What I’m working on – August 2026

I’ve been reading How To Live An Artful Life: 366 Inspirations from Artists on how to Bring Creativity to Your Everyday by Katy Hessel this year. (sorry for the Walmart link but it’s better than Amazon?? maybe??) It’s sort of an artist daily devotional. The focus in August is:

“…looking at getting ideas from unexpected places; seeking out the beauty that we can get for free; observing things one at a time; placing emphasis on the importance of play and harking back to the fantastical sensibilities we might have had in childhood.”

And that feels exactly right as I work on this project that is about Barbie from my childhood this month.

Where you can see my work

The Star (Light my Way) is in the show Borderless. It will be on display at Lowe Mill in the ALWCA 2nd Floor Gallery South. The show runs until August 29, 2026 with a closing reception on August 29th from 5-7pm. I’m planning on attending the reception so if you are in town, I’d love to see you!

Coming up in September!

My work Into the Unknown both the book and the video will be in the Decatur Arts Alliance show “The Book As Art v.14: Ghosted.” That will run September 11 – October 24, 2026. More information on that as it becomes available.

I’m thrilled that I’m getting to show this work and doubly so that both the book and video are going to be on exhibit. Working with my nephew Sam was a thrill and I hope it works out that we can do another project together at some point.

Open calls I’m working on

I mentioned last month that I might not apply to any more shows this year. And that’s probably true. I likely will look at Call for Entry though a few more times this year to see what’s available.

One of the things I got dinged on in my grant application was that my show experience was largely limited to Lowe Mill and ALWCA. So in thinking ahead to when I might apply for that grant again (maybe 2028 because I just can’t face doing it again in January 2027), I’d like to have some additional venues on my resume.

The tricky part is applying to shows costs money and shipping items back and forth out of state costs money. And as you probably don’t have a money tree in your backyard, neither do I. So I’m weighing what is financially feasible long term with applying to things while I have fresh work.

A little peek behind the curtain: many shows/fellowships/residencies/grants won’t allow you to submit work that’s more than three years old (sometimes five but usually three). I have a lot of Thoughts™ on that policy, but it is what it is and I have to abide by it. Which means when I have newer work, I need to be putting it out there as much as I am able. (I’ve got a post brewing about the grant process I went through earlier this year and it will likely include some of these thoughts! More than you ever wanted to know, I’m sure!!)

Paper Things

I’m working on the next piece in the In Search of Alchemy series and so I’ve been gathering papers for that project.

Digging through my wider paper stash to create a small subset to pull from for a project is one of my favorite things to do. The act of pulling things out of many bins and combining them in a new bin allows for so much interesting serendipity. This serendipity is usually where the energy and magic comes from for me. Just the act of pulling things out to arrange them for this picture got me all excited about the current stage of this project.

Crochet Things

I’ve been working on (and finishing!) a few things. The pink and gray piece in the photo above I made during Art Retreat Week and it’s a huge component of that work.

I finished this sweater during Art Retreat Week as well:

My current crochet work in progress is the Mischievous Magpie Shawlette I’ve been working on (and procrastinating on) since December 2025:

The thing you need to know about me and crochet is that I have PERMANENT, FULL TIME startitus. And I’ve made myself commit to finishing this shawl before I start anything new. So here’s to getting it done in August!!

Other things in progress

The past few months I’ve set a lot of goals and had trouble meeting them. It’s partly summer and partly just where my life is at the moment. We are moving our last kiddo to college mid-month so instead of trying to set any more goals here, I’m just going to take this month as it comes.

Thank you for stopping in! Nothing on my website is AI generated. Not the art I make and not the words I write. If you’d like to keep up with what I’m working on, I’d love to have you as a newsletter subscriber. I include blog posts from here, cool things I find online, and occasionally pictures of my dog. Sign up here. Or if you want to drop me a note to catch me up on what you’re working on, email me here. Lastly, if you like what I do and want to support my work you can buy me a coffee.