Journal
Taproot Contributor :: Jennifer Judd McGee
[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1608,1609,1607,1610,1611,1614,1612,1621,1606,1615,1613,1616,1617,1628,1631,1622,1618,1623,1619,1620,1627,1625,1630,1632,1629,1626,1624"]
Continuing with our Taproot Interview Series, we'd like to introduce you to Jennifer Judd McGee. Jennifer is a full time artist and mother of two. She was our cover artist for Taproot Magazine throughout 2012. Jennifer recently renovated an old house with her family and works from home in her downeast Maine studio. Papercutting and illustration are her primary mediums, and her work is influenced by her coastal surroundings. She shows her original work in galleries across the US. You can find more of her work at www.jenniferjuddmcgee.com
Meredith: You've been making art full time since 2007. How has working for yourself, from a home studio, changed and grown over the years? What does a typical creative day look like for you?
Jennifer: Well, when I started making art I didn't have a proper studio - a lot of it happened at the dining room table in my house in Portland (Maine.) It felt pretty crazy! Since then my family and I have moved to Mount Desert Island and renovated a very old house, adding a proper basement studio for me. We added some nice windows that look out over the field next to our house, which I love. And it's really nice to have a space where I can leave work in progress and know that it's not in anyone's way.
A typical day for me involves answering emails, checking Etsy, preparing and shipping orders, working on original pieces or illustration jobs for different publishers and companies I work with, and a million other little jobs. It's nice that no two days ever seem to be exactly the same. This time of year is very busy on Mount Desert Island - we're a huge vacation destination because Acadia National Park is here - and my own business is a lot busier in the summer because of the different shops and galleries I work with ramp up and do the majority of their sales between May and October. So I am often trying to keep up with producing enough original work and inventory for the local shops. I love working with them.
MW: You draw inspiration from your environment (living so close to the beauty of nature located on Mount Desert Island) Can you share a bit of your process with us? Do you take photographs or collect treasures on your hikes or do you rely on memory and imagination to start your creations?
JJM: I grew up on MDI, but I don't think I truly appreciated just how gorgeous and unique this part of the world is until I was an adult. I can hike a very short distance and be in Acadia, and there are some really incredible gardens - the Thuya Garden and the Azalea Garden - really close to my house. I feel so lucky to have such close proximity to these amazing places. At this time of year the Azalea Garden is peaking, and I take a lot of walks over there to soak it all in. It has lots of little paths and quiet places for reflection, and the colors and forms are pretty magical. My kids love to hike and bike, so we do that a lot too. I take a lot of photos and use them for inspiration, and I also rely on memory. Much of my recent work is not about specific places, exactly - I've been going more for the feeling one might have spending time here.
MW: There is a lovely video online that shares a glimpse of you and your process. To quote your kids, you "get on the art channel" when you are in the zone with creating. That's a great description and very telling of the space required by artists to create. Your kids have grown up with you creating art. Did you find the early years a lesson in time management? As they are older now, has it become easier to balance work and motherhood? Do your kids create art with you?
JJM: When my kids were little my time management skills were terrible. I was so very happy to be working from home and getting to spend more time with them, AND it was pretty tricky at times, too. I still find that balance to be a hard thing - I feel more able to be disciplined now, and their schedules are more regular, so it's evened out a bit. The kids often come home from school and will do their homework with me while I am working, and we'll catch up and talk. And they both help me with certain jobs now, too, which is great. They're going into 10th grade and 8th grade this fall, and lately I find myself feeling panicky that I will close my eyes and they'll be out of the nest all together - so I try to appreciate every minute they want to spend hanging out with me. They're both very creative themselves, and the house is full of musical instruments, drawing supplies, embroidery and you name it. This week they've been working on a ukelele and mandolin duet, and it's been so much fun to listen to them play.
MW: How do you keep yourself learning and growing as an artist? Some artists find inspiring weekends a necessity for keeping the creativity and connectivity flowing (like time spent at Maine's Haystack Mountain or Watershed Center). Do you find yourself diving into learning new tools if you are away on a working/creating art weekend? What art mediums are you finding particularly exciting right now?
JJM: Even though it can feel scary as an introverted person, I've found that I love and crave putting myself in learning environments as often as I can. I've been lucky to get to spend time at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts three times in the past few years, and it's come to be my favorite place on earth. Each time I've gone I've tried a different studio and medium, and tried to put myself out of my comfort zone a bit. I've studied printmaking, improvisational quilt making and blacksmithing so far. In addition to being a beautiful place with great food and amazing teachers, what I love the most is being around so many other creative people from all over the world. I've made some wonderful friendships and have come away with lasting inspiration. Haystack has a Fab Lab, and that was where I first learned that I had a huge crush on what a laser cutter can do - and I've since purchased one for my studio and am doing some interesting and exciting work with it. My primary medium these days is freehand paper cutting, and it can be pretty time consuming - but i think it's really amazing that I can send the image of a papercut I've done by hand to this machine and it will cut or etch the design onto paper, glass or wood. I'm working on some wood etched jewelry and some small editions of laser cut "prints" of a few of my papercuts, among other things.
