I’ve spent a little time with my website here today, updating it to better reflect what’s going on. There’s work to be done yet, but it’s getting closer. The new website should be more responsive to different devices (waving to people reading from their phones, or from their tablets).

I work with WordPress these days. The theme that I was using, while wonderfully visual in nature, was not working very well with my storefront. Therefore, I never put more than the initial product in the shop! I have a variety of prints here, waiting for new homes, but have had no way of getting them out there!

My goal is to get the prints into the shop over the next few weeks. Please check back for them. And send me a note if I’m slow!

Most of my work life has been consumed for the past few months with working on SPECTRUM with Michelle Pozin and Jane Green for Selkirk College.

It’s a 12 week course, currently a Pilot with 51 or so students. It has had quite a bit of interest and we are currently hosting a waiting list in hopes of being able to offer it, as a revised version, in April or May. 

Our students are thoughtful and articulate. It’s been a wonderful thing to see people responding to the content that Michelle has been curating and writing, that Jane and I have been working with for months.

It’s been an exciting bit of work for me, in that I’ve had the opportunity to add to my skill set, and to build more of the actual content. To date I’ve shot and edited 32 – soon to be 34 – videos. Some are interviews with families or individuals with ASD, some are instructional or little introductions. The project has given me a chance to exercise my Graphic Recording skills (using lightboard), and my illustration skills (of characters, as the course has a storytelling component). With entering the content into the Moodle (this is the online content management system through which the course is taught) I actually finally WORE OUT my keyboard space bar. I’m working with a mechanical keyboard now – which is a joy! Louder, but so much nicer on my hands.

In among the work for SPECTRUM, I had the privileged to work with Jane in Grand Forks this past weekend for the Boundary Women’s Coalition, doing some work with them around strategic planning. Working with Jane means that I get to show up with my markers and paper to witness and record the brilliance of people making their own futures more sure, more navigable, and more what they want it to be. This past weekend was no exception. It was a treat to work with a smaller group than some we’ve done this for, and to see their ideas sharpen through the processes, bringing them closer to an understanding of their shared purpose and the diversity of the gifts they all bring and share. A strong, motivated group, to be sure.

We used some Liberating Structures, and some straight-up Jane brilliance to work our way through the days. Today will be a little bit about unpacking, both mentally and physically. It has been a very full time. I have deep gratitude to Jane, the Coalition, and to the shape my life is taking these days. This work makes me very, very happy.