A Long Weekend Back In Chicago

Earlier this month, Soni and I went back to Chicago for a long weekend. It was the first time we’ve visited since we moved almost two years ago. Needless to say it was a bit surreal to be back. Our first stop was the lake of course, for an early morning swim. We were in town for friends’ wedding, but we tacked on an extra day on either side to visit with friends. It was pretty much a non stop weekend, so I barely took any pictures. Here are a few favorites from the weekend.

Marian and I went to the Musuem of Contemporary Art, and loved this Assaf Evron show. (See also my studio visit with Marian Runk)

I met my friend Margaret at the River Walk downtown. When I left Chicago, it was only partly open, but they’ve since done a ton of work on it, and on lots of other buildings downtown. It was a whole lot flashier. Even though I’m sure it was an insanely expensive project, it is a really nice addition to downtown, and I wish it had been around when I lived there!

The floating garden on the River Walk.

Shiny buildings along the River Walk.

The view of the Chicago Skyline from the west side wedding reception venue.

We took almost no photos on this trip, but did snap this selfie on the bus to the wedding.

Till next time Chicago, xo.

Mountain Time: Nambe Lake

On the weekend, Soni and I hiked up to Nambe Lake. The trailhead starts from the Santa Fe ski basin. It was so hot in Santa Fe that I almost didn’t bring any layers, but as soon as I stepped out onto the trail I was grateful for my long sleeve shirt. There is a magical freshness in the cooler air, where everything smells like the forest. After the heat of the Summer sun in Santa Fe, climbing up to cooler air feels so good.

Lake side also means lots of bugs…

Soni in the adventure hat

It’s a pretty steep climb for most of the hike but there were some nice in between flats that offered a bit of respite, and of course the lake at the end of the hike was the best reward. We didn’t jump in, but had a nice picnic on some rocks before beginning our climb down. There are many small waterfalls that were rushing with water as we walked by. The wildflowers were tall and blooming. It was a summertime Saturday well spent.

A Reading with Coco Picard and Devin King, in tandem with "Underneath"

Earlier this Summer, I invited two of my very talented friends Caroline (Coco) Picard and Devin King to do a reading at Niomi Fawn’s Show Pony Gallery while my painting show “Underneath” was on view. They just moved to Santa Fe from Chicago this Summer, and it was the perfect opportunity to get to hear more of their recent work. We’ve been friends for over a decade. I first met Coco outside a gallery opening in Chicago. We chatted about arctic explorers, hit it off, and later worked together on her publication of The North Georgia Gazette.

Coco Picard reading from a recent comic.

Devin King reading his new poem “Carousel”

Coco Picard wrote a letter to the paintings in the exhibition, calling up our shared history and letters that I used to write to the ocean. She read this in the gallery, and then read a selection from a graphic novel called “Meowsers” that she is currently working on, excerpts are shared below.

Excerpt from “Meowsers” - image courtesy of Coco Picard.

Excerpt from “Meowsers” - image courtesy of Coco Picard.

Excerpt from “Meowsers” - image courtesy of Coco Picard.

Devin King read from his poetry book “The Resonant Space” and a new poem created for the reading, “Carousel”, which is excerpted below.

Carousel by Devin King

     For Rebecca Mir Grady

I love the summer plays.

     The ceremonial burial in the ground,

     the ceremonial burning,

     the ceremonial

     plunging     into water

     of the representative

     of the fertilization

                       spirit

                                 that

           now yellow

                        will not

turn green          until

next     spring.

In Bavaria,

                  the Whitsuntide Pfingstl dressed in leaves,

                                                                                                water plants,

                                                                                                                         and a peony cap

is soused. 

In mimicry,

his head

is chopped     off.

He is the Jack-in-Green,

the worshipper

clad in the god

under whose protection

he desires to put himself.

At Palermo,

                      there is a still

more realistic     representation.

     A real

          old woman

               to whose neck

                    a bladder

                          of blood

                                          is tied.

Our fertility

means nothing

to the ocean.

—Excerpt courtesy of Devin King

The Grand Complication by Devin King and the Chronicles of Fortune by Coco Picard

Devin King’s newest book “The Grand Complication” is now available from Kenning Editions. The book launches in Chicago with a reading on September 7th, at 4pm, at the Dial Bookshop with Daniel Borzutzky and Olivia Lott. He’ll also be at Wolfman Books in Oakland on October 25th with Patrick Durgin, and at Poetic Research Bureau in LA, also with Patrick Durgin. I’m excited that I just got my hands on a copy. It’s a beautifully designed book and I’m loving it so far, with all its dizzying musicality.