MW: Your art graced the covers of Taproot Magazine during 2012 (our first year!) and we continue enjoying and sharing your work within our pages. In addition to Taproot you do a variety of work with/for Target, Land of Nod, MTA Arts NYC Subway, Timberland, and Storey Publishing (to name a few!) Do you have any future projects you are working on that you can share with us?
JJM: I've had a lot of fun continuing to do work for Taproot! I especially loved working on the papercut I did for this most recent SEED issue. A few other jobs I'm working on right now are continued work with places like Land of Nod, Hallmark, and Urban Outfitters - and my biggest push this year has been getting ready for a solo show of my original work for the Blum Gallery at College of the Atlantic, my alma mater, which opens on 7/3 and will be up through 9/12. I've done a ton of original papercutting for it, and it will also have an installation component of strung paper and sail cloth flags (cut on my laser cutter!) hung throughout the gallery. This will be the largest show I've ever done, and I've had a lot of fun getting ready for it.
Thanks so much for your time, Jennifer! It's been a pleasure getting a glimpse into your creative process.
~meredith
Taproot Stockist :: Brooklyn General Store in Brooklyn, New York
[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1592,1583,1582,1584,1585,1586,1587,1588,1589,1590,1591,1593,1594,1595,1596,1597,1598,1599,1600"]
Brooklyn General Store
128 Union Street
Brooklyn, New York
Continuing our tour of Taproot stockists, today we bring you to New York City where you'll find Taproot Magazine in Brooklyn General Store! We paid them a visit during our recent trip to NYC. It's impossible not to feel completely comfortable and at home the moment you walk in the door - I could have sat right down and knit the day away. But oh! There was just too much goodness to wander around and look at - handcrafted beauty, great class offerings that made me want to stick around a while longer, fun notions I'd never seen before, and of course all the yarn and fabric supplies I could want for a project - all carefully selected, and artfully displayed. It was a treat to pay them a visit, and to find Taproot sitting out on their table. A reminder that there is so much that connects us all - no matter where we are.
Do pay them a visit next time you're in the area! And if Brooklyn General happens to be your local yarn and fabric supply store and Taproot stockist, lucky you!
(For a near-complete list of Taproot stockists visit here. And if you have or know of a shop who should carry Taproot, contact us!)
~amanda
From the Office: NYC on Film
[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1547,1559,1548,1545,1546,1564,1557,1567,1556,1555,1550,1551,1552,1554,1558,1560,1561,1562,1565,1563,1566"]
In the brief lull between issues, it was so nice to spend a few days criss-crossing New York City on foot and by subway, exploring neighborhoods and dreaming up new ideas for Taproot—armed with two heavy film cameras, naturally. My shoulders may have felt the burden, but getting the photos back in the mail two weeks later makes it all worth it.
~jessie
Taproot Contributor :: Carrie Bostick Hoge
[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1514,1511,1507,1516,1509,1510,1515,1508,1512,1517,1513"]
Continuing with our Taproot Interview Series, we'd like to introduce you to Carrie Bostick Hoge. Carrie is a photographer, knitter and designer. She lives in Maine with her husband, daughter and animals and dreams of living on a small farm someday where she’ll be surrounded by much more flora and fauna. She works and creates for Madder out of her backyard studio.You can find more of her work at www.maddermade.com
Meredith: Carrie, you studied at Parsons School of Design for Photography and began your career as a photographer. When did knitting and photography professionally merge for you?
Carrie: Knitting and photography merged after I met Pam Allen! We met in 2006, through the small Portland grape-vine—little did I know that meeting her would change my creative focus towards knitting and that I would end up working with her for several years. At that point I was a hobby knitter and a day-dreamer knitwear designer, with a little unread blog. My relationship with photography was confusing—I didn't feel like a fine art photographer, nor was I driven to do commercial work. I saw photography as a wonderful tool for documenting my work and progress in my studio, my travels local and abroad, and my everyday life with family and friends.
I started another blog, more focused on knitting, called Swatch Diaries and worked on a self-published book called Away/Japan. Pam was a big supporter of my photography and when she changed jobs to Classic Elite Yarns she brought me on board and tapped into those skills—among other duties, I photographed the weekly web-letter and a few pattern booklets.
In January of 2010, we started working on Quince & Co. And in May of that year, I photographed the premier collection, now called Prima. I spent the following 3 years discovering I have a passion for photographing beautiful knitted things. I'm so happy and grateful that Pam found me.
Meredith: Are design ideas typically born from necessity? Something designed for your daughter Imogen came from the seasonal needs of a baby? Where do you find your inspiration?
