Hello hello! Greetings especially to new folks from the Santa Rosa Zine Fest. Here are a few things going on right now!

Two Marys Market: June 6, Alameda

The last of my spring events is almost here: Saturday, June 6 is Two Marys’ Makers Market @ Alameda Marina, 11am-4pm. I hope to see you there!

Mermay returns

This year I’ve decided to dive back into Mermay. My goal is to draw at least four mermaids this Mermay, one for each week. I am keeping up with my goal so far! Here are the ‘maids, who are both inspired by prehistoric aquatic life.

Why prehistoric mermaids? Why NOT? First and foremost, I was a dinosaur kid, so there’s some inner child bonding happening here. Second, my spouse and I recently watched The Dinosaurs (2026) mini-series on Netflix, narrated by Morgan Freeman, and every new dino production makes me excited to think about what paleontologists are hypothesizing next about how dinosaurs and their contemporaries lived.

Both of these drawings are quite small, the size of a standard American greeting card. That’s part of the point, in a way, for me: for these classic month-long, ostensibly daily drawing challenges, I don’t want to spend a lot of time on them. They’re supposed to flex some imagination and practice in a bite-sized chunk, imo. One way to do that is to force myself to only use a smol amount of paper.

For the ichthyosaur mermaid I revisited another drawing challenge I enjoy doing: using only primary colors (blue, yellow, red) for the colored pencils. It forces me to be intentional about color use and blending.

I hope there will be a couple more drawings to share with you at the end of the month!

Popular print restock soon!

Three popular prints, Like Clockwork, Rainbow Sheep, and Masks will be back in stock next week! Links provided in case you want to reserve a print.

Latest inspo

• Back in March at a zine event, Esther Young was one of the musical performers, and her sound reminds me a bit of indie pop and bedroom pop and punk. I finally listened to her catalog, and it’s quite excellent! “The Easy Way” is one of my favorites. Her Instagram profile says she’s a mermaid apparently, so it’s fitting her music is in this newsletter edition 🧜‍♀️

• I’m not on TikTok but apparently cyberdecks have been trending there, and they sound like the art this moment needs: custom DIY computers built into vintage secondhand purses or briefcases, often made by young women. This is the technology the people want!

• I’m currently reading The Night Eaters, the latest collaboration between Monstress team Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. It’s surprisingly funny for a horror graphic novel; read more about it here!