If you’re in Santa Fe, stop in and see the show “Underneath” while it’s still up, through August 30th, at Show Pony Gallery, 501 Franklin Ave. I’ll be hosting gallery hours this weekend, August 17th from 2-6pm and August 18th from 1-4pm - come say hello! There will also be a performance of the Sacrament of Tears with Niomi Fawn and the time beings (Ni, Eka, Aine), on Saturday August 24th at 6pm. You can hear more about my work in the show and practice in the newest episode of “A Creative Excuse”, the podcast by Frank Rose of Hecho A Mano. It’s my first time ever being on a podcast, and to be honest, I’m too nervous to listen to it. So have a listen and let me know how it goes!

A bit more about Caroline and Devin:

Caroline (Coco) Picard is a writer, publisher, and curator. Her writing has appeared in Artslant, ArtForum (critics picks), Flash Art International, and Paper Monument, among others. She is the Executive Director of the Green Lantern Press—a nonprofit publishing house and art producer in operation since 2005. Fiction and comics appear under the name Coco Picard. Her first graphic novel, The Chronicles of Fortune, was published by Radiator Comics in 2017. www.cocopicard.com

Devin King is the poetry editor for The Green Lantern Press. A narrative poem, The Grand Complication, is out now from Kenning Editions. Previous books and chaps: CLOPS, These Necrotic Ethos Come the Plains, and The Resonant Space. Criticism on poetry and sound studies can be found at The Chicago Review, Make Magazine, Plume Poetry, Dusted, and Critical Inquiry.

Mountain Time: Wheeler Peak

The parking lot at the Wheeler Peak trailhead was almost full by the time Soni and I got there. It’s reassuring to climb a mountain with lots of company. The trail to Wheeler Peak starts with the trail to Williams Lake. We’ve hiked up to Williams Lake a few times. It’s a great and relatively short hike to an alpine lake. Soni had hiked up to Wheeler Peak before, but it was my first time. I found it really helped to have some of the trail be familiar. Once we passed the turnoff for Williams Lake, it wasn’t much further until tree line.

Looking down on Williams Lake

wildflowers on the side of the mountain

The trail was mostly clear of snow, with a few exceptions. We were happy to have our microspikes along for this section.

It was a beautiful day for it, not too hot, not too cold. We could see weather in the distance once we go to the top, so we ate our lunch quickly and hit the trail back down. We got a few raindrops on us on the way back down, but missed any big weather. Climbing Mt. Elbert last Summer definitely made this climb a lot more enjoyable. I was much better prepared for this mountain, and as it’s a lower elevation, it felt that much easier than Mt. Elbert. I even wanted to run (okay more like jog?) down part of the mountain, after seeing a few trail runners on the path. I would love to make this hike an annual tradition. Or maybe next year we cross some more New Mexico mountains off our mountain wish list….

A Weekend at Devil's Spring Ranch with Don and Jane

Earlier this year, Soni and I spent a long weekend at our friends’ ranch in Northwestern New Mexico. Don and Jane Schreiber run Devil’s Spring Ranch. They bought the place in the late 90s and were planning to make their lifelong dreams of ranching cattle come true. Almost immediately things started to go south. The fracking boom took off in a big way, and their ranch was on prime gas territory. Don and Jane owned the surface land, and had leased grazing rights on adjacent land, but they had no claims to the minerals below. There were already wells on their land when the bought the place, but shortly after they moved onto the land, the state changed the spacing rules for oil and gas wells in the area, enabling companies to drill twice as many wells at a higher density than before. Don and Jane started running cattle on their new ranch, but unfortunately, with the gas boom came a lot more wells, which meant more roads, trucks, and hazards for cattle, zig zagging every which way across their ranch. Eventually fighting the gas companies became too big of a job, and the cattle ranching dream fell by the wayside. Don and Jane have since become vocal advocates for holistic range management practices, responsible land management, and regulations for reducing methane and toxic emissions from oil and gas infrastructure. Today, there are 122 gas wells at Devil’s Spring Ranch, and 10 are visible from Don and Jane’s home.

