Here are three things I loved this week:
An inspiring and absurd story of citizen-led direct action to make streets safer while highlighting a local government’s dysfunction–we love to see it.
I’ve been in a podcast dry spell, but I recently stumbled upon Hyperfixed, and I’m into it. If you love tonally casual yet well-researched investigative type stuff, give them a try.
A meme my boyfriend sent me regarding the whiplash I’m experiencing from The Cloud Report’s reception:
Before The Cloud Report, 98% of my income came from freelance illustration, design, and consulting work. Some of the projects I’ve done have felt incredibly hard, and I’ve struggled to figure out why.
Artist and illustrator Lindsey Stripling puts some words to the friction I’ve felt, and she seems to have cracked the code with her approach to making Mystery Paintings for her clients:
“For a long time when I was first painting and doing custom work… I would let the client be more of an art director. The only problem with that was client wasn’t a trained art director and actually liked the things I did freely and not the things I did that were over directed. What I found is that the client was more often than not a little disappointed with the painting and I wasn’t having fun making them. They were a huge source of anxiety for me and I just couldn’t understand how people engaged in this sort of work at all.
We tell people how to engage in our work all the time. We do this in the way we put together our portfolios, our web shops and even our contact pages. We tell clients the rules of the game for custom work, and if I tell the client the rules are that you can send me comps of work by other artists, endless edits, feedback and even reject the painting, then that’s exactly what will happen. In an effort to be accommodating because I was so shocked people would pay me for creative work I was creating a toxic experience for myself. I didn’t want that to be my experience anymore. I wanted making custom work to be fun for both me and the person receiving the art.”
You can make your own rules?! What a concept!
The Cloud Report is keeping me so busy that I can’t take on new freelance work, which means I can take some time to think through how to do this work in a way that feels good and results in work I’m really proud of. This is a huge blessing, and I don’t take it for granted!
I’m working on a series of graphic explainers for NOFA-VT, sharing the stories of successful land-based organizing throughout history.
On St. Patrick’s Day, we shared the first of the series:
Other stuff:
I designed these t-shirts to raise money for NOFA-VT’s long-handled spoon dinners–the pre-order closes on Tuesday, so order one while you can! I made my boyfriend take this video of me and we were both embarrassed for me!
I’m closing The Cloud Report to new subscribers on April 15th so I can do some website maintenance, so if you want April’s issue, sign up now! I’m really excited about this issue–new paper color and ink colors this month!
Come see me at the first ever Vermont Art Book Fair on 4/10 & 4/11!
At the end of the month I’ll be in London for a few days, Dublin for a couple days, and the Galway/Doolin/Aran Islands for five days. LMK if you have recs for parks, art book stores, bike shops, stationary shops, museums, food, pubs, etc etc etc.
Christine Tyler Hill
Website: christinetylerhill.com
Email: cth@christinetylerhill.com
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