CBH: Design ideas often come from a combination of yarn and a particular stitch I'm interested in. So, usually, I'll swatch away and think about what kind of fabric the pair make and what type of garment or accessory is appropriate. And sometimes I know I need to use a certain yarn to make a sweater. In which case, I make a swatch to see what kind of fabric the yarn makes—is it drapey or sturdy? Once some of those questions are answered, I begin to think about a desirable silhouette. I get a lot of my inspiration from being outside in nature and from my own thoughts on comfort and simplicity—and I can't help but confess to my Pinterest addiction.
Meredith: Balancing motherhood with a creative life and work can be challenging. Does this balance exist? Can you share how you juggle the two? What does a typical creative day look like for you?
CBH: Balance is tricky, as I have learned recently. At the end of last year, I made the tough-yet-easy choice to leave Quince & Co. to be home more for my daughter. Some weeks are little crazy and unstructured if I have photography jobs going on (like right now!), because the days are long and the prep work is both time consuming and mind consuming. If I'm not working on a photo gig, then my creative days are usually Tuesday through Thursday while she is at a pre-school for half a day. It's not much time, though. Often, I'll be knee-deep in writing a knitting pattern and—that's it—my work day is over. So, my work time often spills into early mornings before Imogen wakes up or while she naps. I am very lucky to have my mom around a lot so sometimes she takes Immie for a few hours at time so I can be productive.
Balance is definitely something I'm struggling with—how to get done what I want or need to get done, while still being present and available for my family?! For me the key is knowing my limitations so I don't take on too much or expect too much from myself. But it's so hard to say no sometimes...and so hard to keep the creative ideas reined in when you really have the drive (and not the time) to see them through. I wish I had more wisdom to offer on this subject.
Meredith: How long does it take you to complete a pattern from design inception, to modification to presentation to the public?
CBH: A long time! I'm not sure how long exactly since I keep wanting to design collections, not just one single piece—which would be a lot easier! But, a couple months at least. There is a lot of work to be done before I am ready to even write the pattern. There's swatching and sitting with the idea for a while to make sure the design is worth the time and energy to follow through. I am very indecisive so this part can often be arduous. Then, there's the pattern writing and proofing. And, if the design is going to a sample knitter then there's extra time put into proofing the instructions and sometimes there's a thoughtful back and forth with the knitter. After the sample is ready, then I wear it around—am I happy with the fit? Does anything need to be modified? When the pattern and sample are where I want them to be, then the pattern gets tech edited and graded, which can often take several weeks (or months) depending on their work load. I feel fortunate that I can photograph the garment and design the pattern layout rather quickly on my own. This is actually the part I like best. I love seeing the finished results—it makes all the work seem worthwhile.
Meredith: What's in your knitting basket today? Do you find your knitting changes with the seasons?
CBH: Oh, my knitting basket(s)! Right now I am working on a shawl in Plucky Knitter yarn and a blanket in Osprey. I don't like to have too many projects going at once, otherwise I find things don't get finished. I also have a basket full of yarns balled up because I need to swatch them for upcoming designs.
New England is a colorful place and changes so dramatically from one season to the next, it's easy to become affected by that. In Fall, I definitely want my rusty browns. But, spring comes and I'm drawn to paler shades, lighter weight yarns, and more open stitch patterns. Though, I must admit, right now I'm not able to knit to my fancy since I have some work-knitting to take care of...which is fun, too.
Thanks so much for your time and insight, Carrie, it's great to get a peek into your knitting world. We can't wait to see your newest creations in the pages of Taproot!
~meredith
Taproot Contributor :: Thorpe Moeckel
[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1456,1461,1458,1459,1453,1451,1452,1454,1455,1460,1457"]
Continuing with our Taproot Interview Series, we'd like to introduce you to Thorpe Moeckel. Thorpe's prose and poetry has been featured in issues 2-4 and 6-9 of Taproot Magazine. Through his writing, we are invited into his world of well-crafted words. Homesteading, family life, goats, wood stoves named Gracie and the beauty of every day reality are the threads that connects us to his stories. Thorpe teaches at Hollins University and lives on a small farm near Buchanan, VA, where he helps his wife Kirsten and their children make good eats from their Nubian dairy herd, sheep, poultry, and big garden. Thorpe is the author of three books, most recently Venison: (2010, Etruscan Press). Other works include Odd Botany and Making a Map of the River. Thorpe Moeckel's fourth book, Arcadia Road, is forthcoming in 2015.
Meredith Winn: Thorpe, you have the heart of a poet and the mind of a naturalist. You're an author of three books and have been awarded the 2011 NEA fellowship in poetry. Your life experiences (teaching, fathering, homesteading and being a river guide) take focus in your stories and poetry. When did you know you wanted to be a writer and a poet? Do you find farming/homesteading to be a complimentary work ethic to writing/teaching?
