WE'RE ON THE MOVE! | June 2021
Hello everyone and welcome to my first blog post ever! I had this idea to start a blog in an uprooted time in my life, and I’ll be rambling on for a bit about changes. In April, my partner and I moved out from our apartment in Philadelphia into the suburb with our two cats Arya and Daphne. It wasn’t a life altering move in any sense (we’re a fifteen minute drive from our old home). We had already been wanting to get away from the city for a long time for various reasons but mostly because neither of us felt like Philly was really the right creative fit. Our move wasn’t significant, but it was an important step for us, because it was the first hurdle toward our end-goal - moving to Finland! So, there you have it. It’s official - we’re actually moving!
Since our first move, we’ve been so busy we haven’t even had the chance to fully unpack our boxes. And even if we did have the time to unpack our boxes in a few weeks we’ll just be packing them right back up again. From applying for a residence permit for my partner (in Finland you can apply for a family visa if you have been living with your Finnish partner for 2+ years and we loved how easy the process was!!), traveling back and forth from the Finnish Embassy in Washington for literally just fingerprints and document verification, arranging the shipping for our belongings with a lot of questionable individuals, getting our cats ready to fly, adjusting to new circumstances, and letting go of some expectations.
For now though, we’re adjusting to life in the suburbs. I think the thing I love most is the change of scenery. It always seems to act as a sort of refresh button. I can’t express enough just how much the view out of the window influences what I want to draw. In Philadelphia, I was looking out onto a busy, dirty street and weathered row homes, and now I’m looking onto birds, squirrels, rabbits and foxes playing in the yard. I’ve loved living in the city and consider myself a city person, but my work has already shifted gears to more open and green environments. Especially during covid, it has been challenging to find a change of scenery or see something new, so I’ve loved this change of perspective. Our move also came at an important shift with social distancing rules, and we’ve been so fortunate to be able to see friends and family again!
A piece to celebrate being able to get together again with sorely missed friends and family!
As we now have the green light to head over to Helsinki in July, we’re of course both excited and terrified. I’ve found that being creative or focused has been difficult in this time. It does feel like being in limbo between two places. Not quite living there, not quite living here. I realized too, that my desk set up has become pretty intricate, so probably eleven times a day I catch myself planning how I’ll be doing client work without my usual set-up once everything is packed up and shipped to our new home.
My set-up now is:
My set-up will be:
For me, it’s a scary thought not to have all my tools close at hand. I’ve spent so much time collecting the perfect materials to make life easier, and now I have to pack most of those away for two months. It is a good reminder that your tools don’t make your work, and it doesn’t matter how you get to the finished product, as long as you get there. The one thing I can’t live without, is my projector. I found an amazing replacement for my huge Artograph projector: the tiniest little machine by AAXA, called the “LED Pico Projector” that fits in my pocket and I can trace my sketches with anywhere. It’s mostly used by pastry artists, who use it to project their designs onto their delicious cookies, but I figured if it could project clearly onto a four inch circle it could certainly project onto a A4 piece of paper.
When I am (rarely) focused at my desk, I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly I want to be making. Lately that’s been characters. I attended the SCBWI Michigan Spring Conference in April, and it was such a lovely experience that made me re-orient myself back into writing and and making characters and stories that make me smile. I find it difficult when I write, to find a balance of the type of stories I’d like to tell versus the ones that I think would fit the bill of children’s book publishing. But it’s really about making a story that you’re passionate about, and what you would make even if it wasn’t going to be published. For me, I don’t know what that is yet. I have a vague idea of what I want the feeling to be, but it has taken a lot of drafts and sketches to get even close to what I’m imagining in my head. Below is a couple of characters I’ve been thinking about a lot. They’re simple, but they are starting to feel more and more like me.
For anyone who made it this far through my rambling thoughts, congratulations! If you feel like it, send me your thoughts about moving, creativity or anything else that strikes your fancy. I’ll be releasing a post once a month from now on, and I’m thrilled for any of you who are in for the ride!
Things I’m looking forward to:
Enjoying my last month in the States! We’re planning on a couple roadtrips to the beach, and little get togethers with friends and family before we fly off.
Getting our belongings packed up, palletized and shipped off (this has been a major headache for the entire month of May).
So many Finnish foods like fresh rye bread (“ruisleipä”), creamy cheese (“kermajuusto,” not to be confused with cream cheese), and traditional rice cakes (“riisikakku”) , which I probably won’t be able to write about until August!
See you next month!
Tilda