Make. Believe!

This is a feel good, more fun story.

We tell ourselves stories. Some stories are good. Some filled with suspense. There are tragic stories. Feel good stories. Stories that teach us, inspire us, define us.

Many years ago, I chose a course to take at college called Retrofuture Revisited. It was filled with stories of imagined futures. They were apocalyptic, eery. Eery because what the authors (Orwell, Leslie Marmon Silko and others) imagined was now actual, not just make believe, possible.

I found this disturbing and wondered about the ethics of creating. Why imagine into being the end of the world?

It's not a story I want to tell.

Possibility is inherent in creativity. It's inexhaustible, raw potential which we can play with and form from nothing, something. Something that moves through us and is unique in our expressing, our telling.

I am finding joy in surface design and working with constraints of different surfaces to find what story I am telling. Right now, I'm all about feel good stories. They're light hearted, quirky, joyful. I see this in what I make and it feels good.

For instance, I designed this bag last night:

I amused myself with the copy that came out of me. I needed a product name. So I typed in Some Dude Drawstring Bag.

Haha, yes, I thought and pushed enter. I was writing and having fun. Next up was the description:

Who was he? You might never know. If you find yourself thinking about some dude, this is the bag for you. It can be worn as a backpack or slung over your shoulder. Let it surprise you in all that it can carry.

More fun.

I like more fun. More fun feels good.

If you'd like to see some of the fun I've been designing which you could get and use in your life, come on in.

I’m also in the process of designing my first fabric collection. Guess what I’m calling it. Feel Good!

If you’d like to become a paid subscriber and support my ongoing creative explorations + makings + learning + doing, please do!

I've decided to design things that paid subscribers can print out. I will be sharing the bounty of my makings. Think cards, think stickers, think something fun to spread around in the world. At least that's how I'm imagining it, like I'm becoming a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture Art) but instead of food I'm dishing up design.

Here’s the printable I designed to get this party started:

Anyhoo, I'm having fun and I hope you are too!

In joy,
xo. a

p.s. Make. Believe!