A sticky note filled me with faith, then mocked me, and ended as the truth
And a discount code!
Back in 2023, on a particular high after some 200 Days planning I quickly wrote this sticky note and put it up next to my bed. I looked at it every day for months leading up to the trip, holding on to the faith that this project was “gonna work”.
“Gonna work” at that time meant the project would attract more eyeballs (and frankly $$) to my art. The artwork getting stronger was a part of it too, but I was more focused on the attention.
During the project I rode emotional waves up and down about if the trip “was working”. Looking back it was all a lot of useless overthinking.
When I first got home, and laid down in my bed (BLESS), I saw the post-it right where I left it and felt it was mocking me. If you charted the numbers data from IG across all 200 Days it would be a line going down and down… and down. I struggled against the numbers, knowing that they were not a metric of anything more than a shitty algorithm and my refusal to play along with it.
In these few weeks between the trip and the art show I couldn’t shake the “it sure fucking didn’t work” feeling. I eyerolled at my past self who wrote that note.
Then came the art show. All of the conversations I had that night reminded me of the truth: the connection with others through the work is all that matters. It’s the heart. Connection, instead of attention.
At the show I felt that connection dozens of times over. And ever since then it’s like, DUH it fucking did work Jessica! It worked in an unexpected way that I needed it to.
thank you + 20% off
Thank you to everyone who supported me this year—commission clients, online shop customers, folks who came to the show, people who open and read this newsletter, I appreciate each of you.
In today’s world with mass production, cheap prices and absolute convenience, to have someone choose to buy a human made thing and pay that person directly is a generous miracle to me.
To say thank you and for any x-mas shoppers:
Use code “SUBSTACK” to get 20% off anything in the shop.
Discount valid through this Friday the 13th.
There are gifts for people who love Austin, Chicago, Europe, trucks, stickers, food, motel signs, and road trips.
OKAY THAT’S MY LAST PLUG OF 2024.
Happy end of year to you!
Jessica
things worth sharing
MOVIE: Lee. Just see it. Here’s a little intro video to who Lee Miller is.
QUOTE: I carried this Mary Oliver poem with me on the trip and found solace in it many times:
THE JOURNEY
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
’Mend my life!’
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.