Sunflowers from one of my summer trips to Arkansas.

Hello all!

More quickly than I would (honestly) like, the summer is coming to a close. So, I’m doing my best to cram a lot — work and travel and fun — into this last month. But I thought I would share some of the things that I’m looking forward to for the fall.

One of the constant stresses of being a graduate student is lining up appropriate work for yourself during the school year. I have found that finding employment through the school has worked best for me. It gives me work experience most directly related to the book & paper field and provides flexibility with my class and studio schedule. Next semester, I’ll be teaching undergraduate paper again (remember these blog posts from almost a year ago?), working with professor Clif Meador on a grant he received, and coming back for a second term as Graduate Student Ambassador for the Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts MFA program. I’m so thrilled to have all of these opportunities, and though I’ll be busy busy, I really do find that these experiences supplement my graduate school education greatly.

My classmate Liz Isakson-Dado in our thesis year studio.

My classmates and I also made plans to do some traveling. We’ll be attending the New York Art Book Fair in September and upholding our annual tradition of attending the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum Wayzgoose in November. I’m particularly excited about the New York Art Book Fair, seeing as we’ll get to check-in with our friends from Triple Canopy, and I’ll get to say hello to the folks, Paul Wong (of Dieu Donne) and Akemi Martin (of Pace Prints), that I studied with at Penland.

And then there’s THESIS. Which, let’s be honest, I’m probably going to mention in every post this year. I’ve been doing a lot of researching, reading a ton, and I just can’t wait to get to work on my project. Though it is not totally formed yet in my mind, I am feeling the thrill of brewing ideas and sketches and anticipation of making.

So, as I sit on the coast of Lake Michigan this weekend and eat shrimp in Louisiana next week, I will be practicing the art of appreciating the moment while looking forward to what will surely be a stellar fall!