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Throughout May 2024, I shared daily reflections honoring one year living full time from the 19′ Airstream Mobile Art Studio and prioritizing art for work. Here are those reflections all in one place. Feel free to skip around using the table of content links below! Post 1: Intro 5/1/24 Two years ago in May of…

It’s a funny curveball life threw me. My east-coast raised, NYC-educated, Alaska-obsessed self met a guy from Reno, NV in 2009. Before committing to giving the relationship a go, I visited him a few times in this strange place I’d vaguely associated with casinos, aliens, and nuclear waste (and assumed was an hour’s drive from…

I’m counting on my fingers as I type this: this is our fifth big hitch-up-and-move since moving full time into the Mobile Art Studio. First it was the epic haul from Alaska one year ago. Then we finally landed in St. George, Utah for the summer and fall. We moved to north of Tucson, AZ…

It’s like my pre-period mood swings and cramping: it faithfully arrives every single month, and yet every time I’m convinced my world has gone to crap. Eventually I think to check the calendar and then remember what’s actually happening. The crunching of gravel under the car sounds as Wes makes his way out and away…

One side benefit of my wheezy childhood is how, emerging from it, everything was new and foreign to me. That wasn’t fun, but I do have muscle memory when it comes to awkwardly trying things and flailing (see: socializing, hiking, running). Still, putting effort in to change something in my life is uncomfortable. As a…

There are many reasons to not like backpacking. One, and I’m just going to come out and say it: backpacking frequently requires either shitting in a hole or these days in heavily visited areas, a bag. At minimum I’m packing used toilet paper out. But if it’s a wag bag type itinerary, let’s just say…

In retrospect, it was a long winter: Wes and I are finally walking away from our first full season with drastically reduced income. A quick recap: we made our big life change last May. We sold our house and left Alaska, moving full-time into the 19′ Airstream Mobile Art Studio and switching up work so…

Two pieces of feedback I hear a lot: “You’re busy! You do a lot. Do you ever rest?!” and “You have excellent boundaries.” The interesting thing is 1) both observations are true and not true (more on that below), 2) to the extent that they’re accurate, they’re very much related. Some examples of what I…

As a born and bred American, I think I have a f*cked up relationship to ambition. Societal cues have encouraged me to work hard, buy more, upsize, and above all, to dream and strive for ever-better. Sound familiar? While I can identify it, I haven’t rid myself of this conditioning. Actually, I accept and enjoy…

I wasn’t a natural runner. When I started, I thudded awkwardly along the ground, heart pounding in my ears and cheeks brilliantly flushed. I felt like everyone must be watching and judging me: why is she even trying? It took me years to finally feel the identity of “runner” fit. Why’d I keep up with…

For five years, my husband and I shared 1,800 square feet of log home with a stunning Alaska mountain backdrop. My sister, visiting from out of state, referred to our home as “Narnia”. Now, we live full time in a 2022 19 foot-long Airstream Caravel customized for creating and displaying my art. It’s about 75…

Like (apparently) many millennials, I have this thing where I loosely track my horoscope to see if there’s useful insight/encouragement in the summaries. What helps me absorb the guidance is telling myself a story about how I don’t give it much credence. Did you know modern zodiac signs are actually an entire month off? And…