Charli XCX released the album "How I’m Feeling Now” in 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This album has lately been on repeat for me, not because I feel any nostalgia for the stress and anguish that came with the pandemic, but because so much of the themes about missing human connection and feeling the overwhelming stress of the world resonate with this moment.

Making art, especially art that focuses on the land and history, can feel navel-gazing, and I have had a hard time motivating myself to let go of expectations of meeting the present world around me with anything but the tools that I have.

This is a post that is hopefully one of many that starts to reflect inwardly on the practice of making art in a time in which fascism is on the rise and the culture war and social media demand our time. Meanwhile, communities continue to need care and our spiritual and creative practices need nourishment.

Going into the studio, and in my case attending synagogue regularly, are places for me to find respite and recharge in the world that scares me so much.