Halfway Through the Year, I Shared a Lot of Art+Health Materials in June!
4 artist letters, 8 PDF downloads, 12 essays, 1 interview, 7 cross-posts and lots of notes ...
How are we already entering the second half of the year? The third quarter? How is June already gone? More than that, how did I manage to fill it with so many special things when it felt like it was also so full of so many obligatory things?
Today, I’ll share with you a recap of the things I wrote and shared and did in June, so you can meander through them and find the things that might be things that call to you.
But first, I’ll go ahead and be honest with a request: If you can find a way to support my work financially, even to the smallest degree, it’s very much needed right now. Like not-sure-how-to-pay-the-rent needed. So if you’ve received any benefit from my work recently, try to help by:
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Me in June
My father-in-law is going through medical stuff and that’s had a lot of our focus around here. There’s been some health stuff of my own and I’m over-working at tedious tasks I don’t enjoy in order to pay bills. But somehow, in the midst of that, I managed to have a lot of days of fun.
My partner’s 40th birthday happened. We stayed overnight at Music City SF where you can rent music studios and there was an Open Jam and our dogs stayed with a sitter for the first time in ages and it went great. We also went up to Napa to a sunny birthday BBQ at his mom’s house with family friends. I was up in that area again with my bestie when we delivered my Suspended Tendrils crochet art piece to the art center in Sebastopol. My brother unexpectedly came through town and spent a night which I loved. My sister got us tickets to a Valykries game, so we did that, and a friend’s band was playing in the city, so we did that, my good friend had a solo show, so we did that, and I invited myself to a friend’s downtown rooftop to watch the Pride events, so we did that. That’s a lot more activity than I usually prefer but somehow it was right.
I’m (re)reading the Tales of the City series which is a delightful break from all things stressful. In June I also read Jessamyn Stanley’s Yoke, Sue Bender’s Stretching Lessons, Martha Beck’s Beyond Anxiety, and Jim Carroll’s Basketball Diaries.
I watched the first two seasons of 13 Reasons Why and started Season 3 of And Just Like That. With my partner I watched the NBA finals, O Brother Where Art Thou, Life Aquatic and the Enola Holmes movies.
We set up an old record player and have been listening to Chicago and Mamas and Papas and Stevie Nicks. I’ve been listening to David Bowie and Elton John and my favorite bold country music women playlists. In podcasts, in addition to my usual rotation of true crime stuff, I’ve been listening a lot to Storied San Francisco and Sounds Like a Cult.
I’ve been writing short lists as daily journal entries and not writing a whole lot else other than what I’ve been writing here. Which is, actually, a lot, so let’s get into that. In June I shared:
Dear Artist Letters
This is a series I’ve started sending out on Sundays.
Art+Health Downloads
I’ve been creating a variety of downloadable PDFs, many for free and some that you can purchase, all of which are available in the Create Me Free store. Specifically:
Essays on Healthy Creativity
My bread and butter and the heart of my work:
More Specific to Fiber Arts
There are also about Healthy Creativity but come more specifically from my work with crochet and my Craft to Heal project.
Plus this terrific, inspiring interview with
which is definitely my favorite things I’ve shared all month:
Also over on THREADSTACK, I’ve been doing a lot of cross-posting, sharing things others have written that inspired or resonated and hoping it ripples out to inspire others as well. These were written by
, , , , , , and :
Find all of these amazing pieces here.
Meanwhile Over on Notes
I’ve been trying to share more helpful exercises, insights and quotes:
Things I really loved and restacked include these from
, , , , , , , , , and .Gratitude to people whose shares and comments and whatnots really touched my heart this month including
, , , , , , , and :Big gratitude to
whose invitation led me into a wonderful conversation withAnd a couple tiny delights:
For other Substacks I wrote:
Finally, I’ll leave you with:
I'm so glad to meet somebody else who loves Tales of the City!! I re-read them every year as well; I would love to visit SF to visit the places he mentions in the books. I attended a talk he gave a while ago as he now lives in the UK! :)
Thank you for the mention, Kathryn, so kind 💕