Thorpe Moeckel: As a kid, I messed around with words in my head, on paper, and in talking. Making up words, playing with the sounds and meanings of words, was always fun for me, and it was more than fun at times -- it was comforting, deeply so. In college, I mostly majored in the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer and various field guides, meaning I focused on what the woods and rivers and coasts and locals of Maine had to teach as much as what my classes did; a course with Frank Burroughs my senior year, where we read Faulkner, connected these impulses, made me start writing with a dedication I'd never known or expected. Faulkner's ways exploded something in me, as if what he heard (and distilled) from teachers, readings, lands, waters, people held a key, unlocked something in me. I memorized paragraphs from his works. I copied him badly and often. That same season, spring of '94, a friend Pete Relic gave me Denis Johnson's poems and his book Jesus' Son -- o my. I wrote and wrote a lot of imitative, crappy stuff and kept messing outside, leaving college and summers guiding on the Chattooga River to lead 30-day Outward Bound-adaptive trips for state-sentenced (Pennsylvania) youth offenders. For a few years I did this, six trips/180 days a year on the trail, sleeping out and so forth, all these wonderful, chaotic, tough, beautiful kids, learning more from them and the woods and weather and seasons, trying to, watching them, and I kept writing, wrote a lot in the early mornings and memorized poems on the trail during the day and fell hard into poetry. I didn't have the attention span for prose then – maybe my life was too nomadic.
The teaching job at Hollins led us to affording these 18 acres, but Kirsten and Sophie, my wife and oldest daughter, led us to caring for this place and making food the way we do. They are amazing with animals and plants and soil and people, all the loving, humble attention and care, the domestic life, the critters and plants and neighbors. They are artists of the domestic, great ones. They work and care their hearts out, and have a way as if everything they touch turns magic; it's amazing. I'm the often neglinquent maintenance man, but day in and day out there are chores and things to fix and tend to and so on, and I help. The last nine years or so of doing this led to daily, weekly, seasonal patterns and rhythms that made prose writing more natural than it had felt prior to living here. I like teaching writing and reading and great books, have inspirational students and colleagues, and I like the academic schedule, the time to help Kirsten and Sophie, and to read and write and mess around, when possible, outside the fences.
MW: What does a typical creative day look like for you? Can you share thoughts on balancing (or the illusion of balancing) homesteading a small farm, raising a family, and working outside the home? If you have a few words to describe your experience maintaining a creative work/life/career what would they be?
T.M: The only thing typical about a day is this: coffee, chores, meals, and if I'm not teaching or going to meetings at work, then maybe some writing. Lately the big writing shots have come at odd, sleepless times, sort of binge-sessions. But I take a lot of notes -- not really a journal, more drafting notes, sketchbook stuff-- and I'm always writing and working on sentences and paragraphs in my head. Always. Yes, I'm distracted, focusedly so. The things I'm working on, revising, they are audacious, and working around this place or driving and cutting wood or playing with the kids, making coffee, whatever, the words are moving, they are messing around, and I'm, in a way, herding him, and in another way, I’m trying to tear down all the fences, trying to let them be free and wild again.
To maintain a creative work/life/career: stay in the flow -- even when everything feels dammed up, you have to trust that you're in it, the flow, or close to it, and if you're not and can't find your way back in, you'll know it because then you'll be losing your marbles and that's no good for anybody, so you better find a way back in no matter what. Ways back in, ways to blow up the dams are various and seasonal and personal; some include working with my hands/body on a focused project outside, a jog or a walk, exploring with Kirsten and the kids, jumping in the creek – lots of ways.
MW: "Revision dreams" and patience is how you describe the process of drafting your written work. Can you share with us a bit of your writing process? Do you write or journal every day? How do you work through creative blocks and tap into the muse?
T.M: The response to #2 addresses this, but yes, weirdly, I used to dream sentences/poems being revised a lot more than I do now, or remember upon waking doing now.
MW: In your Bowdoin interview you mention being inspired by the poetry of Robinson Jeffers and how you saw his poetry relating to your life and how you were living at the time. Would you describe this as a pivotal point in your writing career? What other writers, artists and poets do you go to for inspiration?
T.M: I mentioned Jeffers specifically in relation to the poem Frank Burroughs showed us the fall of my freshman year at Bowdoin, a class called "Entering Nature." Frank was at that reading/interview. He's a great writer and person, a quiet, deep influence. It was a well known Jeffers poem called "Hurt Hawks." I was a very confused kid then and a poor student grade-wise, but I memorized that poem and spoke it a lot, and it helped keep me safe, I think, while I did a lot of things young men do. I was about to leave Bowdoin to learn about and from the Chattooga River, an amazing place, while working as a raft guide. I was lucky, so lucky to find my way back there (to Bowdoin) after a while, and lucky too to be able to keep working on the Chattooga in the summers, and I was a different, hopefully better sort of confused then, as now.
MW: As a professor in the MFA program at Hollins University, you are steeped in the written word and literary culture. Do you have any words of advice for new writers? Do you have any upcoming projects (written, life, farm or otherwise) that you are looking forward to this year?