Don and Devil’s Spring Ranch are featured in the new HBO documentary “Ice on Fire”. Don is interviewed about the common practice of venting and flaring of methane from oil and gas wells. As the major component of natural gas, methane is emitted from oil and gas infrastructure at a disturbing rate in northwestern New Mexico, causing the area to become infamously known for the Four Corners “methane hotspot”. Directed by Leila Connors and narrated and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, “Ice on Fire” was released this year, and is now streaming on HBO’s platforms.

Hiking at the ranch

We spent our Saturday driving around with Don and Jane, seeing the ranch and doing some ranch chores. I wasn’t much help, but we did learn a lot about the land, plants, and the hard work it takes to keep up a ranch of this size in a holistic manner. Despite all the gas wells, Devil’s Spring Ranch is absolutely beautiful. With all the snow and rain over the winter and spring, the ranch was the greenest it had been in 20 years.

The neighbors still run cattle, so there are a lot of water tanks around for them. One of our ranch chores was driving around to check on the tanks. Don rigged up a bunch of “escape ramps” that we helped install in the drinking tanks on his neighbor’s ranch. The escape ramps are for any critters that fall into the tanks while trying to drink - with the ramps, they have an easier way to get out, saving them and keeping the water cleaner for drinking.

Lupins at golden hour

Don and Jane at cow camp

Cows and gas wells in close proximity out here

Sunset trek to the watering hole

Jane’s garden

My new friends

Dusk from the stables

Behind the Scenes - The Prop Rooms at the Santa Fe Opera

Last month I had the opportunity to go see La Bohéme at the Santa Fe Opera. Before the performance, we got a little backstage tour, which I loved! As someone who gets as excited about the sets and set design as the actual performance, it was a dream. As expected, it was much different than the prop rooms and backstage sets of my high school theater days. There were rooms and rooms of props. We learned that this was only a fraction of the props that the Santa Fe Opera has. They have an offsite warehouse where the rest is stored, neatly catalogued. The attention to detail with the props was really impressive.

My favorite corner of the Santa Fe Opera prop rooms was the aisle full of fake flowers. There were all kinds of flowers, separated by kind, in neatly labeled boxes. Sunflowers, carnations, tulips, spider mums, English roses, dahlias, and lots more.

As the sun began to go down, we found our seats in the beautiful auditorium, and watched the sunset behind the stage.

Photo Session - WorldWomenWork Artisan Made Goods

Last week, I did a fun photo session with Singer Rankin of WorldWomenWork. WorldWomenWork is a Santa Fe non-profit fundraising initiative that supports conservation of endangered species in the US, Kenya, Thailand, and Myanmar. They raise money through direct donations, sales of artisan made goods in the shop, and annual education adventure trips.

I’m helping to relaunch their website, and one of the big projects was to photograph some of the handmade home goods, jewelry, and clothing for the new shop update. These are some of my favorite photos from the shoot. Hope you like them! And do stop by the new website at www.worldwomenwork.org

currently obsessed with these Moroccan Cactus Silk pillows…

i would like to take them all home with me!

A Night in the Pecos Wilderness

After work on Friday, we packed up our camping gear and hit the road. It’s a little over an hour to the Pecos Wilderness from Santa Fe, so it was getting late when we finally got there. We had read online that there was water at the campground, but we realized that the campground we wanted to stay at was not the one we remembered the name of, and there was no water. But we had just enough for the night and for a little coffee in the morning.

We took our tent and went to check out the spots. I was shielding my eyes from the setting sun when someone started waving at us from a picnic table. Friends also thought this was the best spot to camp. We pitched our tent in a site next to theirs, and joined them for a campfire. How wonderfully random to run into friends in the woods. And lucky for us as they had a water filter, so we filled up on water from the nearby creek.

So close to the Solstice, the sun sets quite late. There was light in the sky till almost 9. With the fading light, the temperature began to fall, and the smoke from campfires drifted in and out of the trees, creating a misty, almost spooky and ethereal feeling in the forest.

There’s a creek that runs along the campground, and it creates a lovely background noise. In our tent, falling asleep, we saw light from flashlights bounce around the tent and trees, but couldn’t hear anyone walking past, only the sound of the creek.

In the morning, it was quite chilly and there were campfires again, with some morning smoke drifting in the trees as the sun rose and the day grew warmer. Soni made us coffee on the little camp stove, and we sat in our camp chairs, bundled up, and wrote our morning pages. I’d been having an awful week. I still wasn’t sure what to do about some challenges that had come up, but everything felt better in the woods that morning.

