Devastated & Grateful

On feeling big feelings this holiday season.

I hope that you have been able to enjoy some extra time with the people you love this past week. Thanksgiving marks the beginning of holiday chaos, and all of the good and less-good things that come with that. My wish for you is that you experience more of the good things than anything else this season!

This was my family’s first holiday without my Dad, and all the little ways he would normally be present felt magnified—things I hadn’t even thought about until we were in the moment. For instance, when it time came to say grace. The table is full of food, we are all seated together, and normally Dad would clear his throat, pause, and gently say, “Heavenly Father, we are grateful that we may gather here together…”

The void of Dad not sitting at the table with us was so palpable in that moment. Then my brother, who had clearly considered this prior to sitting down said, “I’ve got it.” and flowed right into the most beautiful and Dad-ish prayer. It was a small thing that felt really big. It was the perfect, most bittersweet way to start the meal. It felt like Dad was there with us.

Moments like these are heavy on my mind right now—moments where I feel so completely grateful and devastated at the same time. It has been a theme for me this season, and it’s evoking work like the zine below.

After I finished the zine version, I had this urge to turn it into a one-page comic. I really enjoy making page layouts work from both an aesthetics and communication standpoint. I tweaked some of the colors and word layouts to serve a comic format.

Free stuff!

In case you missed it, last week I shared a comic version of my zine Just a Reminder that you can download for free and print at home! It’s designed to fit a standard U.S. letter-size piece of paper and would make a lovely framed gift for a friend. Check it out at the end of last week’s post.

New paid subscription tier: Print Club!

I want to start sharing printable versions of my work, so I’m adding a paid tier to this newsletter where paid subscribers will get access to download versions of artwork or zines to print at home. Subscriptions are $5/month or $50 for the full year. That’s 52 weeks of printable art—less than a $1 per item!

I created a Mini Zine Tutorial page as a reference for how to fold an 8-page zine out of a single sheet of paper. Whether you’re folding one of my zines or your own, I hope this will be a helpful reference for you!

This newsletter will stay exactly the same for free subscribers! I want to continue to share images of my finished work and behind-the-scenes processes, along with little essays about where the work stems from in the first place. Thank you so much for being here! It truly means the world to me.

Going forward, I’ll have a section at the end of my newsletter (like this!) for paid subscribers where they can download that week’s printables. Upgrade to paid to gain access to both the zine and comic page pictured above.