While I was in college, one of the clubs started an Art Fair that happened twice a year. That was how I first started selling my art in person. I learned about how much a college student would think was reasonable for my art and what was popular. I also gradually increased my table sitting supplies, how many pieces I would take and the selection I would bring. I learned how to make a connection and sell myself and my work.

Now that I’ve graduated, I have to learn how to navigate “the real world”, with all it’s interesting and exciting challenges. I recently applied to an art show in New Hampshire with some of my favorite smaller pieces, as that was the only requirement. In a very exciting result, my piece “An Autumn Mirage” was accepted!

This will be my first piece in a real gallery which is incredibly exciting! So if you’re in the area, you can see my piece in the exhibition Tour Led Monde at See Saw Art in Manchester, NH from Aug. 9th to 31st in 2025.

I also was able to attend a small art market which was a fun experience as it allowed me to interact with a new larger audience than I’m used to. I think I made some great connections, met some really cool people, and learned more about which types of my art that people are interested in. I also got some ideas for new projects and products! I love getting inspired by other local artists’ works.

Since I’m back in my home state, I was inspired to create a design based on the symbols of New Hampshire. I’ve seen some really cool block prints recently and I wanted to play around with contrast and flipping between positive and negative space in that medium. I played with the idea of having parts of the print be removeable but I decided that was best saved for a different piece.

First I made a sketch of the design and then I remade it digitally in Illustrator.

This design features the purple finch, lilac blossoms, the spotted newt, the Old Man of the Mountain, the ladybug, and birch trees. Personally, I am a big fan of New Hampshire’s symbols. I had a lot of fun flipping the contrast around and playing with overlaps as I’m sure you can tell. It feels like a balanced composition to me though.

Next came the fun and daunting part; carving! So I mirrored the whole design along the vertical axis, made the areas that were completely black gray so I didn’t use unnecessary ink, and then tried to transfer the design onto my linoleum block using graphite paper. Yes, I said tried. You see, this was my first time using a speedy carve block instead of a mounted on wood block. And the graphite just doesn’t transfer as good, it comes out barely visible, but it will dirty up your whole block in the process. I soldiered on though, and was able to figure out the basic shape placements and scales and go from there.

Then it was time to carve. There was so many small details in this that were hard to accomplish but I think I did a good job! It only took me like 2-4 hours to carve it, so that wasn’t too bad. This was my first time doing a piece of this size (like 7” x 9” if I remember), so I don’t really have a baseline for how long it should have taken. I did enjoy the carving process and did not get injured during it, so that’s what matters!

After carving, it was then time to print! I printed 18 paper versions in my garage over two printing sessions, and it was a lot of fun! If you don’t know how the printing process works, basically you roll out ink with a brayer until it’s tacky onto a flat, smooth surface that’s washable (I used a small piece of glass that my dad has lying around, but metal is better), and then use the brayer to roll the ink onto your stamp, put a piece of paper on top, rub the paper with your hands for like a minute to make sure the ink gets on to the paper, peel off the paper, and voila! You have a print! Just make sure you don’t get ink everywhere in the process, it can be a little messy. You can see my final piece below!

I really like this design, so I’m hoping to do a pre-order for it in the future! There will probably be two runs, a block printed shirt version and a manufactured design version (basically one done by me and one done professionally). I haven’t printed on t-shirts before so it’ll be a fun and interesting challenge and I’m excited to see how it comes out!

I took a bunch of pictures of some flowers I arranged, so I’m gonna drop them here. I’m hoping to paint them in the future but some of the pictures turned out really cool, just not for painting purposes. This arrangement has spray roses, white lilies, alstroemeria, and mums and I think the colors are quite dramatic. I hope you enjoy!

This has been my third newsletter! We talked about some exciting happenings, the process behind a new print, and I shared some pictures I took that I hope will inspire you.

Lastly, I want to ask, what are you interested in hearing about from me? Are you enjoying these letters or is there something you’d rather hear more about? Or do you simply want more pictures of Halo (my cat) lmao. I’m trying to find my voice and tone, so I appreciate the thoughts and feelings. Please let me know in the comments!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this letter!