Fall Newsletter 2023
Growing pains and joining an art studio.
Hi friends,
First there was the preparation and the impatience and the waiting, then the physicality of packing and moving, and now, in the settling into a new country, there is everything else: growth, love, pain, grief, joy, possibility, loss.
I’ve been reminded again and again these past few months of how messy life is. How infinitely complex humans are. How none of us truly know what we’re doing, but we’re doing it anyway. (Go us.) And how art and friends and pets and glimmers help us through, one day at a time.
Without further ado, here's what I've been thinking and writing about over the past few months:
I joined a studio collective here in Cologne, a shared space with ten other artists. A week after I got the keys, we held an open studio. If you’re ever in the area, please come visit!
Each December I do a year-end reflection, but reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits this summer inspired me to do a mid-year review as well.
I finally filmed the art journal that I finished up in April! See a flip-through at the bottom of this message, or check it out on YouTube.
My long-time internet friend A. B. Rutledge revived the Kindred Collective, and I was (am) happy to take part.
I’ve been feeling the pull to write more, and have been soaking up the exquisite work of Yung Pueblo, Lyndsay Rush, Celeste Ng, David Gate, and Brianna Wiest. (Let me know if you have suggestions of poetry or prose that captures the messy and weird and beautiful experience of being human and stumbling through life.)
When my creative practice feels out of whack, it usually means I need to try something new. I made a tiny art journal for making weird, impulsive art in, and went back to my Gelli plate for new experiments.
And finally, this marks a year of newsletters from yours truly! If you missed previous publications, you can catch up here.
Thanks for reading and sharing this space with me. The next newsletter will go out the first day of winter but til then, you can find me at my blog or on Instagram.
Take care,
Ingrid
PS. If you're new — hi! Let me introduce myself.