It's Inktober!

I’m not the best at social media and talking about my art without feeling weird about it, so I’ve decided I’m going to start each post by treating you, this blog, and social media like I’m talking to my mom who is my biggest, and perhaps only, fan.

Hey, Ma! It’s Inktober again. There are 31 prompts in 31 days so the idea is HOPEFULLY an artist will have 31 mini drawings by the time they hit November. You’re supposed to do one prompt a day and some claim you have to do an “INKING” (or line drawing) since it’s INKtober, but I say it’s my life. (There’s also #sketchober and #drawtober) Instead, I’m doing a new prompt once a week and finishing a full render (rather than an ink sketch) for my portfolio.

Anyway, I’m not always the best candidate for Inktober because I HATE line work. I hate drawing clean lines over my sketch or composition (known as “inking”) since my style is mainly created by drawing the light. (I usually even start with a dark canvas. ) One of the first things your teachers drill into you in art school is that lines don’t really exist in nature. Lines are just the edge of a subject or object ending or meeting another surface, like air or whatever the object is resting on.

I slapped together a little video to explain this concept here. I also had someone on Instagram (shoutout to Collin) ask me how I smooth my shading so if you want to know about that, skip to the end below at 3:10

Note: If you enjoy this little how-to video or the speed draw below, please let me know! I just kinda slapped them together in iMovie for the sake of this blog, but if I thought people would actually like to watch, I’d love to make some better quality ones and put my film production degree and editing experience to use. I’m currently developing an art curriculum for Kijana’s Global Innovation School, so I could easily use these concepts to create a video script for anyone interested)

I had always hated drawing lines (I am NOT a precise artist) So as soon as I learned this simple concept, I was glad to never draw another outline and my work shows for it to this day. SO! That’s, I think, why I’ve always been so attracted to Inktober. One, I so admire artists that are good at it. And two, I know that if I participate and do it more, I might get better at it. It’s my fatal flaw as an artist. I CAN do lines. But I CAN’T bang them out like I do with light.

So here I am, trying to get better at these stupid, dumb lines. The issue is…Look at this process video for my first Inktober project. I totally dodged the inking part.

Above is Oct. 2nd’s prompt “crystal”. I, thanks to my undying love for dinosaurs, drew a ”crystegosaurus .“ His name is Crevin (Craig+Kevin) and is so named by an Instagram vote. He’s glow-y and stupid and I love him.

I ended up spending a lot of time on these crystals which made me really married to them. This is totally normal, and is called being precious with your art, but is also why you need critiques! So I posted it to social media and asked everyone to vote on these three: simple, fireflies, and crystals. Can you guess which won? Final tallies below.

Simple: 3 Votes

Fireflies: 19 Votes

Crystals: 7 Votes

What’s funny is that the most popular one wasn’t originally my favorite. I’ve been convinced though. What’s also funny is that art is subjective. The takeaway is (as you can see above) not everyone is going to think your final is the best version of what you did. (The crystals and simple version voters are gonna be like “WRONG”) But ultimately, the final is your decision to make. Anyway check out the polished higher res version of the firefly boi on Instagram! He has glow-y tippy tappy toes and rainbow-fish-like skin/scales. I upped the contrast and tried to marry everyone’s critiques into one piece.

Maybe by November, I’ll have done, y’know, like a single line drawing.

P.S. If you want to see a higher res of the Crystal Version, there’s one here. If you want to see more, please follow my instagram here. And let me know any burning art questions you’ve ever had. I’d love to make other “how-to" videos for people looking to get started in the art universe. Or even if you’re just curious!

Starting a New Chapter

Goodbye old chapter!

Me where I lived in Kenya for a brief time and had a lot of thoughts, feat. pink boots and egg socks

Today, I’m archiving a large chunk of my portfolio, taking down my shop, and becoming much more selective about taking new clients. I had an enlightening moment first in Kenya and then while applying for a full-time art job. I’m not going to get into what that big realization was, but it led to some smaller realizations and decisions in my tiny life that I’m ready to talk about. The bigger, less selfish ones are going to take more thought and tact than I have right now.

I’m taking a year to focus on expanding my art and my portfolio. Armed with new knowledge from my Kenyan friend and fellow muralist, Jesse, I’ve decided I don’t have enough pieces/enough variety to proudly put forth my collection anymore. Especially if I’m going to be writing curriculum for budding artists, I need to be genuinely, critically good at what I do. SO! I’ll be spending a year prioritizing expanding my technique/art knowledge again and doing work that makes me a better artist/broadens my portfolio. When I was teaching in Kenya, I had a lot of “Am I even wise enough to be the teacher here?” moments. I haven’t taken art classes or done thorough studies in years, which really is unacceptable in the art world. Since I’ve been living off commissions + doing nonprofit work, it just wasn’t feasible.