It certainly helped that there was zero cell phone reception where we were. I have a hard time not checking my phone constantly, so heading off to the woods where there’s no signal is often the only way I take a break.

We packed up camp, and headed onto a nearby trail to look for some rare wildflowers. Pictured above, our friends had told us about the yellow lady slipper, and how it rarely blooms in New Mexico. The yellow lady slipper is in the orchid family and while more commonly found in the Rockies and further north, they were blooming like crazy in the forest near where we were camping.

We decided to go look for the caves that were nearby. We had hiked this trail last summer, but somehow missed the caves, so this time we kept our hiking book at an easy reach the whole time, determined to find them. The wildflowers, not just the yellow lady slippers, were blooming all over, and I kept slowing us down to take a picture.

Look out for a cairn on the left side, and then there’s a short trail to the creek where you can see a cave across the way. Then head back onto the main trail and look out for a cairn on the right side. There will be a small clearing and a path to the caves, our guide book told us.

We found it just after another couple did, so we hung back to let them explore them on their own. While we perched on a rock across the creek from the caves, it started to rain. We got our chance to cross the log bridge to the caves, and finally got to see inside. The creek runs into the cave and there are three entrances. It was pretty wet and we didn’t have a headlamp, so we didn’t go back too far, but it was fun to see them. A large group arrived and they all started to cross over and their wasn’t enough room for all of us, so there were some very awkward moments while we waited to try to cross back.

The rain was light at first, and to be honest, it was welcome. After the chill of the morning, it had gotten really hot in the full sun, and we were discussing the possibility of jumping in the creek at some point. But the rain picked up and stayed steady, so we were thoroughly soaked on the way back.

Some weeks it’s hard to get out to the forest, or desert for a hike, or even a visit. But whenever we do, the rewards are so worth it.

Things to see in Santa Fe: La Bohéme at Santa Fe Opera

Last week I had a blast at the Santa Fe Opera. Caitlin and Amy of Simply Santa Fe invited me to an #instameet at the new production of La Bohéme at the Santa Fe Opera. I jumped at the chance. I had seen a production that my friend Silvie Jensen performed in at the Lyric Opera in Chicago a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. I’ve heard that the Santa Fe Opera always has innovative sets and costumes, as well as having such a unique location, so I was looking forward to seeing what they did with this opera.

The Santa Fe Opera organized a backstage tour for us (more on that in another post), and we got to see all of the prop rooms. We had dinner and champagne, and they bought the director Mary Birnbaum and the set designer Grace Laubaucher to tell us a bit about their process for putting together this production. I loved getting a chance to hear about how they worked together. I’ve always loved sets (from hanging out in the theater classes and productions back in high school), so I was really excited to see how this one came together.

The Santa Fe Opera is an open air theater. There is a roof, but as you can see above and below, you can see directly out, behind the stage and to the sides. It did look like it would rain, but thankfully it stayed away. The sun set around 8ish, and La Bohéme started right at 8:30, so we got a nice view of the sunset from our seats before the performance started.

I was not dissapointed.

The set was beautifully done, with the structure of the garret being used in every act, as the garret, later as the café, a bar, and then the garret again. The costumes were very colorful, and there was even a scene with Musetta wearing a hot pink sequined jumpsuit (my FAVORITE ever) (see below).

The production of La Bohéme runs through the end of August, so if you have a chance to go see it this Summer, I definitely recommend it! I’m looking forward to getting back to this lovely space soon…

Photo Session - Turner Mark-Jacobs at the New Mexico History Museum

Last week, Turner Mark-Jacobs and I got up bright and early and headed to the New Mexico History Museum for a portrait session before it opened to the public. It’s always fun to be in a musuem before/after hours, when everything is all quiet and it feels almost like a movie set. It’s been a while, since my days working at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago many years ago.

Located just off of the Santa Fe Plaza, the museum was hosting an exhibition of Mark-Jacobs’ illustrations of the Massacre of Don Pedro Villasur in 1720. Commissioned by the New Mexico History Museum, Mark-Jacobs’ watercolor and ink drawings have also been turned into a small book that is available in the museum gift shop. The full size illustrations are framed and on view in the Segesser Gallery.