T.M: Projects underway include, first, getting our family back into a healthy living space. We’ve had home health – Lyme, mold – issues, and it’s been a tough year, but we’re on a path towards changing that. I always look forward to the words that Taproot bases its issues on; these words bring a busy life into relief, give it shape. Also, there’s a book coming out in 2015, a trilogy of long poems called Arcadia Road, which is the road where we live, exit 168 off of I-81 in Botetourt County, Virginia.
My main advice for new writers is this: Turn off your phone, close your email, close all the parasitic internet stuff. If possible, do not even own a cell phone and use some of the money you'd save then to buy books or buy time to read them, read and live with them until you feel them in your blood.
We thought you'd enjoy hearing Thorpe read his own poetry. Click on the links below and listen to Thorpe read three of his poems: Southern Cresent, Beginning to Peel, and Trees and Stars.
~ meredith
Taproot Stockist :: Wheatsville Co-op in Austin, TX
[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1432,1436,1437,1429,1431,1440,1441,1439,1430,1435,1434,1438"]
Welcome to Austin, Texas! We're pleased to introduce you to Wheatsville Co-op. This is part of our series of visits to our Taproot stockists - the fabulous independent and like-minded local shops who carry our magazine and products all over the country - and in some cases - all over the world.
Wheatsville Co-op is a full service, natural foods cooperative grocery store, which has been serving the central Austin community since 1976. Wheatsville recently opened a second store in South Austin where the slideshow above was photographed. The purpose of the co-op is to create a self-reliant, self-empowering community of people that will grow and promote a transformation of society toward cooperation, justice, and non-exploitation. Their primary focus is supplying high-quality food and non-doctrinaire information about food to people in Austin. Next time you are in Texas, pay them a visit! You'll find their southern hospitality to be a warm welcome.
(For a near-complete list of Taproot stockists visit here. And if you have or know of a shop who should carry Taproot, contact us!)
~meredith
Taproot Contributor :: Phoebe Wahl
[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1401,1398,1391,1392,1396,1390,1386,1388,1393,1389,1387,1399,1397,1394,1395,1400"]
It has been a great pleasure to work with our contributors for each issue of Taproot Magazine. Behind the scenes, the process of creating our magazine is multi-layered (from concept to sketch/draft to layout to print) - the magic you find between the pages of Taproot reflects not only our aesthetics and ethos but the creativity and imagination of our contributors as well. It's a symbiotic relationship, and one we feel grateful for.
We're thrilled to introduce you to our Taproot Interview Series, where you'll find nuggets of inspiration and thoughts from the people who help create this magazine. An interview with a regular contributor feels like a conversation shared over a cup of tea, between work and chores, all the while sharing a bit more from "behind the scenes" with the writers, crafters, and artists that make up our community. Phoebe Wahl has been with Taproot since the very beginning and we're excited to launch this new series with a glimpse behind the scenes with Phoebe as she shares a bit about her art.
Phoebe is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in illustration. She spends her time illustrating the imaginary worlds she inhabited growing up in the Pacific Northwest through painting, sculpture, sewing or storytelling. You can find her wherever there are pillows, children's books and a cup of tea. Her work can be found in each issue of Taproot. To see more of her work, you can visit her online at phoebewahl.blogpost.com
By way of introducing you to Phoebe and our new Interview Series, our editor Meredith Winn sent a few questions her way. We hope you'll enjoy her responses and the above gallery of photographs she shared with us.
Meredith Winn: You create a world of wonder with your art. Ferns, fairies and families living together; life within your pieces have a magical quality to them. It's a nostalgic blend of everyday reality with a taste of idyllic childhood. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, do you find that your surroundings as a child and young adult worked their way into the art you are creating as an adult? Where else do you find inspiration?
PW: I definitely feel like where I grew up, in Bellingham, WA had a huge impact on my visual aesthetic. The concept of home, and all of the sensory experiences I associate with it are hugely inspirational and important to me. I spent a lot of time outdoors growing up, hiking, camping and exploring. My dad is a Washington native plant nut and every evening we would go on a ‘Yard Walk’ slowly moving through the garden, listening to birds, noticing what had bloomed, how things smelled and felt and tasted. I spent days on end with my sister and the other neighborhood kids in forts and hideouts in the bushes. I wrote letters to the fairies who lived in a mossy corner of our yard, and got letters back! I am so thankful for the level of exposure I was given to the natural world from such a young age, it has played an enormous part in shaping who I am and how I interact with the world. The things I’m drawn to create now are very similar to the things I drew and painted as a child. Which is comforting in a way, that I really haven’t changed all that much. My work has really always been about nature, loving moments between people, and magic, tiny worlds. Books have always been and still are big for me, reading old favorites, especially picture books, never ceases to inspire. I love the work of Barbara Cooney, Alice & Martin Provensen, Elsa Beskow, Garth Williams, Roger Duvoisin, Elisa Kleven, Tove Jansson, Rie Munoz, Bonnard, Vuillard, Cassatt, Chagall, Matisse and Grandma Moses. The list could go on forever...!