Still, I can’t help others with my skillset until I’ve chiseled a place for myself, so I’m trying to strike a better balance. (Or at least, I will be able to do much more, once I AM much more.)

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a copywriting/editing position at Beyond the Pines Productions which has given me an awesome team to work with and a fulfilling day-to-day routine which is so hard to find for freelancers like me. With routine comes the ability to find time for myself and my art once in a while, rather than always hunting for the next job. And like some incarnation of Uncle Ben’s advice “With personal stability, comes responsibility to do more for others” or something like that.

I still plan to keep my current clients/seasonal jobs, and, any project I’ve agreed to/shown interest in up until now. And I still plan to complete them all with passion (and now I’ll have more focus!)

For new clients interested in working with me:

I have a password-protected larger scope of what I do/my old public portfolio. (Just message me for the link!) I just don’t want it available to the general public anymore. Even though I like a lot of the work located behind this wall, it’s not focused on what I’m currently pursuing/up to my current work. Still, I like interested, vetted people to know everything in case some tiny, unfinished sketch or graphic I did years ago gives you the vibe you’re looking for! :)

Another thing:

Once a month, I’m thinking of offering one free personal commission. Just for fun. I’d select from those that have approached me with ideas; people who need designs for their small business or are strapped for cash but have always wanted to hang something specific in their home…But not sure yet. I’ll see if this sounds feasible or like something people are actually interested in once I have a better idea of my new work load.

Thank you for sticking with me on this journey!

P.S. I’m really sorry I haven’t posted my Kenya blog yet. I had so many feelings about that experience that it took me some time to step back and condense it all into a measly series of blog posts.

Please donate or create a #SideHustleforHaiti

I’ve heard a lot of hands-tossed-in-the-air kind of language. A kind of exasperation to the tragedy and cruelty of the universe when it comes to discussing Haiti. It feels like a good time to mention—Yes, Haiti is geographically in a place that makes it prone to earthquakes and storms, which may make you feel like “Damn, how unlucky.” But America’s actions play a large part in why Haiti’s infrastructure often struggles to help her people and why the country is the poorest in the western hemisphere.

The USA, Haiti’s biggest and most powerful neighbor, even helped with the actual battles, but then turned a blind eye when Haiti achieved freedom from French colonizers. Haiti became the first black-led republic and rebelled less than 10 years after America achieved her own freedom from Britain. You’d think the two new free states would unite. Instead, the United States refused to trade with Haiti, concerned the success of Haiti’s enslaved and now free people might inspire Americans to demand the same equal freedom. The USA helped create an INTERNATIONAL boycott, so Haiti could not trade. This was a purposeful and hateful blow to Haiti’s future. This was not an accident. This was a calculated measure, to grow and prosper as a nation and globally, and PURPOSELY leave Haiti out of it. This lasted until the mid 1800s before the international conspiracy was dropped, and it was only after Haiti agreed to pay 150 million francs, eventually reduced to 90 million, to France to compensate their former slave owners for the loss of the slave owners’ property, some of this debt accounting for the Haitians’ unenslaved lives. Today, this would be equivalent to $21 billion. This debt clung to Haiti until 1947. A mere 74 years ago.

We, as American’s like to pride ourselves for our freedom, earned in blood. Haiti earned their freedom 3 times over. First, rising up out of slavery. Then on the battlefield with France. And then, in perhaps the cruelest most demeaning sense, paid for their own lives like they were stolen goods, bankrupting their new, hopeful nation so they could finally be recognized as an international player capable of growth and prosperity. Only then, did we as American’s treat them as the basest humans.

When it comes to Americans, for Haiti to have the neighbors that partially inspired them to take up arms, a neighbor with far more land and resources, cut ties was devastating. Then we helped France enforce their “Independence Debt.” It created a vacuum for lost resources and artificial poverty that could’ve otherwise been avoided with continued trade. (We were glad to trade with them while they were enslaved.) This was less than 300 years ago that Haiti was inspired by, then abandoned by the USA. A mere 74 years since the repercussions of that began to fade. Haiti is still trying to dig itself out of this pitfall that we so cruelly helped devise for them. Our 5th great grandparents, and everyone after, could’ve done something more for Haiti but didn’t. So let’s do something now. Please donate or create a side hustle for Haiti. Humanity cannot persevere if we continue to turn a blind eye to our neighbors.

