Archival Magic | Live
by way of cherries, jellyfish, and the International Space Station Artists and photographers attempt to preserve the fleeting blossoms of DC's cherry trees...
Archival Magic | Questions
by way of the Post, Planes, and Philadelphia In this case, the answer is gasoline, somewhere above the Imperial Valley at the border of California and Mexico...
Archival Magic | Moments
by way of Snow, Science, and Simone Biles Skaters carve the ice on the Reflecting Pool, circa 1923. / LOC DC's biggest snowstorm in two years coated the city...
The 30 | COVID-19
...by way of concrete, music boxes, and grandparents My grandparents pose for a photo circa 1950. The concentric circles of the pandemic have closed on me....
The 30 | Experiment No. 12
Thanks for following along with this experiment. The goal, as I wrote last year, was to send you one item to read, watch, indulge, sit with, ponder – to...
The 30 | Native
by way of geometry, dating, and songs Potawatomi lands, much diminished, are shown at the left in green; Sac & Fox in pink; and Winnebago in the blue stripe....
The 30 | Family
...by way of Phone Booths, Boats, and Knives A family at a co-op farm in Natchitoches, La., in 1940. / LOC We've flipped a bit, with a short focus-post to...
The 30 | Experiment No. 11
Hocus pocus! I'm on deadline for a story to be published in National Geographic. I want to save my full post for discussing that, so I'm swapping the usual...
The 30 | Experiment No. 10
This is the kind of project I see and immediately think, wish I would have done that. The runtime is 18 seconds, but the brevity hides days of work. I'm also...
The 30 | Collage
by way of France, Prussia, and Kansas City Like many Depression-era quilts, this one consists of fabric scraps and flour sacks that serve as the backing. /...
The 30 | Experiment No. 9
This gem popped up in a playlist from WCRB, a radio station in Boston that I've listened to for much of the time I've lived in DC. I don't remember how I...
The 30 | Bicycles
by way of... Dinosaurs, Horses, and Great Bears A small-town newspaper in Illinois published this advertisement in 1891. Despite rigorously testing my rental...
The 30 | Experiment No. 8
Don't read on an empty stomach. "A pie chart of the federal discretionary budget is a well-known marketing technique for selling ice cream." I read this...
The 30 | Ice Cream
Fire, Sugar, Cicadas An original watercolor I painted earlier in lockdown – who knew we'd still be here? I'm surprised that picture didn't melt on its way to...
The 30 | Experiment No. 7
Has anyone else thought, "Wow, the pandemic has illuminated the rickety wooden beams that support the foundational illusion of our false construction of...
The 30 | Statehood
51, 232, 705k President Dwight Eisenhower signs the statehood bill for Hawaii, the 50th state, in 1959. / Eisenhower Presidential Library Apologies for both...
The 30 | Experiment No. 6
I'm breaking my own rules (selectively creating new rules?) because I found such a harmonious dialogue in these two portfolios. The yarn's tactility offers...
The 30 | Census
Indiana, Alaska, and Cacti Automatic Arithmotor, patented in 1878. / Smithsonian Open Access (not sure why the photo is stylized in such a trendy way) Maybe...
The 30 | Experiment No. 5
Welcome to all the new folks from the Creative Mornings talk I gave a few weeks ago! Here's the backstory to this year's experiment. A conversation with a...
The 30 | Joy
Rivers, Watermelons, Stephen Colbert "I can get at the human quality in these children. They are real — real as can be. They express life." – sculptor...