Meredith: When you graduated from RISD did you experience a shift in your creative process moving from an art school setting into creating your own work schedule with a studio in your home? Do you structure your work day or does it flow naturally? What does a typical creative day look like for you?
PW: It definitely has been an adjustment learning to manage my time outside of school. But it almost feels like a re-adjustment, since as a unschooler growing up managing my own time working on different projects came very naturally. I fall into a loose schedule in the way that I work, but in general it’s all just time management of what needs to get done when. I’ll have periods that are more hectic, and ones that are more calm. It depends if the sun is shining, if my roommate Brailey is home to hang out with, if I’m reading a good book...
Generally I try to do any computer work I have to do, like answering emails, in the morning, and move on to physical creating (drawing, painting, sewing) by noon. One thing that I learned the hard way in college is that taking time to take care of yourself, to cook and read and relax and be social, can only make you a better worker. I find working from home makes it hard not to work ALL the time, since it’s always staring me in the face. My studio is also my bedroom. So I can’t escape. It’s important to keep reminding myself that investing in a happy, whole life for myself outside of my studio will only ever be reflected positively in my work.
Meredith: You have an upcoming children's book to be published in 2015. What was your favorite part of this process? Do you often incorporate story with your art? You work with many different mediums. Illustration as well as sculptures from felted, wired, and recycled fabrics are part of your portfolio and shop. Do you have a favorite medium?
PW: I am still very early in the process, so it’s hard to say. Writing a children's book and having it picked up by a publisher is definitely a really exciting reminder that writing is and always will be something I absolutely love to do. I think whether I’m conscious of it or not, story always incorporated in some way. It may never be written down, it may not be exciting and full of intrigue, but I have an overall knowledge of the world that all of my characters come from, and of their own individual paths and passions. So I guess you could say those are stories, for me it just knowledge that goes hand in hand with drawing someone...inevitably I begin to think about who they are and how they came to be on my paper.
The medium I am most comfortable in is watercolor, I’ve been painting with it since I was nine and it will always be special to me. But I also love printmaking, and working with drawing tools since I love line and texture. Pen and ink, colored pencil, charcoal and graphite... Collaging with paper is something I started doing in the last two years. I loved the dimension and solidity it added to my work, and the opportunity for detail and patterns incorporated from books and magazines. I have always loved and will always love working three dimensionally too, whether it’s with fabric, wire and felt, paper mache, or ceramics. I think all artists should give themselves the chance to work in 3D, it really informs understanding of the way shapes behave in space, which can only make you a better at drawing them.
Meredith: You recently shared your creative process with the folks over at Storyacious about the making of Moon Dance. You mention the importance as a working artist to make time to create pieces of art just for yourself, for "fun". Can you expand on this concept? As someone who makes a living from being creative, how do you stay mindful of balancing creative work and creative play?
PW: It can be very difficult, when the line is so thin between work and play. They’re so intertwined. Lately I’ve been thinking about this a lot, about how to keep myself engaged and excited about my own work, and what feels different about that than work I do for a client. I sometimes feel myself drawn more and more to work in abstraction in my sketchbook, or write for fun, or make something three dimensional that challenges me and feels completely different than an illustration. The other day I was frustrated with a piece and I jumped up, plopped myself in the middle of my room and started ferociously cutting up cardboard boxes and shaping them into a giant animal head. I never finished it. In fact, I ended up using it for kindling. But there was something about the spontaneous decision to sit down and make something ‘pointless’ that felt refreshing. I think it’s just good to allow myself to be unpredictable, and create things that keep me on my toes. Although it can be scary investing in that time, since it feels less ‘lucrative’ so to speak. But enormously essential. I still feel very new to the entire process of being a working artist, and I’m sure this feeling of work vs. play is something I’ll be dealing with for the rest of my life.
Meredith: You have a bustling work space and are always creating something lovely in your studio. Do you have any upcoming projects that you are excited about? We'd love to hear about what new projects you look forward to creating!
PW: Besides the book, I have been working on getting my entrepreneurial cap on by getting prepared in advance for upcoming holidays with seasonal goodies. For Mother’s Day I’ll have three new greeting cards and giclee prints coming into my Etsy shop. I’ll also hopefully be making some new mobiles that will be for sale soon. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about exploring animation further... that’s just a matter of investing in some equipment and time to explore...! I have a ton of long term ideas, ones that I may have to keep it in my back pocket until I have my dream homestead with a massive barn studio and acreage to do giant projects on…And of course I am VERY excited about all the upcoming work I’ll be doing with Taproot. It has been such a joy to have been a part of every issue so far. I can’t say thank you enough, both to the incredible Taproot team, and readers. The amount of positive feedback and love I receive from the Taproot community is so humbling and touching, I’m regularly blown away by everyone’s support. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for Taproot!