P.S. Please look up all the ways we’ve failed and actively suppressed Haiti. It is one terrible thing to ignore a neighbor in need, it is another to sic your dogs on them, and we did both. There’s a long history of powerful nations creating a harsh environment engineered to fail Haiti. If you don’t have time to look up timelines, or want the short version, message me and I’ll provide you with easy reads.

I also implore you to donate to Haitian voices/charities or extremely active and transparent foundations like Hope for Haiti, a Florida-based charity that keeps it’s Charity Navigator and Guidestar profile up to date and publishes in-depth short & long term goals regularly. American aid can play a significant role in increasing corruption in Haiti, so do your research and make sure the care you’re providing is creating more help than harm. Big names can be misleading, as they can use your money for inflated administration costs or simply use it for another cause like in the case with the American Red Cross.

Big foundations with multiple or generic missions often have a large pool of funding that is not always used for the good YOU so desperately want to do. (ex. Maybe you donated thinking you’d help Haiti, but they ultimately use your donation for their American swimming training campaign.) Don’t be discouraged! With a tiny bit of internet browsing, or just ask me, you can make ethical donations and make a difference. American dollars spread far in Haiti, so that 15 dollars you didn’t spend eating out could provide multiple families with the dinners that get them to tomorrow.

See where your money will go if you buy a sticker here.

Find more charities here.

A book: The Uses of Haiti

Books about Haitian experiences by Haitians or Haitian-Americans here.

Please feel free to drop more resources, voices, and information for Haiti below. I’m glad to edit, add, and revise to make this a more helpful and accurate post. You should be able to comment freely below.

I came back from Kenya and WPTV did a news story!

WPTV's story on Kijana's cross cultural collaboration with Jesse and I was so rewarding. I can't wait to see what the kids have to say in Kenya. I was so glad Laurence's footage of Peter, Wiki, Martha, Michelle, Paul, Natasha, and many others made it to air. Teachers Mercy, John, Tom, Mallack, and Macy Sugy were featured too! What an awesome story by Josh Navarro. Thank you so much for your support and for continuing to cover Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative's endeavors! Huge shout out to Cara Hansen at Mission Marketing for connecting us!

And thank you everyone for reaching out, for supporting Kijana, and being so kind and supportive to me personally!

Donate to Kijana at kijana.org

I plan to post more details about my trip soon. Stay tuned.

Vignette From Kenya

Today’s highlight: I was painting on the side of the school without a wall.

A large group of Luhya children were on the other side of the hedge, peeking through, and whispering amongst themselves as they watched me work.

For 10 minutes they worked as a team to piece together the sentence “it is very nice” low enough that they surely thought I couldn’t hear them. They practiced back and forth with each other for another 5 minutes. They settled on two “very”s and then, one at a time, they called over to me and said “it is very, very nice” one by one.

Every few minutes, I would get another one. “Hello? It is very, very nice.” I know how lucky I am to have spent time with them today.

We Were in the Town Crier!

Here’s the Article! https://gotowncrier.com/2021/02/local-artist-claire-salmon-takes-part-in-international-mural-project/?fbclid=IwAR2g5Ofz6i2nJcTG_fYUTzANNC4Ww_03EbL233u2iUEGnj1krgSKOXrG24M

Pasting it below:

Local Artist Claire Salmon Takes Part In International Mural Project

By

Town-Crier Editor

February 25, 2021

The Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative has connected two creative artists, Jesse Otukho in western Kenya and Claire Salmon of The Acreage, to develop collaborative murals on the walls of the organization’s new Global Innovation School in Sabatia-Butere, Kenya.

While the world has been “locking up” and closing borders, Kijana is proud to have linked these two talented artists in a cross-continental collaborative effort during distant times.

Salmon, a richly skilled local artist/illustrator designed a five-part ocean mural for a main entrance wall of the new school. The mural was the idea of Kijana President James Cummings, and it includes an educational phrase, developed by his sister, Dr. Molly Cummings, a University of Texas marine biologist. After Salmon designed the artwork, Kijana brought the image to Kenya, and prolific local artist Otukho painted the five parts and an additional recognition element on the wall.

The ocean mural is not only unique, beautiful and a handsome addition to the school, but demonstrated the many possibilities that continue to exist for artistic collaboration in these challenging times and inspired the students to take pride in their school and education.

Next came a collaborative African wildlife mural, incorporating another educational phrase developed by scientist and founding Kjana Board Member Dr. Mark Madison, a historian for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in West Virginia. Now the artistic pair, with Kijana’s guidance and inspiration, set out to undertake their largest mural yet — eight panels of the main biomes of the world. They are planning a 72-foot-long mural that will line the walls of the school’s garden. Construction of this project began this month.

