March Buzz

So what’s the buzz? My newsletter has moved from Substack to Beehiiv. Other than the address, everything should seem as it was, including an archive of my old posts on the website. I hope you will continue to read my monthly posts as I share them someplace new. Thanks to you all, my newsletter has grown to about 700 subscribers!

I’m getting back into a work groove after my two teens had February school vacation week. It was a staycation, but we did manage a day trip to Boston. Lunch, shopping on Newbury Street, then over to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. If you live nearby and have never been, I highly recommend a visit. Unless you are squeamish about taxidermy… I can’t think of another place I’ve seen a full-size taxidermy giraffe. They also have a million gorgeous gems, rocks, minerals, insects, dinosaurs, and whale skeletons. Not only is it one of the less expensive museums, ($15 for adults, $10 for kids up to 18yo) it’s packed full of amazing specimens that you wouldn’t expect from the humble exterior. My kids enjoyed visiting when they were younger as well.

I spotted a pangolin in the mammal exhibit, so that’s where this month’s drawing sheet inspiration began. I like to think my drawing is a bit cuter so I’ve spared you the photo!

I loved learning about pangolins, and I think your students will too. Here is an extra video with more facts and great footage of pangolins in motion. Sadly, they are the most trafficked mammal in the world and are seriously endangered. Poachers take them for their meat and scales. The video does briefly touch upon this, as a small caution for younger or sensitive students.

Over February break I taught a collage workshop to the young patrons of Portsmouth Public Library. Big shoutout to children’s librarians Gretyl and Mollie for reaching out and for assisting the kids with their artwork. They made so many creative and colorful animals. I painted SO MANY papers in advance of this, so I’m mostly ready to run another workshop (kids OR adults!) Reach out if you’d like to schedule something for your school or library.

Watching: Paradise on Hulu. If you haven’t heard about this show yet, don’t look it up! Just give it a watch and see if it hooks you too. It took several episodes to really hook me, but it is building up to a VERY dramatic finale tonight.

Listening to: The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins on audiobook. You know when you realize after starting a book, that you’ve read this author before and didn’t quite love the story? Yeah. So far, this one is much better (in my opinion), and I love the small cast for narration.

Reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Brief but powerful. Set in Ireland in the 1980s. Some of my ancestors come from a town with a Magdelene Laundry so this was especially touching and heavy.