~ amanda & meredith
Behind the Scenes: Letterpress
[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1333,1334,1341,1344"]
Some exciting things have been happening behind the scenes at Taproot. Atop a corner desk in our office in Hardwick sits a cast-iron Chandler & Price letterpress, all 200 pounds of it, waiting to be restored and put back into use. It’s hard to say how old it is—I can’t find a serial number—but suffice it to say these presses had their heyday in the 1930s, although they were manufactured up until 1964. Ours is quite rusty, with a few parts missing, but it brings a certain charm to the office. With some cleaning, a little machine oil and a new set of rollers, it should be up and running like new. My plan: to take WD-40 and steel wool to it until it gleams.
I’ve been studying up on the art and craft of letterpress. There’s so much to learn, it’s dizzying. Luckily, I’ve found that other letterpressers tend to be generous and passionate about their art, and I’ve been able to learn the basics with a little help from some friendly local folks. I spent a day with Bob Metzler, of Thetford, who teaches letterpress at Dartmouth College, and discovered why this craft has become a calling for so many. After hours of laboriously finding and placing the tiny letters in the composing stick (upside down and backwards, of course), spacing them carefully with leads and slugs, and getting the whole block locked up in the chase, I printed my very first run of the poem I had brought along. The smell of the ink, the satisfying thunk of the press as I pulled down the lever, the steady rhythm of feeding in the paper: I was hooked.
Doing layout and design on the computer is efficient and accurate, and I love the visual nature of it. But I’m also looking forward to stepping away from the screen, working with ink and paper, and feeling my way through a process that’s been around for over 500 years.
Our hope with the letterpress is to periodically incorporate into our work, hand-pressed paper products that will embody all of these good things: slowing down, reclaiming a traditional art, and getting your hands dirty. And of course, creating something beautiful—from start to finish. We’ll keep you posted.
~jessie
Taproot Stockist :: Circa Home and Vintage in Portland, Maine
[gallery ids="1313,1312,1298,1299,1300,1301,1302,1303,1304,1305,1306,1307,1309,1310,1314,1311,1308"]
Circa Home and Vintage
247B Congress Street
Portland, Maine 04101
We're thrilled to introduce you to what we hope will be the first in a series of visits to our Taproot stockists - the fabulous independent and like-minded local shops who carry our magazine and products all over the country - and in some cases - all over the world.
Circa Home and Vintage is our first stop on that tour. A fun, funky, smart and beautiful shop in Portland's West End. Inside the storefront, you'll find a mix of vintage and new, handmade and eco-friendly gifts, decor, and necessities for folks of all ages. It's a thoughtfully curated shop - a true pleasure to browse - and we're so honored to be on the shelves there. Or as the case may be, on the midcentury coffee table, right next to the Waldorf-inspired beeswax crayons. Do pay them a visit next time you're in the neighborhood!
(For a near-complete list of Taproot stockists visit here. And if you have or know of a shop who should carry Taproot, contact us!)
~amanda
Beyond the Pages with Kimberly Peck
[gallery ids="1265,1266,1267,1268,1269,1270,1271,1272,1273,1274,1275"]
If you've received your copy of BREATHE, I'm sure you noticed the stunning photographs of apple trees and their blossoms opposite our Head, Hands, Heart divider pages, as well as on the back cover. Kimberly Peck shared those images with us, and we asked her to share some words here about the orchard and farmer photographed:
"Green Mountain Orchards, located in Putney, Vermont, is celebrating 100 years in 2014. It has been owned & operated by the Darrow family since 1914, starting with great-grandfather William Darrow, and passed down through the generations - currently going on it's 4th (photographed is Lara Darrow). The orchard has grown over the past 100 years, with a few acres purchased in 1914 to well over 100 today. They grow 36 varieties of apples over 100 acres, as well as 19 acres of blueberries, pears & raspberries (plus more fruits depending on the weather that year). They offer their own high-quality apple cider, as well as make-your-own-cider using their demonstration press. Pruning is done by hand, tree by tree, all winter long, and thining is done in the spring. Bees are rented to keep pollination going.
What sparked my interest, in addition to the orchard and the Darrow family being staples of the Putney community & southern Vermont, is that over the past 2 years they have installed solar panels as a way to switch to more efficient and 'green' energy. The energy needed to refrigerate their fruit over the winter months, sometimes as long as 8 months, (and they wholesale all winter long, with destinations as far as Boston) is an enormous amount, so they have found an alternative to help get off the grid as much as possible. According to Casey Darrow, in position to take over the business along with his two sisters, it was the most logical step to bring more sustainability to the orchard, as well as being more cost effective. They currently have around twenty-four 54KW panels, with more being installed this year."
Thank you, Kimberly, for sharing their story, and your beautiful images!