Born and raised in The Acreage, Salmon attended the Dreyfoos School of the Arts before graduating from Florida State University’s film school for screenwriting. She is president of the local nonprofit BAM Festival Inc., a convention for books, art and music for children and teens to promote literacy. BAM’s annual event is taking place virtually on April 10, where 40-plus authors, illustrators and musicians will take part in 50 panels of general fun, discussions and activities. Learn more at www.bamwpb.org.

The emerging Kijana Global Innovation School is a unique institution offering a creative, visionary and collaborative curriculum in an architecturally unique setting in western Kenya. The Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative was founded in 2002. It promotes and cultivates youth empowerment through educational development, cross-cultural dialogue, and sustainable and environmentally friendly economic growth among rural Kenyan school communities and American school communities. To learn more, visit www.kijana.org.

Shop is up!

I finally made a shop where you can buy my prints! Click here or go to the ‘shop’ tab above. Now is a good time to mention that all my images are illegal to print or reproduce due to their copyright. I haven’t added a watermark to my images out of my trust for my clients, but please don’t download them. Two reasons— 1. They’re bad quality copies and you deserve the high quality ones I’m selling! 2. Support starving artists if you enjoy their art. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Anyway, times are tough for everyone, and I have lots of art sitting around that I wish was on a wall somewhere. This is my first print run so definitely take advantage of the prices. FOR A LIMITED TIME. I’m still figuring out my expenses as I go but will honor the prices set on my page. Until I wise up! So feel free to take advantage of this (accidental) sale.

Currently, I’ve set up easy options to order prints of art that I think have seen the most interest in the past. At the moment, I’ve only set up PayPal and Venmo. If there’s enough initial interest, I’m setting up an LLC (rather than a sole proprietorship) so I can take credit card payments. Let me know if you’d be more likely to shop if you had this credit card option! (UPDATE: I can now accept Credit/Debit thanks to your interest!)

One thing I apologize for is the how expensive the large posters are, but they are simply wildly expensive for me to print and ship. The good news is—they are BIG and really gorgeous quality. And there are smaller alternatives that are less than $2 to ship.

I’m not sure how MUCH interest people actually have in my work as it varies throughout the year. So I’m learning what’s interesting to you. If stickers are popular, I’ll be putting out more stickers. Or stickers in gold foil! (ooooo, ahhhh) If posters are popular, there will be new options and sizes, etc. Thank you for helping me navigate this new adventure. I can’t wait to deliver these lush prints to you.

Much warmth,

Claire

Prizes From Our Country Poster Series

This project is a series of inspirational posters created originally for the students in my mother’s classroom. Ma teaches teenagers and adults that have recently moved to the country to speak English. Since all of her students have recently uprooted from their homelands, she wanted inspiring posters that represented people from their country. So often there are posters of George Washington or pop icons from our own culture plastering the walls of America’s classrooms, so she hopes that by seeing familiar faces, her students feel more welcome and represented in her class. Many of these public figures are Nobel laureates or internationally accomplished heroes & geniuses—hence the phrase “Prizes From Our Country.”

When the school year starts, Ma likes to have her students pick a poster and write about that figure, or write about a person from their country who they wish had their own poster. Right now there are only 3, but soon there will be 13. Can you guess what countries and figures are next? We tried to pick countries from which most of her students hailed from. If you want to see a new country represented, send me your idea on my “contact” page.

These posters are perfect for teachers that want to make there international students feel seen or who want to represent often underrepresented voices and faces.

When I Made The First Graph, Nan Was Still Alive

I made my first COVID-19 graph on July 8th, before I knew Nanny would contract COVID-19, before I knew it would rob us of our goodbyes, and before I knew it would kill her.

I thought I was making that first graph to protect someone else’s grandma somewhere. I didn’t imagine it would be my own. And it didn’t protect her. It didn’t protect a lot of grandmas. We like to think we can make a difference in our community, especially amongst our friends and family. But our pleas often fall on deaf ears.

Mine did.

That was only weeks ago. Now, Nanny is gone. We cremated her. 7 of us were permitted to gather at the cemetery. And I am making a new graph. It hasn’t yet been two months, and I am adding 50,000 new people to my graph. 50,000 new deaths. 50,000 more Nans.

I see you. I see you, both young and healthy or old and willful, going out in numbers saying you will not live in fear. I try to be glad you are not afraid. I try not to bite when I see food service worker friends go to bars unmasked on Instagram. When I see healthcare providers, who take care of the elderly on weekdays, but who go out to packed clubs on weekends. I see you.

