Fools Rush In
New year who dis
On the cusp of 2025, I want to rethink and restart everything. Yesterday I looked around my studio at the art on the walls and the stuff cluttering my window sills, and I decided I want it all gone. One sill is covered with jars labeled SLEEP POTION, SMART POTION, HEALING POTION. It’s hard to throw them away. I made them years ago with my younger kid who is now a swaggering tween; his potion-making days drawing to a close. But if this year - my fiftieth - is going to be about anything, it’s going to be about transitions.
For the first time in almost twenty years I’m not the parent of a little kid, and I never will be again, which is kind of awful. I’ve devoted so much of my adult life to picture books, and suddenly I’m not the mother of someone whose world is being actively, profoundly shaped by them. The chaotic eddy of wild children that has been swirling around me for years is beginning to quiet.
It’s a new chapter. Lots to mourn; lots to anticipate. I want to rethink and reinvent.
For one thing, I’m weary of social media, you guys, and to some extent that includes substack. I am slowly shaking myself awake from the weird, decades-long stupor of endless posting and scrolling; glimpsing the curated private lives of strangers and giving strangers a curated glimpse of my own. Please bear with me. I’m not above it all, only wrestling with it, and I don’t want to give up Slowpoke. But my interest is beginning to flag and I want to rethink it a little. Maybe this is counterintuitive, but I’m going to try posting weekly instead of once-in-a-while. I want to see what Slowpoke would be like as a creative practice. I don’t know what that means yet. Maybe more drawing and less writing? We’ll see. For the time being expect to hear from me every Monday.
For another thing, we got our piano tuned for the first time in ten years and I’m trying to learn how to play it. I’m not good. I practice every day until my tushy hurts from sitting on a piano bench. But I love it. I can only get better.
Happy new year to all of you. Love and light and infinite thanks for being here and caring about what I do. See you next Monday.
Carson
Sorry- I just want to pop in and pin a parenting medal on your chest. I am awe of how you managed your career, consistently creating beautiful books and pursuing your passion projects whilst parenting your children.
Wow! I feel so much the same about socials and creative practice. I have no kids to mourn their transition from childhood but there are other reason to feel grief these days caused by getting creakier with age, climate change, the instability of our economic and social support systems…Thanks for sharing. I know I’m not alone but it helps to witness someone else being vulnerable.