Edgewalking
and transgressing the bounds of our captors
I like the the idea of edgewalking. It feels like a call to perceive the many realities that are true at once, it conjures bravery to be at home in the inbetween, despite pressure to choose sides and get dug in with rigid ideologies. I’ve been reading Teaching to Transgress, by Bell Hooks, where she shares the idea that eduction and learning are a practice of freedom. Bravery and sacrifice in small ways everyday are the honest hard work and purpose of those of us who want to end the systemic economic projects of oppression we are all bound up in. It’s one of those books that makes very clear that we are already capable of so much more collectively, if only we could stop the self-surveillance-social-punishment mechanisms we’re taught that maintain oppressive economic systems—to fit in, to uphold the status quo, to value things over people, to make sure power stays comfortable at our own expense.
The kids and I have had a few Hamilton songs in our playlists over the last couple of years, which, along with this conversation I happened to catch recently, and of course much of the news this year (and other interviews and conversations I’m sorry I didn’t collect for you here but this writing prompts me to do better at for next time), have me thinking a lot about two contemporary American projects. Both got their footing at the beginning of settler colonialism in the US: One that dreamed of a brand new idea for a nation’s government that would protect all of its citizens as equals, including powerful storytelling that if we keep working we can one day see this reality in the greatest country on earth. And the other project where only some thrive (economically, and so politically) on hierarchies, torture, enslavement and powerful storytelling that would conflate imagination with science (for instance, that skin color was an indication of inherently lesser or better versions of people, or that the concept of gender was science based on body parts).
I’m edgewalking these simultaneous realities of my country. I’m encouraged in my own teaching and continued learning by Hook’s conviction about the important work we are engaged in. And I’m back to painting a new collection of abstract landscapes, very much based on the natural world I see all around me in Northern Michigan, which I look to for metaphorical and spiritual guidance in how I might be helpful in the first of these American projects, while actively getting in the way of the second of them.
In the paintings, I imagine the people and creatures edgewalking — they are on journeys to discover and find adventures of the hope and struggle that what they don’t know will become clear if they stay open and keep learning. Way will open.
There are paths in each painting that contain many routes, ways to see space as outside and inside, on top of and underneath. I’m aiming to find balance in value, color and shape while creating a place to experiment with how we see ourselves in the world. The process of getting there involves trying to capture what it feels like to be in the wind on a hillside or in the unerstory or overlooking Lake Michigan, but I’m messing with the perspective, mixing up what’s on top and bottom and inside—adding caverns of texture and tunnels of color, light and darkness.
✸ These Small & Large landscape paintings are available for sale now ✸
I will be working on a limited number of 6x6in, 8x8in and 12x12in paintings; two 30x40in and one 30x30 left. If you are purchasing a painting as a gift, I will send you a hand-made card you can give until the painting is ready.
✨ Young Illustrators Studio was featured in Voyage Michigan, a small business magazine! Thank you to the person to sent them to me :) It has been really amazing to dig through so many profiles of small businesses happening in Michigan, what an amazing movement to be a part of—hiring small businesses for the goods and services we need instead of going corporate!
If you feel yourself rushing & grasping like I do sometimes: Tara Brach’s talk on grasping, fear and generosity is keeping me company right now as I rush around feeling anxious.
Art Mail! Thank you for being here! If you are a paid subscriber, keep an eye on your mailbox because I had some fun crafting little presents for you! Your support means so much to me, and helps me to continue to do my work. If you would like to become a paid subscriber (for $5/month), I have a few leftover and would be very happy to send :)