Almost Summer in the San Juan Mountains

The last weekend of Spring, Soni I drove up to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, heading for the little ski village Purgatory, in between Durango and Silverton. Purgatory is about a half hour from Durango, but it’s at an elevation of about 8700 feet, so the weather can be drastically different from Durango’s at 6500 feet. The air was a lot chillier as we pulled in. It was clearly off season when we got there, and very quiet, perfect for us.

The first day we decided to have a slow morning, and go for a short hike, as it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. Soni had been reading about some of the trails on AllTrails and many were still impassable because of snow. We drove by the trailhead for the upper trail at Molas Lake but it was still blocked off, with the road still too snowy for cars or trucks. At the lower trail we started hiking down, and it was clear that snow had just melted or it had rained a ton, it was the muddiest trail we’d been on possibly ever. We walked down and around Molas Lake. There is a campground there, and I would love to get back there to stay sometime soon. As we got about halfway around a thunderstorm arrived.

The Colorado Trail runs near Molas Lake, and we decided to come back the next day and hike the part of the trail that goes down to the Animas River. We drove into Silverton after our walk, and saw the train about to leave for Durango. The train runs between Silverton and Durango, along the river. We’ve never done it, as it’s a lot slower of a trip, but I imagine it’s a beautiful ride.

The next day was sunny and warmer, much nicer for a longer hike. The aspen leaves were just getting started at this elevation. The first part of the trail is very open, and it feels very much like you’re walking through the Sound Of Music, but in the San Juan Mountains instead of the Alps.

As we descended much of the rest of the trail was in dense forest. There was a lot of snow left in among the trees, and without the sun the temperature dropped. Further down, there were some beautiful look out spots, with a great view of the river. We didn’t make it quite the whole way to the river. We saw and heard the train go by, snaking along the river.

Kitchen Mesa at Ghost Ranch

Now that Soni and I have been living in New Mexico for a year and a half, a nice thing is starting to happen. We’ve been able to return to favorite spots and trails and see them in the changing seasons.

Ghost Ranch in Abiquíu, New Mexico is one of those places. Ghost Ranch is a retreat and education center, and also has a number of beautiful hiking trails. Last Fall, Soni and I hiked Kitchen Mesa for the first time, and while the climb was steep, the views were so rewarding. We took my mom to Ghost Ranch in December, and did part of the Chimney Rock trail in the snow. A couple weeks ago, when Molly was visiting, I knew I wanted to take her here for a hike. I described the Kitchen Mesa trail and she said she was defintely in.

Ghost Ranch is about an hour from Santa Fe, just past the village of Abiquíu and Abiquíu Lake. The welcome center has maps of the property and can let you know where all the trailheads are. (They also ask that you check in before any hike and donate $5 per person towards the upkeep of the center and trails. )

The Kitchen Mesa trail is a 4.5 mile out an back trail that starts in a canyon. It’s a beautiful walk that begins relatively flat. There’s an area of fairly steep and rocky incline, with a bit of a rock scramble, and then you’re up on top with a beautiful view of the canyon. If you keep following the trail, there’s another short climb and then the trail leads out onto the mesa top, with a view of Abiquíu Lake and the rest of Ghost Ranch.

We packed a lunch, and had a little picnic up top, with the view. We followed the trail all along the mesa, and the ground changes color into small white rocks as far as we could see. Walking up the hill, all I could see was the white and the sky, and it felt like I was walking on the moon. A very windy moon though, so I had to hang onto my hat.

I love this hike for the rewarding view at the top, and also for the shadowy canyon walls on the way back. We always end up finishing this hike in the later afternoon, as the sun alternately spotlights canyon walls and creates beautiful shadows.

Behind the Scenes - In the studio with Lady Krispie

I love a good behind the scenes story. Of course I love seeing finished photos as well, but there’s just something so magical about seeing the curtain lifted a bit and getting a peek into someone’s studio and process. I have a whole pinterest board dedicated to studio photos.

I had a lot of fun with the Lady Krispie shoot last month, so I thought that I’d share a few photos from behind the scenes to offer up a peek into my own studio.

It was a bit of a stormy day when we did the photoshoot, a typical New Mexico spring day with rain, snow, hail and sun intermittently. I love working with natural light, so to make the most of it, I set up my large studio table underneath the studio skylights and opened the garage door as wide as possible. (Yes, it was cold!) For the shoot we used my studio table, one that I put together with wood and sawhorses from Home Depot.