I hope you never become afraid. I hope your Nans emerge unscathed from this mess of a year. But it will not be in your own doing. It will be in the mercy of others.

And many of us received no such mercy.

Graph is my own, data provided by The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The National Institute on Aging, The Kaiser Family Foundation, The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, The Florida Department of Health, cross-referenced with many more.

Rant over. As for facts—

First and foremost, COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death in the United States, coming only after cancer and heart disease’s annual death counts. Mind you, it has not yet been 6 months (of 12 months in a year) when it comes to COVID-19 deaths in the US, and it has already reached #3.

I see misinformation spreading about the seriousness of COVID-19 again, ahead of Labor Day when we will be tempted to go out in numbers. I see too the misinformation that there have been not nearly as many deaths due to COVID as previously thought. That only 6% are truly from COVID. Wouldn’t it be great if it were true? It isn’t. Do not spread this misleading nightmare dressed up like a dream. Do not use this as an excuse to go out. To feign ignorance. To jump on our first false hope, tempting as it may be. We must look farther than social media for our information.

Instead of getting nitty-gritty about what this data ACTUALLY means, I’ll make it simple. Already, there have been 200,000+ excess deaths in the last year than in the year before, though our population has not proportionally grown. In fact, it is smaller. What could account for such a huge leap? That’s pretty close to the number of deaths in the graph (left) isn’t it? If you’re going to be a conspiracy theorist, please consider this.

Many seem to think that “previous conditions” discredit whether a person died of COVID (and by 94%) but let me give you my family’s example: Nan had serious Alzheimer’s. It made it very hard to get her the care she needed during COVID. She was weak. She was in the most risk-prone environment. She did not understand why she needed to wear a mask in close quarters. She could not be calmed or reasoned with when it got bad. She could not receive the same treatments. In these 6 ways, did Nanny’s Alzheimers contribute to how she ultimately died? Of course. But so did, say, geography. The more important question is: Would Nanny still be alive if someone that COULD be more careful WAS more careful for her, and she hadn’t contracted COVID in the first place? ABSOLUTELY. It was COVID that filled her lungs. COVID that depleted her brain of oxygen.

Let there be no doubt that it was COVID that killed her.

We must stop proclaiming that previous conditions are what cause people’s death—ignoring that they would still be alive if COVID had no part in it. As if it gives us an excuse to continue our recklessness because “they were going to die anyway.” We’re all going to die anyway. Some of us sooner than others. COVID can make a livable condition a sudden death sentence. A full life can be condensed down to a matter of days due to COVID-19.

Graphic from Science Alert, article here

If you contracted COVID-19, and it was “not so bad,” I thank your god for it. I’m so grateful you are still with us. But that doesn’t muddle the fact that people are dying due to the careless spread of COVID-19. Your experience with something does not make it less lethal to someone else. My experience wouldn’t either. For example, in 2018 my car was totaled, and my shattered pelvis healed on its own. I was so lucky. But I would never claim that accidents are less horrible and deadly because of my personal experience. I would not start drifting around corners to prove more people might be lucky too. So do not detract from the fatal wickedness of COVID-19.

Listen, I understand. You say you are not afraid. But fear is one of our most primal impulses that kept humans alive throughout our vast history when faced with danger. So maybe consider having at least some respect for that fear, for it is not fear that is killing us. If anything, it is our selfishness, our disrespect for modern science, and our blatant disregard for human life that killed our most vulnerable citizens.

They will write it that way in our history books.

The July 8th blog I reference and associated graph can be found here: clairesalmonbooks.com/blog/a-graph-of-us-deaths-in-numbers There is more data in that blog post. This one is much more emotional. I figured if someone wasn’t swayed by data, maybe my emotion might touch them.

An open letter to you kind souls

The outpouring of love to my family has touched us all. Letters, cards, messages, comments, flowers, fruits, & chocolates sent to the house: we are lucky to have such a strong support network and such loving friends, especially in this strange, isolated time where it would've been easy to let silence stretch. You are all an inspiration of kindness to our world. We love you, and thank you.

Special thanks to my dearest friends in NYC Laura Conte & Chloe Lind with Sarah Merrill in St. Pete, as well as dearest Meg & Blake Howard here. Thank you, Joey, for getting us groceries when we were in the thick of it and for being here to comfort us with your kindness and a great homemade dinner. Special thanks too to my sisters from other misters, Seren Cawley, Gabby Martin (with Sarah and Roy Martin), and Savannah Skoran, as well as the entirety of the “Shed” Crew (you know who you are), Jim Cummings from Kijana, my teachers from childhood like Patrick Fallon and Helen Zientek, all my friends from BAM, my old friend Zach Chmielewicz, my friends in LA like Lydia Dullinger, Nicola Newton, and Kat Barnette, all my writerly friends in SCBWI like Stacie Ramey and Teresa Rodrigues, the Rasmussens, my art family, my film family, my book family, my Friday night dinner family, my biological family on both sides. Thank you all; you are so loving and loved.

