I grew up in Nebraska and Iowa, but every other year or so (although it seems like every year in my memory), we would drive to northern New Jersey at Christmastime to visit Grandmother Maggie and Grandfather Bud. I’ve written about Christmas at their house before; it was always magical, without fail. My grandmother embodied …
From the beginning In school, I only ever studied art because I loved it. Photography, printmaking, ceramics, bookbinding, and drawing were electives; things I loved to do, not things I was required to learn. High school was your standard blur of self-doubt and academic ambition, and when I was at Grinnell I tried to take …
This summer, my dad shared my Great Grandma Campbell’s 1890s autograph book with me. Jan. 4th, 1895 Dear Edna, The tissues of the life to be / We weave with colors, all our own, / And in the field of destiny, / We reap as we have sown. Ever your friend, Effie Naylor Edna Foster …
A gorgeous inky mess Lest you think all is quiet on the home front…I’ve been silent recently because wedding season is in full swing and, besides Charlotte, the thing I’ve spent the most quality time with lately is the press. There will be lots of beautiful invitations and albums to show off just as soon …
Rooftop astronomy Lately, the moon has been in a triangle with Venus and Jupiter, all 3 brighter than anything else in the early night sky, with Orion close on their heels as they all fly west (more correctly, as we spin east). I mark my nights by the angle of Orion relative to the tops …