In preparation for the shoot, we moved all the furniture to the other side of the studio to create an open space to photograph in. It’s rare for folks in the studio complex that I’m in to have their garage doors open, so I got a lot of inquiring neighbors taking a peek at what was happening inside as they walked by.

For the shoot, we wanted to get a lot of in process photos, so I photographed Molly assembling her cake first, and then photographed the finished dessert. I use a number of photo backdrops that I got from Ink and Elm. They are light and roll up, so it’s easy to store. I like using them because it offers a bigger variety for backdrops, and I don’t have to have ten different tables in the studio to photograph on.

Into the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area

Earlier this year, I drove out to the Bisti Badlands with Soni and Mary. We’d been talking about it for ages, so it was amazing to finally see the badlands in person. The Bisti / De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area is in Eastern Navajo Agency and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

It’s about a three hour drive northwest from Santa Fe. We left in the morning, and got to the badlands just after lunchtime. It was a sunny day, but quite windy and cold. From the parking area, we could see a trail and some formations in the distance. As we walked out furthur the formations were everywhere, ranging in size from inches high to ones that towered above us. The wind was so strong that it was easy to imagine how these hoodoos (the spires and other forms created from wind erosion over time) were formed. The ground is made up of sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt, with most of the hoodoos formed from sandstone.

The BLM’s website offers this tranlation of the Bisti/De-Na-Zin from Navajo/Diné: ““Bisti (Bis-tie) means "a large area of shale hills." De-Na-Zin (Deh-nah-zin) takes its name from the Navajo words for "cranes."“.

The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area is a surreal place, straight from an illustrated cover of a fantasy novel. The wind creates the formations, and it also blows away the trails. We wandered around for hours, keeping track of where we were headed so that we wouldn’t get lost, as is easy to do among the hoodoos. I would love to go again in warmer weather, to see it in a different season. I defintely recommend a visit to see this magical place.

Brand Highlight - A Photoshoot with Lady Krispie

This week, Molly of Lady Krispie, a NYC based custom dessert company, came over to the studio for a photoshoot. (Learn more about booking a photoshoot with me here. ) She made an Easter themed cereal layer cake and white chocolate dipped cereal treats, and we photographed the whole process. The goal for this shoot was to photograph Molly in action, baking and decorating. I’ve been photographing her desserts for the last several months for her new website and instagram, focusing on lifestyle and product shots. In this shoot, Molly wanted to show her customers some of the behind-the-scenes process of her Lady Krispie making and to highlight her new customizable layer cake option.

Watching Molly assemble the layer cake was a lot of fun. You can see the whole process here in this timelapse video we captured on an iphone. I have watched it so many times already…. I love a good timelapse!

The most challenging part of the photoshoot was the New Mexico Spring weather. I use natural light whenever possible, and the studio gets great light. That said, on the day of our shoot it was sunny, then snowing, then sunny, then hailing, then sunny, and then raining. The light fluctutations definitly required a bit of improvising and moving around to get the best light. However, with skylights and a huge garage door that doubles as a large window, we made it work. Molly was super happy with how all of the photos turned out, and I had a blast working with her.

The best part about the shoot was getting to try the cake and krispies afterwards!

If you ever need some custom desserts, be sure to check out Lady Krispie. As my friends will also tell you, I’m not a fan of regular cake, so for our wedding in Chicago, Soni and I ordered some custom gluten-free krispies and a heart shaped krispie cake. Lady Krispie is the best!

Studio Visit: Marian Runk's New Album Release "A Few Feet From The Ground"

Marian Runk is my best friend. She’s also a super talented musician, artist, and illustrator. She’s released her very first album (which she also illustrated all of the album art to go along with it). And she’s got a big release show with her whole band this coming week in Chicago (March 29th at Hungry Brain!). I wish that I could be there to celebrate in person, but since I can’t, I’m excited to share her work, and a little Q&A with her here.

Marian and I met in Chicago, when I was still in art school, and she was fresh out of college in Ohio. We had a lot of mutual friends, and she moved into the big Humboldt Park apartment I was living in (with it’s tiny bedrooms and a huge attic studio space). We became fast friends, and I’ve loved seeing her art and music evolve over the years. I couldn’t be more excited about her new album “A Few Feet From The Ground”, and hope that you all love it as much as I do! Read on for more about her creative practice and how got started with music.

BECCA GRADY: Can you tell me how you got started playing music? And what made you pick up the guitar and banjo?