All our love,

Claire & the Salmon Family

Nanny' s Obituary Appeared in the Paper Today

Hello, dear friends and family. Today, Nanny’s obituary was released in the Palm Beach Post. I figured I’d post it here as well since many of us don’t get the paper anymore. If you haven’t read my previous blogpost about our family, you can read here: clairesalmonbooks.com/blog/my-mother-is-writing-my-grandmothers-obituary-today

I hope if you knew Nan, you feel she’s well-represented here and, if you didn’t, that you get a good idea of her soul. Along with the official picture for her obituary, I’ve posted pictures below of two facets I knew as her granddaughter: the thoughtful, soothing listener and the passionate, playful reveler of all grandmotherly things. I’m an infant in both of these, but even once I was older, she never failed to listen to me or to make me smile when I needed it.

Nancy Bryant Barry was born September 12, 1937, in West Palm Beach, to Madeleine Heinmuller and Clarence Weston (Pete) Bryant. 

A third generation Floridian, she grew up on 36th Street in West Palm Beach, attended Northboro Elementary School, and graduated from Palm Beach High in 1955. 

Nancy was a poet and letter-writer extraordinaire, devoting careful attention to journals and diaries throughout her life. 

She was as unconventional as they come—a nudist, a nature lover, and an activist wherever she found herself, whether on the muggy South Florida coast, among misty mountains in Oregon, or in the driest desert in Arizona. 

She always saw the best in people—even when they didn’t see it in themselves. Everyone that knew Nancy had a place at her dinner table and in her heart. She sent you home with baked goods, seeds, and smiles. 

Nancy had her three children in West Palm Beach, where she collected all sorts of hobbies and friends. She worked many years as a bookkeeper and at the radio station, WPBR, where she hosted a local talk show. 

She lived some years in Eugene, Oregon, where she married her soulmate Kenneth (Ed) Barry. They moved to Tucson, Arizona, a place called “Dogpatch,” in the early 80’s. As Nancy opened her heart and home to all who passed through, she made the desert bloom in her garden. Nancy and Ed spent many years exploring the mountains, forests, and deserts of the Southwest in their oddly comfortable RV ‘Sluggo’ and collected a small zoo of animals: cats, dogs, a flock of quails. 

She adored her children and grandchildren—that was apparent by the hand-sewn quilts and clothes, letters, and phone calls, that arrived each day that she wasn’t visiting. She is preceded in death by her husband Kenneth (Ed) Barry who loved her till the end. 

While dementia robbed Nancy of her memories, COVID-19 robbed her of her life. 

She is survived by her children, Leslie McBride Salmon (Fred C. Salmon), Richard Alan McBride (Cindy Rodier McBride), and Helen Foreman Bailey (George Bailey), sister Cynthia Turner (Fred Turner), cousin Weston Sigmond (Glenda Yang), and grandchildren Brian, Patrick and Shane McBride, and Kathryn Claire Salmon, among other dear family and friends. 

I leave you with a picture of Nan on her 50th (YES, 50TH) birthday, barefoot, after she hiked to the top of Mount Lemon to celebrate her 50th year.

Love you, Nan. I hope, like Aunt Helen said to me, that you’ve found Grandpa Ed by now and are talking his ear off about the last 8 years.

My mother is writing my grandmother's obituary today

Nanny, Ma, and Aunt Cindy at my mother’s wedding in Aunt Cindy’s garden which is right behind my family’s house. Our properties quite literally share a backyard.

It is Sunday, and my mother is writing my grandmother's obituary.

On Thursday, Nanny tested positive for COVID-19. On Friday, they moved her to hospice. Now, we’re here.

Dementia robbed us of my grandmother’s treasured memories, open heart, and brilliant mind, but it was COVID that robbed us of her life and our goodbyes. My mother cannot give her a back rub. We cannot hold her. I cannot sing her “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” We can stare in, like we’re at an aquarium, and watch her leave us.

I will not make it personal when I remind you to wear your mask, when I say I will not go out with you or visit your home, when I have a political debate with you about public safety, but, for the record, it is personal to me and others even if we don’t make it known in that moment.

I am by no means intending to infringe upon your freedoms when I ask you to do your part in our community. But I was robbed of my freedom to visit my grandmother in her last days because of how careless we’ve been as a community, allowing the infection rate to reach such impossible numbers. We must do everything we can to lower the spread, to save our most vulnerable citizens.

