Jenn & Jess - “And when my prayers to God were met with indifference, I picked up a pen I wrote my own deliverance” - photo by Mira Whiting Photography

My primary exhibiting space is at the sci-fi convention Arisia, and sometimes at the bookstore, Pandemonium. At some point pre-scarf art-making, I decided to capture pop culture for most of my designs. It means that a lot of my stuff isn’t meant for everyone, but I am OK with that. But those who do hopefully break out into song when they recognize what I’ve done with my homage to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece of history, political commentary, and excellent musical ear-worming.

I use a stencil to do the graphic at the bottom, then can do basically any quote from the musical that strikes a fancy. I plot out the quote and then apply a type of resist that needs to be ironed to be set. I’m looking into alternatives, because it’s touchy and not as flexible as I’d like. In “Pick up a pen and start writing” (seen below) you can see where I have used a special pen to graph out the general shape. I make sure I’ve spelled everything correctly, then when I go over it again permanently, I get all fancy with the script.

The background evokes a sense of aged paper. I’ve spent my career handling paper dating back to the 17th century, so the neat features that are in old paper: foxing, acidic burn, and watermarks. I’ve been talking to friends about branching out on the iconic yellow- it’s not an easily worn shade.

Currently “History has its eyes on you” and “Raise a glass to freedom- something they can never take away- no matter what they tell you” are available at Mind’s Eye Yarns.