MARIAN RUNK: I grew up learning classical piano, but quit before high school, to focus on ballet (which I then gave up for visual art & college). I didn’t return to playing music until I turned 30--  I signed up for a voice class at the Old Town School of Folk Music here in Chicago. I’m not exactly sure why I did that; it felt a little like a "mid-life" crisis. A coworker said something nice about my voice when I was singing along to the radio at work, and I do remember thinking it would be cool to learn how to control my breathe more, so singing would be easier and more fun.  Once I started singing, I needed to accompany myself, so my girlfriend at the time lent me her guitar and taught me a few chords. We were part of a really awesome small choir called Queer Quoir, which was a singing group open to all gender identities & singing abilities. It was led by Jackie Boyd, who sings harmony vocals on my album. The first time I ever played guitar for an audience was at a Queer Quoir show, the night Whitney Houston died. We finished singing and started crying. I think you were there?!  Somewhere around that time, I started taking guitar classes at the Old Town School, and writing songs, and then I just kept going.

BG: Yes, I remember that show! Up in Roger’s Park I think, everyone was crying at the end!

MR: Banjo came a little later. If guitar was a practical choice, banjo was for my heart! I was going to a lot of local bluegrass and old time & country shows, and I was really digging the banjos. When a banjo enters a song, I feel something slow down and relax/regulate in my chest, it’s hard to explain. Most things I know about the banjo, I know from Jonas Friddle (local songwriter, banjo player, teacher, and friend). I also have to pause and give Carol Kagy & Steve Dawson & Chris Walz (all teachers at the Old Town School) a huge shout-out, they’re responsible for my adult music education and are my heroes. 

Image courtesy of Marian Runk

BG: You also write and illustrate books. How does that process compare with writing music and songs? Do you think there is some overlap?

MR: I’ve been thinking a lot about this, recently. It’s a struggle to maintain focus on one discipline without feeling like I am sacrificing the other. They do relate to each other, but the truth is, for me, they more often compete. The common thread is narrative. I make comics, a narrative form of visual art. And I write (mostly) country songs, which primarily tell a story. But as I’ve been focusing more on songwriting in the past couple years, I think my artwork & books are becoming less narrative. Maybe I’m telling the stories through music, so images are free to be more independent? At first this made me anxious, but now I’m trying to chill out and see what happens. For example, I enjoyed drawing for the album booklet! The songs are telling the stories; I just needed the artwork to be adjacent to, or support the subject matter, not illustrate a specific through-line. 

One overlap is that I love the process of editing. The hardest part, for me, is getting the core of the project onto the page. Then there’s that intermediate phase, when the drawing or the word or the melody is inexact, not quite ready. I love re-arranging, finding the better rhyme, shifting a melody note up or down, erasing and moving an eye just a millimeter so that a character looks shocked instead of mad. Once the core of the piece is out, I know that it’s going to happen, and I start to enjoy the work of shaping it.

A Few Feet Off the Ground, image courtesy of Marian Runk

A Few Feet Off the Ground interior pages, image courtesy of Marian Runk

A Few Feet Off the Ground interior pages, image courtesy of Marian Runk

A Few Feet Off the Ground interior pages, image courtesy of Marian Runk

BG: One thing that I especially love about this album is how the album art and the music seem to tie together your illustrations, writing and music all in one. With the beautiful printing and binding of the booklet that accompanies the cd, it feels like the perfect melding of your creative practice.

MR: Thank you!  I did try very hard to bring all the sides of my artistic practice into this one package. An album seems like the one place where my art & music most naturally cohabit! The booklets & packaging were printed by Perfectly Acceptable Press; I’ve been wanting to work with Matt Davis for a while, and this was a great excuse! He does amazing things with Risograph printing. Thus far, I always bind my own books...although it’s not the most intelligent use of my time, I enjoy using the sewing as an opportunity to slow down & listen to music, and it seems like the least I can do to honor my MFA in “Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts?”

BG: I’m so excited about your new album, I’ve been listening to it a bunch. I love that there are some songs that I’ve seen you play before and some new ones as well. Can you tell me a bit more about what the process of putting together your first album was like? How long did it take you?

