I AM a reader of footnotes. I love how yours are often an essay/post/message in and of themselves. Have you read Ross Gay? He also has sometimes meandering footnotes that are their own story. I've been playing with footnotes lately, perhaps (likely) inspired by my delight in yours.
And something I want to make this week is grapefruit-rosemary marmalade. I have the fruit on my counter now. I've never had it or made it, but I keep thinking about it. (I want to make an almond cake to go with it, but that is a separate project.)
Hi Sara - Thank you. I really appreciate knowing the footnotes are seen — I haven’t read Ross Gay, although I know that one of the publications I subscribe to has been reading one of his books. (And I did see that he now has a substack, too.) That’s interesting about the footnotes. Now I have to take a look. (I had no idea others were using footnotes this way. Your marmalade sounds intriguing. I hope it goes well. Where did you hear about this specific combination?
Ross Gay is worth reading — and he writes short pieces, so easy to start a book and make your way through it slowly.
I don't know where the grapefruit-rosemary combo came from. I have been mildly obsessed with citrus lately, but I must have seen it paired with rosemary somewhere — it doesn't seem like a pairing I would come up with on my own. And I made it — the set is pretty soft, but I think I like it :)
I am participating in the 100 Day Project, or have started to at least. I’m drawing on wood blocks, moving my sketches off the page and using marker and paints. I read footnotes 🙂
LOVE this new project, Amy. Your posts every week blow my mind because they're so detailed and there's always so much depth. THE footnotes are amazing. And thanks for the mention. That's really kind! xo
Like Nan and Sara, I too am blown away/inspired by the breadth and depth of your writing, including the footnotes (I do read them also). Thanks for another word salad – for me, your entries are not how a word salad is usually defined. In a salad, all the different elements end up in the same place and nourish the whole. It's all connected, for those of a mind to see such connections.
Thank you, Lightbulb Curator (not sure if your name is public or not). I appreciate this comment and the note about the connectedness and circling around of the words. I’m glad it comes across that way!
Hi Amy. I love what you’re doing here. Love this language about objectivity being available to all of us, at all times - in our art and in life - regardless of how it all feels. I love seeing your artistic processes, and the results. I love the footnotes! And I am so glad someone here pointed out that Ross Gay does something similar! Several years ago, I undertook a 100 day challenge to take a picture of a single maple tree every day. I haven’t gone back to look, but I bet I didn’t even make it 20 days. Also, several years ago, I did try a daily drawing challenge! You’ve inspired me to revisit one of both of those projects. And I’m so glad you enjoyed your unexpectedly fancy coffee!!!
I love the idea of 100 days of the same tree. I worked at a recreation site and took a photo everyday I worked for 6 month season from the same spot. It was so interesting to see the seasons change.
Thank you, Francesca. I’m glad both of you mentioned Ross Gay. I will look. My use of the footnotes here is a strategy within the limited space we have, but I also find it a wonderful embodiment of margins. Your two projects — tree photo and daily drawing are both wonderful. I hope you pick one or both back up and follow for however many days you can. I can imaging that the series of photos is beautiful when viewed over a number of days as you see slight changes in the tree and in the light. — I hope you are feeling better!
Thanks for sharing the sequence of the couple with the different “topographies” - I can really see what you mean that the narrative changes with each contour variation- it’s almost like a different punctuation at the end of the same sentence over and over. Really cool project Amy, I am glad to see it.
Thank you, Lauren! I am glad to hear that you saw that and how differently they read. I find it fascinating and also a bit crazy making because the possibilities are endless ;) But I do enjoy looking at a few variations. I hope your private project is serving you well one week in.
Your footnotes aren’t the only reason I save your posts to come back to later, but they’re certainly a compelling one. Thank you for the mention, Amy. There is so much I sit with when I read your newsletter … so many parallels in our lives, yet not. Your small delights, your big questions, your ponderances, your sadness, your questions, all those edges and contours and loopholes … there is so much your words give me. It’s a gift, really.
