Writing “The American Dream”
Happy birthday to my dad, who would have been 67 today. I'm about the same age now as he was in this photo, in his first year in the US,…
Photo from community paint day at Trinity Lutheran Church. Photo credit Daniel Stout.
A Letter to My Creative Community
To my fellow creators: In 2016, we experienced one of the most critical elections of our time, an election that regardless of your politics, regardless of whether you woke up the…
"I fought the law..." ink drawing from Heartwood series, by Jenie Gao
#MeToo, #YesAllWomen, and Men Who Can Do No Wrong
#MeToo and #YesAllWomen tell a common story. A man wronged a woman and got away with it. I'm grateful, of course, for the courage and camaraderie of women to be…
“Independence Day”
Today is my third anniversary since I quit my corporate job to throw myself into my art career. It's been more than a year since my business turned its first…
Learning by Doing: Summer Edition
The best way to describe my life right now is dense. Busy doesn't quite capture the feeling, but dense. Different projects at different stages. I'm doing the types of things…
Politics and the Environment: The Good, Bad, Complicated, and Promising
The Good Fact #1: The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970 with a unanimous vote from the Senate and only one nay vote from the House. This is just one…
Geometry, Community, and Identity: What do you see?
I had the honor of presenting at TEDx Madison at the end of 2016. My talk is officially online, and I'm excited to finally be able to share it. The talk…
Two worlds in tandem: moving from the past to the present
February 8, 2017, would have been my dad's 66th birthday. He has been gone for nearly 8 years. I have been thinking a lot lately about things that come in…
Thoughts following the Women’s March
Our future generations will remember that on January 21st, 2017, 2.9 million people joined the Women's March for peace and equal rights in an environment where we have been incited…
The Gettysburg Address. Still relevant today.
What does it mean to be In Unison?
It is two days after Martin Luther King Day and two days before the 45th Presidential Inauguration. We began the week by honoring the memory of a man who emerged…