This past weekend, I was selling my art at the Manayunk Arts Festival and just like at every festival, I got to chat with many wonderful folks about the stories behind my art. Almost every piece I create has a web of reasons as to why I drew it. World events, silly interactions with friends, my nerdy curiosities… And I find that sharing those stories can strike a chord with viewers who might not have known the full story before chatting with me. That is why I’m starting this blog. To give you a place to find those stories and continually learn more about my process of creation in a more long-form format than social media provides.
My first piece is a design I created as part of The Water Ways project, which is a series of detailed illustrations telling the multi-faceted story of the impacts of the natural gas industry in the Mid-Atlantic region. In this illustration that I’ve entitled “…Even When Your Voice Shakes”, a gathering of diverse animals raise their voices in harmony, speaking truth to power and teaching a protest song that we can all learn to sing. The border of the image spells out many ways that animals vocalize. I wanted to emphasize that your voice is important to hear. Your feelings around injustices in the world matter. So speak up, even when your voice shakes.
As I was drawing this, I decided to choose animals that are all local to Pennsylvania: a gopher, wolf, box turtle, raccoon, elk, brown bat, blue jay, and chickadee. The list of words for the border was a fun research project. It goes beyond the idea of “the cow says moo” to words that describe the way animals vocalize to alert others about something, good or bad. So instead of “moo,” we have “bellow,” etc. It’s not a perfect science, but that was the idea.
I initially sketched this piece out in pencil, then overlaid another piece of paper on top and traced the drawing with Micron pens and brushes. Since this piece was originally to be screenprinted on t-shirts, I needed the lines to be thick enough that the screen of the would pick up the lines well. So I worked with Micron pens 05, 08 and the Brush.
Now, I have heard different interpretations of this piece, which always happens as people see their own lives and struggles reflected back at them in an illustration. I find it so interesting to hear about as the creator. One interpretation was from a mother whose young son was learning to sing but had terrible stage fright and his voice shook uncontrollably at times. She got this illustration for him and I hope it inspired him on his journey. I also struggle with stage fright, even after years of public speaking, so I’m grateful that I now have that encouraging meaning attached to this piece.
Another interpretation was from a woman who was deep in the process of unlearning the suppressing gender norms that her Christian upbringing had imposed on her. She was learning to speak up for herself in multiple situations and this piece, sitting on her mantle, gave her courage to do so. Yes yes yes. This is also what the piece is for!
I hope you take some comfort or encouragement from this piece today. If you are interested in purchasing this print, check it out on my shop:
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