Thank you, Mansi. I appreciate that you read and that you find elements that resonate. I think our contours seem very different, but you are right, there are probably many overlaps and similarities, too. I love that you find those. I hope things are okay and that the week ahead is smooth.
Thank you, Amy. I am trying to live by “taking it one day at a time,” and not just say it. Makes jt so much easier in so many ways. It feels morbid to my husband when I say tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, but it’s true … might as well enjoy those accidental grocery deliveries today 🥰
I definitely read the footnotes!! This project is so great. Changing the typography changes the vibe, and the story I invent in my head. I don’t know what I will definitely draw this week. My 100 day project…I want to make a zine using the dice throwing idea I saw on Substack this morning.
Thanks, Laura. Like Lauren’s comment, I’m glad to hear that seeing the versions made sense to others. I was really glad to get a Quick Look at your 100 day week 1 set this morning. It’s wonderful! I look forward to seeing what this week brings — and have fun with the zine creation!
I love that, Lea….the view of the tucked away notes as a secret message. Thank you. I definitely think that only a few will read them, and I like that reality. Thank you for the words about the contour series. How are the contour portraits going? I hope you are having fun with them.
This week, I'm going to copy down all the bits of the rich and roving thought-project, the edges of which expanded and contracted, carrying me along in a wave. And I'll add a short reflection after.
~I have a lot of edges called Perhaps and almost nothing you can call Certainty (Mary Oliver's words always seem so well chosen.)
~Filling space can be mindful and calming. (And it's one of the aspects of your drawings I love most!)
~Your voice will carry throughout your journal, but that does not mean that every page will look the same. (I love the idea of a journaling voice!)
~Something about the open space feels inviting. (Interesting contrast with the calming energy of filling space.)
~I am always trying to find the right one for the story. (I wonder if the right one can change like the contours.)
~I see him in motion, my brain willingly overlooking the fact that he hasn’t changed. (But he was moving when you saw him, yes?)
~Part of me thinks this is explainable, expected, a function of an instinctive survival mode. (This makes a lot of sense to me.)
~It’s almost sad how much someone’s messed up delivery delighted us. Almost. (HAHAHA! Could the groceries have been a sign?)
~...the boundaries of the cookie cutters we think represent our days... (So much room for adaptation here.)
~The world is falling apart, and I’m just trying to hold onto my little part and pray a lot of unspoken things. (That's all most of us are capable of doing. It still matters.)
~The iced coffee was decadent even though it shouldn’t have been. (Isn't it fun when something so simple brings so much joy?)
~Suddenly there is a nail sticking out of it? (Could the nail have been a sign? 😯)
Thank you, Elizabeth. This was a fun way to view comments. I would confuse us both if I tried to reply. If only there was a way now to annotate and put that copy back into the thread. Of course, some nods here and there, some places I could explain a bit, and some food for thought. Thank you for reading and reading closely enough that things jump out to take a note. I really hope not about the nail, but that was my thought, too. It’s still there for me to puzzle over. Lol. Have a good week.
Yes I love footnotes... they're like following a secret trail, a treasure hunt, and it's fun to have different/parallel things happening in the body of text and the footnote. The random surprise grocery story made me laugh. I like this --> "The longer the sketchbook lasts, the better." I linger for many days on a page and each time I open the sketchbook it's a fresh start even though it's technically a continuation of whatever I'd been doing earlier. Good luck with your 100 Day project!
I love the combination of the rainbow color shapes and fluid line of your figures in your 100 day project images. And the space you are creating for these figures to be in is really interesting…the topography part, and how they move through it. I also love your footnotes. If more footnotes were like yours I would probably be better about reading them. (By the way, you deserve a special grocery surprise like that! ☺️)
I AM a reader of footnotes. I love how yours are often an essay/post/message in and of themselves. Have you read Ross Gay? He also has sometimes meandering footnotes that are their own story. I've been playing with footnotes lately, perhaps (likely) inspired by my delight in yours.
And something I want to make this week is grapefruit-rosemary marmalade. I have the fruit on my counter now. I've never had it or made it, but I keep thinking about it. (I want to make an almond cake to go with it, but that is a separate project.)
