Where to begin?
2017 was a big year. A tumultuous year personally as well as politically. So many changes, in my world, in our world. So many that I'm still playing catchup. I got engaged, married, quit my day job to work for myself full time, and left my home of sixteen years to move with my love to New Mexico.
Last year, post heartbreaking election of 2016, I retreated a bit from the online realm, instead mostly writing and drawing offline in piles of tiny notebooks and sketchbooks. I'm planning on sharing some of those stories here in some form or another, but to start with here is a bit of a highlights reel / year in a day:
Above is a sketch from one of those books, made after the Women's March in Chicago in January 2017. It was exhilarating, heartwarming, inspiring, and hopeful to see so many people in the streets marching, and wonderful to see them return this past January, in my new city of Santa Fe.
I didn't see any alligators, but NOLA and Mississippi are beautiful, especially in contrast to a March in Chicago.
Barefoot in the museum! By far my favorite show last year was the Hélio Oiticica show at the Art Institute - it was magical!
In June we went to visit Soni's family in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I had been there once before on a childhood vacation, and it was as enchanting as I'd remembered it. The coast and buildings still reminded me of the coast of Maine where I grew up, but without being as overly developed as southern Maine is. We could walk for an hour on a cliff side trail and might not even see anyone else. It was beautiful and foggy, and my favorite spot was this little cabin in Terence Bay.
When we decided in late spring to move to Santa Fe at the end of the year, we also decided to get married in Chicago before we left. With all the unknowns and the planning that the move would take on, we wanted to plan something small, informal and fun. Our family and friends joined us at the Hollywood Beach in Chicago for a short ceremony and a picnic! We did almost everything ourselves - dyeing the picnic napkins, making flower arrangements etc. We got some picnic boxes from the Goddess and the Grocer, and my sister Molly (aka LADY KRISPIE) made our wedding cake! The weather even cooperated, starting to sprinkle only as we were trying to get everyone to head back to our apartment for the after party...
After the wedding but before the big move, Soni and I went to Wyoming and Montana for a much needed break. Part honeymoon and part artist residency, it was a welcome change in scenery.
Moody November watercolors...
Our last visit to Lake Michigan, the lake and sky as always with beautiful and ever changing colors.
Our welcome to Santa Fe included a walk on the Aspen Vista trail, only fifteen minutes from our new house. I'll miss the water, but the mountains and forests and high desert are certainly making up for it.
xoR