Studio News - Holiday 2025

Dear Subscriber First Name,

Where did the time go? I can’t believe we are already at the holiday season! This has been a whirlwind of a year! So much has happened this year that I would like to share with you, so I hope you enjoy this recap of 2025.

My last newsletter (May 2025) ended with an announcement for Adventure Travelogue, a workshop at Penland School of Craft (pictured above) in Asheville, North Carolina. It was a blast meeting the participants and I was so pleased with their creative travelogues – no two were alike.

At Penland, all the workshops are represented at an end of session exhibition. My sister, who was also my roommate, attended her first ever immersive workshop. Here we are at the gallery opening in front of her abstract experimental paintings.

And here are a few more goodies from the travelogue workshop:

It was a pleasure to visit with artists of varying backgrounds and perspectives, and exciting to witness their book ideas come to fruition, one artist being Jennifer Graves, of Scrapbook Collective, who was also my steadfast studio assistant.

New Work

Upon returning from North Carolina, I took to finishing up Five Daisies, a paper quilt collage for the University of Texas San Antonio Health Center (UTSAHC). This was my first commercial commission!

The quilt features images of the Stemmy Four Nerve Daisy (Tetraneuris scapose), which is a medicinal plant native to Central Texas, as well as a popular garden plant throughout the state.

The project began with research into native Texas flora, with a focus on Central Texas plants known for their medicinal properties. The daisy is drought-tolerant, a host to beneficial insects, and was traditionally used by the Zuni, a Native American Pueblo people in New Mexico and Arizona, to treat skin infections and sore eyes.

My color palette is generally intuitive, so being intentional in this regard was new. I enjoyed auditioning and selecting papers from my stash for this project, as well as carving and printing a linoleum block for a geometric motif that required a specific color within the selected palette. This was a fun project and I hope that patients, visitors, and staff at UTSAHC enjoy Five Daisies.

Five Daisies, detail - Can you spot the daisy?

Unfortunately, my indigo plants have gone to seed before I could start a few dye experiments, though the natives – including Gregg’s mistflower, autumn sage, and rock rose are having the time of their lives, along with zinnias and lemons. Recent winds have felled a good many black walnuts, which I will try to shell for food and dye.

Meanwhile, here is a peek of a few plant prints I am currently working on in the studio.

A Gathering, in progress

History of a People

Thanks to all who attended Ether: Aromatic Mythologies at the Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles which closed in October, where the unique version of History of a People was on view along with samples of the scents to try. Many thanks as well to the folks at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, for loaning this work for the exhibition.

And speaking of History of a People, I mentioned in a previous newsletter that I would provide a link to History of a People: Tracing Cultural Development Through Scent, an essay written for Alabastron Journal, but neglected to include the link in the newsletter.

Please click here to read the essay.

I’ve also received a couple questions about the presentation of the scents in History of a People and want to clarify that each vial is filled with cotton fiber saturated with scent rather than filled with liquid.

And finally, I am pleased to share that History of a People will travel with Who is America at 250? Artists' Books on the State of Democracy, co-sponsored San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB) and the CODEX Foundation. This touring exhibition will open at SFCB during the 2026 International Biennial CODEX Book Art Fair & Symposium (February7-10), and then tour throughout 2026 to the Boston Athenaeum, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia.

Last year, my sisters and I visited the thoughtfully considered International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. On the museum grounds is a long wall of reflective black marble running the length of the side of the building, carved with the following quote from And Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou: Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise. Those words inspired the title of this work: Ancestors’ Hopes and Dreams.

Ancestor’s Hopes and Dreams

Ancestor’s Hopes and Dreams, detail front

Ancestor’s Hopes and Dreams, detail back

In this book, titled Witnessed, sheets of mull (a heavily starched cotton fabric used to reinforce the spines of books) were stacked and sewn together, resembling a legal or steno pad. On the mull I transcribed several stories from relatives who came of age in the first half of the 20th century. Writing was quite laborious and emotional as I was struck by their accounts of persistent adversity and what they achieved through sheer tenacity.

Witnessed

Witnessed, detail side view

I captured the marks made from writing on the mull used in Witness, resulting in another work, Lost. Lost represents the many stories from ancestors that will remain unknown.

Lost

Lost, detail

Island Scroll (working title) is a work in progress. Several years ago, I unfurled a long stretch of brown paper onto my cousin’s living room floor, while my mom and aunt directed me in mapping out the farmstead where they and my grandmother grew up.

I found vintage linen kitchen towels, which I sewed together to form a scroll, and transposed the map markings onto it. My plan was to incorporate text and embroider the entire map onto the fabric, but the project was put on hold indefinitely. Last year, I revisited the scroll and started painting and embroidering the map:

Island Scroll

I am looking forward to finishing this scroll soon.

Workshop

I’m excited to share that Speak your Piece: Artist’s Books with Meaning, a workshop at the Bainbridge BARN in Bainbridge, Washington, is open for registration!

Throughout the week of April 26 – May 2, 2026, participants will be guided in creating a book centered around a theme of personal relevance. The workshop is part of Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, an initiative celebrating the nation’s semiquincentennial, and to showcase the importance of the handmade in this country’s history.

Handwork 2026 involves institutions across the country, and is sponsored and led by Craft in America (PBS) and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

If you are interested in attending but have questions about the workshop, skill level, materials, or logistics, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can also click here for more information about the class and registration. I’m so looking forward to creating alongside you in April 2026!

In my upcoming newsletters I will share work from my summer residency at Oak Springs Garden Foundation in Virginia.

Sending warm wishes for a safe and happy holiday season!

~alisa

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Kind Regards ~alisa