Greetings from Richmond, VA

We moved!

Brooklyn, NY ————> Richmond, VA

Well, technically we moved in the summer and we are just getting settled now. Things I’ve been up to include: painting everything white, unpacking my studio (finally), and walking to the VMFA with my kiddos any chance we get. I am learning the ins and outs of what it means to move a business between NY and VA (spoiler alert, you don’t…I have to close in NY and reopen in VA). Oh the joys of small business ownership!

Before you ask, yes I am still working with my New York City clients! I will still be able to come to your event in Manhattan or paint your mural in Brooklyn. But I will just be based in Richmond, VA. I will be doing my visual capture, in person or remote, and will still be illustrating for my friends at Peddie, Anthropologie, and beyond. And I will be applying to mural RFPs in cities all over the US and (obviously) all around Richmond. I hope this move helps me to look way beyond NYC for art opportunities (looking at you Oregon, Maine, California, and my friends outside the US!), but not avoid my beloved NYC.

The move comes at an interesting time for me as an artist and a mother. I am most excited to see how my art grows in a new place, with new space (more on that later), and with formal and informal childcare support. I spent the summer wondering and day dreaming - how would my art change? How would the pieces I make here look? What will inspire me here? Will it be the same? Will it all change? As I made lunches and painted trim and waited months for preschool to begin, I wondered what would happen when I unpacked my watercolors, paper, and brushes. Then a few weeks ago, I felt like I could finally sit down at my desk and make. Mind you, this didn’t mean my desk was clear or my schedule was open, or that everything was laid out perfectly on my shelves. It was just that I felt an overwhelming feeling of the need to just make. Kind of a bursting at the seams feeling. So I painted.

As you may remember, I spent a week at Milkwood in June working on my children’s book, One Big Yard. That week was a creative food for me. It feed me over the summer months where I didn’t have much of a practice. My practice was mostly in my head - I was constantly thinking about the new collages I wanted to make for the book, cataloguing interesting shapes I saw on our walks through the (very) green and (very) hot Richmond streets, and sketching out my ideas alongside my three year old Theo, as we painted on the back porch. But something unexpected happened this summer as I (initially) felt like I wasn’t working on my art. I met people. I had coffee with artists. I had playdates with florists. I saw art at the museum down the street, in the community garden, in the thrift store fabrics. I moved through the world slowly, soaking in my surroundings. And it filled me with beauty and inspiration.

And that’s where Brooklyn photographer Sam McCoy found me when they came for a studio visit. We talked about how everything felt like it was all in transition, and a bit of a mess honestly. But as I prepared for the visit (i.e, moved my work tables around and around, pinned up things that I like, and sat with my new paintings) things started to come together. I am grateful I have these photos to document my work, my space, and myself during this intense period of transition.