with materials, and kept the piece for myself!
In other news, there’s a lot of exciting things brewing behind the scenes for the coming months. I’m co-curating an art show at Happy Anyway this summer (more on that later), working on some product design (a new-to-me skill) for Fairbanks Bread and planning on co-teaching a workshop later this year with my calligraphy teacher & friend, Jade Novarino! There are lots of fun projects in the works for sweet wonderful clients, and I am ever so grateful to be living and working in a city filled with such creativity.
WHAT I’M LOOKING AT
The Portland Art Museum has an incredible show up right now through June 15th - Psychedelic Rock Posters & Fashion of the 1960’s - and it’s SO good. I’m planning on going at least two more times before it closes to soak up all of the lettering and layout goodness. I bought a book from the show and plan on diving more into the history of the art form and will report back next month! For now, here are a few examples from the show -
The colors! The lettering! The layout! A visual kaleidoscope! You don’t want to miss this!
SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION
And now for a round up of workshops and events! I usually don’t teach many workshops from late Spring into early Autumn, since that’s prime paintin’ time! But the few I am teaching are listed below :)
I’ll be at Outlet PDX teaching Hand Lettering & Sign Painting for RISO workshops THIS SATURDAY May 3rd and then again on September 20th - these are one day workshops focused on lettering techniques for RISO printing. (FYI they do require that you’ve taken their RISO basics workshop beforehand)
On Saturday June 28th, 10 AM - 4 PM, I will be teaching another Gold Leaf Gilding workshop at Wildcraft. The first workshop went so well we decided to add another one for summer - come join me and learn about surface gilding!
Lastly, my former studio mate Alina and I wrote an article for Better Letters Magazine about our Mr. Plywood sign recreation! Read all about it here!
Thank you everyone for being here, for reading, and for supporting my work. Please feel free to reply with your thoughts, ideas and suggestions on what you’d like to see in upcoming newsletters! Thank you for being in community with me.
And if you’d like to book me for a future sign, design project or private workshop, please reach out - I’d love to collaborate with you!
Until next time :)
I also try break my days up into 3 “units” (3 hours per unit with a bonus transition hour allotted after each if I need to “wrap up”, make lunch, take a nap or shit hits the fan). I’ve found it’s hard for me to do this “perfectly” more than 3 days a week though because I get de-railed (by both internal and/or external forces), but when I have those days (especially several in a row) I feel so much more sane! It’s slowly become something that even when I’m not trying to strictly adhere to the “unit” format I am still more conscious of needing to move on to the next part of my day before I burn out or get on a rabbit hole . Typically it goes 1a) mental & physical heath (walks, rage on a page, meditation, yoga, sketching outside) 1b) transition/wrap up 2a) art/creative practice (research, classwork, process art) 2)b transition/wrap up 3a) cleaning/laundry, groceries, errands, meal prep, cooking 3b) wind down (chilling, tv, reading, etc). Excited to hear more about what works for you so I can steal ideas :)