Hi Sara - Thank you. I really appreciate knowing the footnotes are seen — I haven’t read Ross Gay, although I know that one of the publications I subscribe to has been reading one of his books. (And I did see that he now has a substack, too.) That’s interesting about the footnotes. Now I have to take a look. (I had no idea others were using footnotes this way. Your marmalade sounds intriguing. I hope it goes well. Where did you hear about this specific combination?
Ross Gay is worth reading — and he writes short pieces, so easy to start a book and make your way through it slowly.
I don't know where the grapefruit-rosemary combo came from. I have been mildly obsessed with citrus lately, but I must have seen it paired with rosemary somewhere — it doesn't seem like a pairing I would come up with on my own. And I made it — the set is pretty soft, but I think I like it :)
I am participating in the 100 Day Project, or have started to at least. I’m drawing on wood blocks, moving my sketches off the page and using marker and paints. I read footnotes 🙂
That sounds like an interesting project, Kristen! Are you printing with the blocks? Or are the blocks in place of paper?
They’re in place of paper; like colorful coasters …
Oh, very cool. That sounds like a neat project!
LOVE this new project, Amy. Your posts every week blow my mind because they're so detailed and there's always so much depth. THE footnotes are amazing. And thanks for the mention. That's really kind! xo
Thanks so much for reading and looking, Nan. I appreciate the comment about the contours project!
Like Nan and Sara, I too am blown away/inspired by the breadth and depth of your writing, including the footnotes (I do read them also). Thanks for another word salad – for me, your entries are not how a word salad is usually defined. In a salad, all the different elements end up in the same place and nourish the whole. It's all connected, for those of a mind to see such connections.
Thank you, Lightbulb Curator (not sure if your name is public or not). I appreciate this comment and the note about the connectedness and circling around of the words. I’m glad it comes across that way!
Hi Amy. I love what you’re doing here. Love this language about objectivity being available to all of us, at all times - in our art and in life - regardless of how it all feels. I love seeing your artistic processes, and the results. I love the footnotes! And I am so glad someone here pointed out that Ross Gay does something similar! Several years ago, I undertook a 100 day challenge to take a picture of a single maple tree every day. I haven’t gone back to look, but I bet I didn’t even make it 20 days. Also, several years ago, I did try a daily drawing challenge! You’ve inspired me to revisit one of both of those projects. And I’m so glad you enjoyed your unexpectedly fancy coffee!!!
I love the idea of 100 days of the same tree. I worked at a recreation site and took a photo everyday I worked for 6 month season from the same spot. It was so interesting to see the seasons change.
Ah! Yes! That’s exactly what I had wanted to capture! Okay! Doubling down on my commitment today!
Thank you, Francesca. I’m glad both of you mentioned Ross Gay. I will look. My use of the footnotes here is a strategy within the limited space we have, but I also find it a wonderful embodiment of margins. Your two projects — tree photo and daily drawing are both wonderful. I hope you pick one or both back up and follow for however many days you can. I can imaging that the series of photos is beautiful when viewed over a number of days as you see slight changes in the tree and in the light. — I hope you are feeling better!
Thanks for sharing the sequence of the couple with the different “topographies” - I can really see what you mean that the narrative changes with each contour variation- it’s almost like a different punctuation at the end of the same sentence over and over. Really cool project Amy, I am glad to see it.
Thank you, Lauren! I am glad to hear that you saw that and how differently they read. I find it fascinating and also a bit crazy making because the possibilities are endless ;) But I do enjoy looking at a few variations. I hope your private project is serving you well one week in.
Your footnotes aren’t the only reason I save your posts to come back to later, but they’re certainly a compelling one. Thank you for the mention, Amy. There is so much I sit with when I read your newsletter … so many parallels in our lives, yet not. Your small delights, your big questions, your ponderances, your sadness, your questions, all those edges and contours and loopholes … there is so much your words give me. It’s a gift, really.
Thank you, Mansi. I appreciate that you read and that you find elements that resonate. I think our contours seem very different, but you are right, there are probably many overlaps and similarities, too. I love that you find those. I hope things are okay and that the week ahead is smooth.
