Can We Have It All?: Redefining Success

Our culture is obsessed with success stories. We love a good rags to riches tale, an American Idol who came from nowhere and rose to the top can move millions to cast their votes, and we teach our kids they can become whatever they want to be if they just work hard enough. The dark [...]

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Summer Pierre: The Artist in the Office

“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard I have been thinking a lot about jobs lately – why we work, how we end up doing what we do, what those choices lead to, etc.  I’ve often felt a disconnect between what I do for a living and what [...]

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Mothering on the Middle Road

Modern mothers are bombarded with vast amounts of conflicting information about their parenting choices and are pressured to choose sides. Even upon becoming pregnant, it felt as if I had to opt between a hypnotic orgasmic water birth at home or a conveniently planned c-section at a baby factory hospital. Like most issues in life, [...]

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Inspired (finally!)

Ah, the muse is back. The fog has lifted. The juices are flowing. Insert whatever mixed metaphor here that works for saying I feel like my old creative self again. My son is almost eight months old, and on a great sleep schedule, and suddenly my brain is functioning again. For awhile there it was [...]

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Little Man Reads – 6 months

One of the perks of parenting, at least from the perspective of an aspiring author/illustrator, is having an excuse to read childrens books every day, multiple times a day. I can’t get enough of it, and fortunately, neither can my son. Periodically, I will post on Little Man’s favorites. He started showing interest when he [...]

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Studio Envy

I know I just wrote about being grateful and in the moment and enjoying just being, but this is also the time for looking forward and making resolutions for the new year and all that, right? I never make resolutions and I’m not about to start, but I do need to channel this feeling I’m [...]

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36 weeks, or A Love Letter to #1

At thirty-six weeks, I’m feeling a little miffed that we’re taught our whole lives that you’re pregnant for nine months and then you have a baby. Why does no one tell you it’s actually forty weeks, and that when you are fully nine months pregnant, you’ll still have a very long, uncomfortable month to go? [...]

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Ruth Reichl

I had only the vaguest notion of who Ruth Reichl was when I walked into the Herbst Theater for Friday night’s City Arts and Lectures discussion, but came away hungry for more of her. She not only fascinated my foodie husband and I with her stories about being a food critic for the New York [...]

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The Peace of Wild Things

I just finished reading Terry Tempest Williams‘ “Refuge“. She wrote about watching her mother and other women in her family deal with cancer while also seeing the bird refuge she loved threatened by the rising of the Great Salt Lake. Having just lost my mother a little over a year ago (though mine went suddenly [...]

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Maira Kalman

Maira Kalman, one of my favorite author/illustrators did a talk on TED (which is an exciting new find for me – it stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design – Ideas Worth Spreading, check it out!) back in 2007 about her book The Principles of Uncertainty. It’s great to get to see her in person just as [...]

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