We cannot know when we hang out with someone, or go to a restaurant, or a public place, whether we are being exposed or exposing others to this deadly virus. Are we in contact with an asthmatic person, a caretaker, an irresponsible niece that will visit their unknowing great aunt? And since we can’t know, we have to question what interactions are worth that risk. We have to assume every responsibility in our power.

Nanny and Grandpa Ed on one of their wild adventures.

Is our personal boredom, inconvenience, or discomfort not worth offering up, knowing it might protect even one vulnerable person? And the thing is, it isn’t one person; it’s a huge skyrocketing rate claiming hundreds of thousands of citizens that each individual either stimulates or subdues. I ask you to ask yourself, please, which will you be today?

Who could we be robbing of their precious time or goodbyes, and was it worth it? Sometimes it’s impossible to avoid. But don’t give up completely and assume it’s not worth trying. I find myself asking, and I know others are asking of their own loved ones too, was Nanny one of those unavoidable, inevitable deaths, or was someone’s carelessness, somewhere, what led my family to the reality we face today?

If it is somehow not worth sacrificing our freedoms to do recreational activities, rampantly spreading this virus and endangering this community more than is necessary, we will never beat this virus as a nation. It will beat us. It will do more of this: tearing loved ones from families, crushing anyone struggling with their health, and snuffing out whatever small humanities can be offered in death.

I wear my mask everywhere I go. I have become a hermit whenever I possibly can. I say no to beloved friends. I alienate beloved family members. I do so because I believe someday, someday soon, there will be time to celebrate. And more of us will be there, alive, to celebrate that day if we are patient.

My mother has done this too. Yet she was the one who bore the brunt of that lack of others’ sacrifices. Life isn’t fair. But we can try to make it just a little more fair for those who need it.

Nanny, Ma, and myself in our garden, still blooming today thanks to Ma’s devoted toiling.

Please. Do your part. People will die, yes. That’s inevitable. But we can protect some of our loved ones if we give it our best shot.

I leave you with a photo of Nanny being excited about our garden, my mom being distracted by my antics, and my young self, dressed in a purple dinosaur shirt handmade by Nanny, basking in both matriarchs’ love.

We Must Take Care of Our Neighbors -- A Graph of US Deaths in Numbers

PALM BEACH COUNTY

There have been 540,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide in 190 days. (The report of the first COVID-19 cluster was December 31st, 2019.) I know it feels like so long ago, but in 190 days, that many have died and the new case rate per day is only rising, particularly in this country.

(The US leads cases (#1) worldwide. And Florida is one of the top hot spots of the country. And Palm Beach County is one of the top hotspots of the state. So you COULD say we specifically are recorded as one of the most infected areas IN THE WORLD.) And remember, 190 for the world, but COVID-19 wasn't here in Florida until 129 days ago, and here we are.

Now, let's talk U.S. facts:

COVID-19, in less than half a year, has already killed more Americans than: diabetes, the flu, pneumonia, suicide, dementia, murder, and many other leading causes of death in our country. It's nearly equal to strokes. It's killed more, in 3 months, than in A YEAR for these other tragic causes of death. COVID-19 is only 30,000 people away from killing more Americans than all "accidents" combined. (Not just traffic)

It is a fifth of the way there to CANCER OF ALL KINDS. And we're less than 4 months into this contagion being on our shores in substantial numbers.

With the upward trend, COVID-19 will far surpass all other contagious diseases in the US.

I know this is long, but if people have time to go out in numbers, my closest friends and beloved family members included, we should find time to take a good look at these statistics and weigh what excursions are worth it.

Some of us don't have much of a choice when it comes to being exposed. Some risk eviction if they don't work. Some risk going hungry. So if these are not risks for you, like they aren't for me, please take it upon yourself to look out for our neighbors that have no real choice. To wear your mask properly. To limit your public interactions. To respect everyone's personal space and the choices they make to arm themselves against this potentially deadly virus. To prevent them from spreading a virus to loved ones or strangers who are at higher risk.

Can we really know whether the people we hang out with don’t interact with someone on oxygen for lung cancer? That go home to someone with asthma? That go home to someone that's just unlucky? It is a huge mental burden to live this way. I know, it sucks! But the numbers are in, and it IS OUR BURDEN TO BEAR.

Obviously, you have to do what you need to do to stay mentally healthy, posting memes and making light of this insane dumpster fire of a year. But these numbers beg us to think twice before ACTUALLY letting our guards down. Many of these viral graphics we see posted are inaccurate to today’s dangerous situation and spread harmful attitudes about how serious this currently is.