MR: Thanks so much! I love that you’ve been there from the start & have seen some of these songs in their first lives! As you know, some of them go back as far as 2013; so it’s been a long process! Because I’m newer to my instruments, I think my songwriting has been ahead of my playing-- I waited until I felt more sure of myself musically before recording. At the end of 2017 I decided my only goal for 2018 was to record an album. So I got in touch with Steve Dawson, and booked studio sessions with him at Kernel Sound Emporium. It was time! We started work in February, recording in short sessions here and there through May, I think? By fall all the mixing and mastering magic was done, so I started on the artwork and packaging design, and released the album at the Chicago Art Book Fair in November.  The whole experience has been wonderful and exhausting. It feels like every day I’m doing something brand new, that I’ve never done before. Next time I’ll know what I’m getting into, but at each step I've been texting my musician friends & mentors for advice, and spending hours researching things related to mastering and digital distribution and copyright and publicity, etc., etc. I’m so privileged to have these folks in my life to turn to! The first thing I did when I decided to record an album was start making a list of all the people I wanted to thank in my liner notes (we should pause now so everyone who has the album can read through them). I love reading other people’s “thank you” sections. I just found an old Indigo Girls C.D, and they included 2 full pages of “thank you’s!” That’s a magnificent thing.

Marian Runk, photographed by Gillian Fry

BG: When is your release show? Do you have any other shows coming up?

MR: I’m FINALLY having my full-band album celebration in Chicago this Friday, March 29, at the Hungry Brain! I’m so excited to perform all the tunes live with Jackie Boyd, Steve Dawson, Andrew Green, Jess McIntosh, and Andrew Wilkins. Jess’s band Joybird is splitting the bill; it’s going to be a really special night. After that, I’m doing a duo set at Montrose Saloon on April 27 (with Andrew Wilkins on bass), and we'll be on the Thursday Night Live radio show, 88.3 FM (WZRD, Chicago), on May 23. I'll also be tabling at the Chicago Zine Fest and CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) this spring/summer. 

BG: Where can people find your music? And your books?

MR: The album CD + booklet is available on Bandcamp. It’s also on most of the other digital platforms (Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon....). You can find my comics & zines at Radiator Comics online, and Quimby’s Bookstore in Chicago. My website is a good hub for connecting to all of those places! 

Marian Runk’s upcoming show poster, image courtesy of Marian Runk

BG: What’s next? I know you’re still releasing the album and you’ve got some shows lined up, but do you have anything else in the works? More illustration projects? Will there be another album? Are you going to go on tour and come to Santa Fe? (fingers crossed)

MR: As excited as I am for the release show, and to get to play the tunes live with the band, I also can’t wait to focus on new things! I have some ideas for comics, and I’m really looking forward to writing new tunes and just spending time noodling around on guitar and banjo. I also have about ten million places I want to visit/tour--  Santa Fe is in the top 3! The spring and summer are filling up really quickly, but stay tuned for tour news, eventually it’ll happen, I promise.

BG: When you’re not drawing or playing music what else do you like to do?

I’m a “birder,” so on weekend mornings you’ll often find me out by the lake or river or in a forest preserve (wherever it’s almost wilderness in Chicago), watching birds. On Fridays, I’m often at the Honky Tonk Happy Hour at the Empty Bottle, dancing to the Hoyle Brothers’ classic country sounds.  I also like to dance to Prince albums, play Scrabble, read comics & poetry & novels by my friends, drink Margaritas year-round (in winter, they bring summer indoors!), and hang out with my cat, Rosie.  Rosie is named after the Emmylou Harris album “The Ballad of Sally Rose,” and one of the times I feel the deepest joy is when I’m in the waiting room at the vet’s office, and I hear the staff call out her full name, “Sally Rose.” My partner and I spend a lot of time staring at the cat lovingly; he's almost as obsessed with her as I am.

BG: What are you listening to?

MR: That’s the question I always want to yammer on about! This past week, I’ve been listening to Joybird’s new album, Landing, on repeat. I wake up singing the songs! I’ve also been listening to Michael Chapman’s new album, True North (seeing him live at the Hideout about 6 years ago, and listening a lot in particular to his album Time Past, Time Passing, made a huge impression on me as I was starting to write songs).  Also-- Amythyst Kiah, The Secret Sister’s new album “You Don’t Own Me Anymore,”  Robbie Fulks, Leyla McCalla, Croy & the Boys, Chris Stapleton, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers. Chris Stapleton is funny in this situation because one of his older songs is called “What are you listening to?”.

You can find Marian Runk on her website, Instagram, Facebook, Bandcamp, Spotify, and iTunes.

Thanks Marian!