~ amanda
Celebrating Supper
[gallery ids="1237,1235,1236"]
We're so pleased to tell you that Supper, the piece Phoebe Wahl created for Issue 7::GATHER (and available as a signed print in our Print Shop) was recently accepted into the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition. A well deserved honor, we here at Taproot concur. This is one of our very favorite pieces Phoebe has created for us - so full of layers upon layers of life in just one frame. The tiny peek of a pup getting snuck a snack under the table? Delightful.
Congratulations, Phoebe!
~amanda
Introducing Our 2014 Cover Artist :: Geninne Zlatkis
[gallery ids="1179,1186,1187,1185,1183,1182,1181,1180,1178,1177,1184"]
Behind the scenes, it has been a great pleasure to work with each of our cover artists for an entire year at a time. The cover art is completed long before the content for each issue is put together. The cover art then inspires what we fill the pages with and how it all takes shape. We're ever so grateful to Jennifer Judd-McGee and Nikki McClure for our first two years of cover art - it has been a true pleasure to work alongside each of them. And we're thrilled to introduce you to our 2014 cover artist now....Geninne Zlatkis. Her work actually first appeared in our inaugural issue, SOIL, alongside Holly Bellebuono's herbal remedies. But now, we're so glad that Geninne will be joining us for a full year of four issues - in the full color and delight she does so well.
Geninne is a "passionately curious artist/crafter, living with her husband Manolo, two teenage sons and a cute border collie named Turbo' outside of Mexico City. Her work can be found on stationary, notecards, activity books, and in prints in her shop. And she so cleverly shared some of her techniques in her book Making an Impression: Designing and Creating Artful Stamps. By way of introducing you to Geninne, our editor Meredith Winn sent a few questions her way. We hope you'll enjoy her responses and the above gallery of photographs she shared with us.
Meredith: Mexico is full of artistic inspiration! Do you find that the colors, textures, and surrounding nature of your environment work their way into your art? Where does your inspiration come from?
Geninne: I’ve lived in Mexico on and off since I was a child and it has forever left its mark in my creative life. I am constantly inspired by the cheerful spirit of the people and their fearless use of color. I cannot leave this country for more than a week or two and not feel terribly homesick. I am inspired by the culture, the colors and the diverse flora and fauna of the different regions that I’ve been blessed to experience. I am aware of the subtle differences between what I was painting while living in the semi-desert to what I’m doing in the forest these days. My environment is definitely a big influence in my work.
Meredith: You have a beautiful new studio in your (new) home. Does working from home aid in your productivity? What does a typical creative day look like for you?
Geninne: Having my own space to create has been wonderful, but I haven’t always had that privilege. I always find a time & place to play around with my watercolors because I just cannot fathom a day without creating. When my boys were little I didn’t have the luxury of unlimited time but I’d find a few minutes here and there to paint or craft something for our home. The good thing is that I love doing all kinds of things like embroidery, knitting, sewing, carving, etc... so there was always something I could do to fulfill that creative need. Now that the boys are older and much more independent I can dedicate a big chunk of my day to my art. My days vary a lot so I don’t have a typical schedule, but every spare moment I have from being a stay at home mom/wife I spend in the studio.
Meredith: You offer a desktop calendar for downloading on your website, they are quite lovely! Your November offering was inspired by your own journal pages. Can you tell us more about your personal journal/planner pages? How long have you been creating them?
Geninne: I’ve been journaling in one form or the other since I was fourteen years old but I began these calendar layout pages a few month before my oldest son was born as a way to record the days and be able to look back and remember all those important little milestones in our lives. I’m not a writing a journal kinda girl so just being able to scribble down something important about a given day gave me the freedom to be very artistic in how I decorated each week’s layout. I love incorporating little bits of collage and using my own hand carved stamps as well. It’s a fun project that takes very little time each week and is very rewarding. I love looking back into my old journals and reading about when my boys walked for the first time, or a fun road trip we had.
Meredith: Your teenage son is also a talented artist. A few of his charcoal sketches are currently for sale in your etsy shop. How does art bring you and your children together in your everyday? Do you find yourselves sharing ideas/inspirations and creating together?
Geninne: Both of my boys are very artistically talented but Daniel, my youngest, who just turned 16 years old today has a serious passion for art and it looks like that is what he will be doing professionally as an adult. Daniel and I are very close and we spend a lot of time taking and sharing about art. We’re about to enroll together in an etching class at a local Museum and I’m really looking forward to it! They both were very interested in doing whatever craft I was creating when they were very young. I always shared my own ‘grown up’ art supplies and I think it made them feel like what they were doing was important. I’ve kept every single drawing they’ve made and it’s my most treasured possession. I’m sure that they’ll enjoy going through those when they are older.
Thanks so much for your time, Geninne. Readers, we can't wait to show you what she's cooked up for us all to enjoy in 2014!
~amanda & meredith