it's october! (📓/💖/🧦/🍂/👀)
in which new chapters unfurl, revisions grow roots, and the joys of snail mail reign uncontested
… and it has been for a while! Hello friends! I hope you are settling into this shift in the seasons all right. Here in Oregon the rains have finally returned; the vine maples are going golder by the day and the local gaggle of baby quail that have delighted my housemates and I all summer have finally grown their silly little head plumes and scooted off into adulthood.
In my studio, it’s been a time of cycles, too — revisiting old drafts with more experienced eyes; sinking my teeth into the alternately maddening and deeply satisfying process of revision; exploring familiar themes, patterns, and imagery in new contexts without feeling the pressure to push for novelty. I used to resist this cyclical instinct at this time of year, some old habit about the start of a new school year and its promise of a fresh go at everything. But this year, I’m enjoying letting it take the lead — and, as is so often the case, am delighted to find paths I thought I knew forward and back leading me onward to new adventures instead.
Also, before we dive in — I just want to say that it feels strange to be writing to you about the mundane joys of Oregon fall and the happenings in my studio while we are also witnessing the daily escalation of truly horrific, US-backed violence against Palestinians. If you are looking for ways to use your voice and don’t know where to start, some resources I’ve been grateful for are Jewish Voice for Peace's super user-friendly tool for calling your congresspeople, and the vital independent reporting being published over at Democracy Now. The mundane joys are true, but so is the rest, and above all I hope that right now you’re taking care and finding rest and resolve where you can.
📓 POETRY @ IPRC » I’m delighted to share that I am a part of the 2023-2024 cohort of the IPRC Poetry Portfolio Program! IPRC is a fantastic community organization that runs workshops out of their SE Portland print studio, and it’s already been an amazing start to our fall term. My fellow students are as brilliant as they are generous, and it’s been so rewarding to swim around in all the convolutions and possibilities of language together each week. More soon on upcoming opportunities to come hear what we’re working on!
💖 PATREON » Another new adventure that I’m excited to share is that I’m opening a Patreon! If you’re not familiar, Patreon is a platform where you can directly support artists and their work through a monthly membership, and get all sorts of different membership benefits depending on what tier you sign up for.
I’ve used the platform for a long time as a supporter of other artists whose work I believe in, and I’m really proud to now be opening my own creator page and offering a range of benefits like: seasonal demo EPs in your inbox, exclusive sneak peeks of works-in-progress, and even some monthly snail-mail surprises! As I wrote in my welcome note:
I've been thinking about it like a monthly studio visit: you come over to my internet home, we chat about what's in the works, and then I send you off with a gift to say thank you for being in my corner and investing in the stories I make.
As a thank you for all you already do to support me, I’m also running a special, limited-time sign-up offer just for newsletter subscribers! If you sign up for any tier by Friday, Nov. 10th, your first month of benefits will also include an additional surprise gift in the mail from me. :)
For more details on any/all of the above, you can check out my Patreon page! And most importantly, Patreon is just one channel to support my work — whether or not you’re able to join at this time, thank you so much for being here and caring about what I make! It really does mean the world.
🧦 LAUNDRY DIVINATION » Why put your laundry where it’s supposed to go when you could use it to tell your fortune?? I made this goofy lil divination game for a keepsake games class taught by the brilliant Shing Yin Khor; we only met online, which made the sending and receiving of everyone’s tiny prototypes via snail mail that much more special. If you’re interested in learning more about my design process & my takeaways from the experience, you can check out my Process highlight on Instagram!
🍂 GHOST TOWN » In honor of the turning of the seasons and all the changes it brings, I’ve dusted off my song Ghost Town and shared it with the internet for the first time! It’s so tempting to share songs the minute I’ve finished them (& PSGW friends, you may recall hearing this one hot off of the presses last summer), but sometimes it takes a while of sitting with a song and really letting the playing of it sink in to actually get to the heart of what it’s about. Enjoy! & a quick heads up that if you’re reading this on mobile, you might need to long press the link and open it in your browser to access the video.
Introducing a new newsletter segment! To close us out, here’s something that’s been inspiring me this month:
👀 A LOVE LETTER TO THE DETAILS » One of my favorite media indulgences over the past month has been the weird, nerdy, chaotically kind comedy produced by streaming media company Dropout. Their content may or may not be your speed (you do you!), but what I’ve been finding particularly inspiring this month is the details of how they make what they make.
I know the names of people on their crew and in their art department because they are so often shouted-out and thanked on air. Every episode they release has closed captioning that is as full of personality as what’s happening in the audio. The little graphics that pop up to identify folks onscreen always include their pronouns. The behind-the-scenes content they publish often captures conversations about balancing what’s funny and marketable with what’s responsible, what’s human, what’s kind.
Of course, I’m not in the room; I can’t speak to their actual working environment. But in our current media landscape, where gatekeepers too often cling to outdated hierarchies and profits are so often flagrantly prioritized over people’s wellbeing, I’m feeling especially inspired by these little signs that it doesn’t have to be that way. Caring for people and creating innovative, rigorous work are not mutually exclusive, and there are always opportunities to build something better than what’s come before.
Until next time —
❤️ devan