Cover

Since my first entry in the journal was a self-portrait, I decided to do a second self-portrait for my last piece, the cover. I tried to refer to colors that recur throughout the journal. It's acrylic and digital.

Lots of beauty, and some unanticipated ugliness

My husband and I moved into our new house this weekend, so for most of the week I was toying with ideas for making entries about my this new environment -- the house our daughter will (as far as we can know) grow up in. It is the sweetest of houses in a small Minnesota town, and I am so happy here already. Unlike in the Cities, it is utterly silent here at night, and dark. The streets are quiet. Because it's summer, everything is green. And our land has fruit trees on it -- cherry, apple, plum. I even discovered that the land was once owned by the founder of this town, John North, in the 1850s, which is so neat.

Our new town seems like the perfect place to grow up, and I can already imagine our little girl exploring all of the things contained in this house and in this town.

So, basically, this is one of the happiest times of my life, full of hope and excitement and real joy. I've been writing (and drawing) about this wonderful time all week (all summer, really, thanks to the visual journals class), so I decided to do something different for my entries this week. I decided to document (in photos, because that's a medium I knew I could work quickly in, and I had to be cruelly realistic about time management this week) some of the ugly and unpleasant things around me right now, because these "thorns" are temporary -- the boxes will eventually be unpacked, someday we'll replace the horrible linoleum, my studio won't always be a disaster area, the house will get clean. But right now, those things are unattractive and chaotic and stress-causing. I decided to capture some of those things because, unlike my happy family and our plum tree, they will soon disappear.

Here's the first set of images. Gross!

Floor and more

Ugly 1970s flooring, plus a dim and gross corner of the house... the dark side of home ownership!

Moving while trying to be an illustrator

I happened to get a freelance illustration job for one of the big children's magazines -- my most important freelance job so far -- smack in the middle of the busiest time of my life (busiest up until now -- I know it will be even crazier after the baby is born!). I wanted to document the ridiculous state of my new studio as I try to finish the freelance assignment, unpack the basic things we need to survive at the new house, finish my three summer courses, mitigate my pregnancy-related exhaustion by occasionally resting, and keep a sense of humor about all of it!