Love you. Miss y’all. I know we all just want to be safe, to see our loved ones safe, to see the strangers we share space with stay alive.

(If you help yourself sleep at night by saying "WE'RE JUST REPORTING MORE for >reasons<" I completely understand that instinct, but the numbers remain high regardless.)

The pandemic is still unbridled and barely possessed footing in the world population for most of the 190 days it's been spreading, unlike with most diseases which have been in existence for centuries to gain infection rates but also have researched treatments. COVID has neither of those things and is rampant.

PS. Please feel free correct anything you don't like on my graph, and I'll be glad to make it more precise. I'm an author/illustrator, not a statistician or an epidemiologist, so I'm no expert. But I did vet all of these numbers from multiple sources e.g. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The National Institute on Aging, The Kaiser Family Foundation, The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, The Florida Department of Health, and many more. If you don't believe these numbers, I'd be glad to send you my sources.

Disclaimer: the first COVID-19 CASE can be traced back to November 17th, 2019. I used my numbers for as long as COVID-19 has been in the public eye.

Fight the war on misinformation and fake news! Even if that means we disagree!💕

#covid19 #coronavirus #quarantine #socialdistancing #wereinthistogether #staysafestayhome #stayhome #maskson #fakenews #staysafe

New Mural!

Always so happy and proud to take part in all of Kijana’s efforts in Kenya. Here is a mural I designed for their school for boys and girls, The Kijana Global Innovation School.

Talented, local (and fast!) painter Jesse Otukho made it a reality on one of the many blank walls awaiting future murals. It has given students something colorful to walk by each day and take pride in. It additionally gives them a visual rich, African wildlife. (It matches the ocean murals we did too!)

I loved being a tiny part of this story. The American-to-Kenyan relationship of Kijana is a myriad of connections just like Jesse’s and my partnership as artists. Two entities across the ocean working together to bring one vision to life

Check out Kijana’s Education Empowerment Initiative at kijana.org

I do murals now!

What a pleasure it’s been working with my client Jim at Kijana, an educational empowerment initiative in Kenya. They have their own school there for children in need and provide all sorts of aid to our Kenyan brothers and sisters in the surrounding area. By providing scholarships to students, bringing water systems to the area, having soap drives during the COVID-19 outbreak, and much more, they do their best to stretch every dollar across the Atlantic ocean.

Lately, we’ve been making the school look more home-y by adding art and murals to the cement walls. The first series thanks the ocean for our water. The second one will be about sharing our space with the gorgeous wildlife. The ocean mural is complete. The first in the wildlife series is in progress. See below!

And PLEASE visit kijana.org and get involved or donate. Comment if you’d like to buy posters or print-out versions of the murals. We’re trying to get a shop up and running. All proceeds go to Kijana.

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Pet Portraits

I love critters, so obviously I love drawing them however you want them: from regal and realistic to goofy as a real-life cartoon.  

Travel Posters

My place is Clematis Street. For a lot of reasons. I found the first job I ever loved there. I found the man I love there. I met role models there and dodged some wildcards. Every friendship I’ve known has been made deeper by walking down that sweet-in-the-daytime, wild-in-the-nighttime avenue. And every time I look down its length, past the tracks, to the water, I’m a little older, a little wiser, and a little more found.

Anyway, that would be my place. When I have time, I’ll make myself a travel poster, but for now I’ll settle with yours. If you have a city or town that belongs on your wall, I’ll customize it for you. Oftentimes people want their favorite vacation, or their soul city. A hometown? Did you meet your significant other on a specific bridge in New Orleans? Did your mom take you to a special beach on the west coast? Do you just really like that corner with the cute lil’ streetlight near your house?

Let me capture your captivating place, let me sew a story… into your latest wall decor :D

Commissions Commissions Commissions

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of new commissions. Posters, booklets, illustrations for stage props, personal gifts to loved ones. It’s been a dream come true watching word of mouth lead to work in my inbox. I’m so glad to be a part of such a supportive community here in SoFlo. Between local writers, business owners, and fellow non-profit organizers I’ve met through the BAM! Festival, the world is bright and covered in paint (mostly of the digital variety ;) )

Making a website

IS THIS HOW A WEB PORTFOLIO WORKS? Today, I’m frantically trying to configure squarespace, expand another page for the picture book, and juggle freelance illustrations. Between CSS code and where my wacom tablet stylus has rolled off to, it’s been an organized chaos. Still, if I was going to have a problem “too much art” is a good one #happycamper

Below: today’s progress on the next page