Thank you, Amy. I am trying to live by “taking it one day at a time,” and not just say it. Makes jt so much easier in so many ways. It feels morbid to my husband when I say tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, but it’s true … might as well enjoy those accidental grocery deliveries today 🥰
I definitely read the footnotes!! This project is so great. Changing the typography changes the vibe, and the story I invent in my head. I don’t know what I will definitely draw this week. My 100 day project…I want to make a zine using the dice throwing idea I saw on Substack this morning.
Thanks, Laura. Like Lauren’s comment, I’m glad to hear that seeing the versions made sense to others. I was really glad to get a Quick Look at your 100 day week 1 set this morning. It’s wonderful! I look forward to seeing what this week brings — and have fun with the zine creation!
Lover of footnotes - I am always sad when people use them for actual references and not a secret message to me, the one who chose to read them.
Love the topography of the drawings and seeing all the different options.
I love that, Lea….the view of the tucked away notes as a secret message. Thank you. I definitely think that only a few will read them, and I like that reality. Thank you for the words about the contour series. How are the contour portraits going? I hope you are having fun with them.
Going well and people I’ve drawn have enjoyed them. Need to come up with a sustainable plan for having a picture/subject ready each day.
This week, I'm going to copy down all the bits of the rich and roving thought-project, the edges of which expanded and contracted, carrying me along in a wave. And I'll add a short reflection after.
~I have a lot of edges called Perhaps and almost nothing you can call Certainty (Mary Oliver's words always seem so well chosen.)
~Filling space can be mindful and calming. (And it's one of the aspects of your drawings I love most!)
~Your voice will carry throughout your journal, but that does not mean that every page will look the same. (I love the idea of a journaling voice!)
~Something about the open space feels inviting. (Interesting contrast with the calming energy of filling space.)
~I am always trying to find the right one for the story. (I wonder if the right one can change like the contours.)
~I see him in motion, my brain willingly overlooking the fact that he hasn’t changed. (But he was moving when you saw him, yes?)
~Part of me thinks this is explainable, expected, a function of an instinctive survival mode. (This makes a lot of sense to me.)
~It’s almost sad how much someone’s messed up delivery delighted us. Almost. (HAHAHA! Could the groceries have been a sign?)
~...the boundaries of the cookie cutters we think represent our days... (So much room for adaptation here.)
~The world is falling apart, and I’m just trying to hold onto my little part and pray a lot of unspoken things. (That's all most of us are capable of doing. It still matters.)
~The iced coffee was decadent even though it shouldn’t have been. (Isn't it fun when something so simple brings so much joy?)
~Suddenly there is a nail sticking out of it? (Could the nail have been a sign? 😯)
Thanks for a scenic and provocative read, Amy
Thank you, Elizabeth. This was a fun way to view comments. I would confuse us both if I tried to reply. If only there was a way now to annotate and put that copy back into the thread. Of course, some nods here and there, some places I could explain a bit, and some food for thought. Thank you for reading and reading closely enough that things jump out to take a note. I really hope not about the nail, but that was my thought, too. It’s still there for me to puzzle over. Lol. Have a good week.
Yes I love footnotes... they're like following a secret trail, a treasure hunt, and it's fun to have different/parallel things happening in the body of text and the footnote. The random surprise grocery story made me laugh. I like this --> "The longer the sketchbook lasts, the better." I linger for many days on a page and each time I open the sketchbook it's a fresh start even though it's technically a continuation of whatever I'd been doing earlier. Good luck with your 100 Day project!
Oh! And thank you for the mention!
Thanks for reading, Tammy. And, yes, a long time with a sketchbook is nice for a variety of reasons. Mine are pretty practical!
I love the combination of the rainbow color shapes and fluid line of your figures in your 100 day project images. And the space you are creating for these figures to be in is really interesting…the topography part, and how they move through it. I also love your footnotes. If more footnotes were like yours I would probably be better about reading them. (By the way, you deserve a special grocery surprise like that! ☺️)