Traverse City Unity Mural Project


I think about books a lot. Writing and illustrating, reading, selling them… so when I went to work on the Traverse City Unity Mural project, I knew exactly how I wanted to depict the theme. Books bring people together! Words on a page written by someone you’ve never met–maybe a long time ago–can speak to you, relate to you, make you feel seen and heard in turn. Books help us grow, beyond our little corners of the world, they help us have greater understandings of ourselves and each other. This bookshelf is filled with titles that I adore, or were formative or important to people who are important to me. Along the shelves are moments and pieces that make me, me. A horse for my Chinese zodiac and a boar for my family coat of arms, to show my mixed race heritage. The apartment above the reptile shop where I lived in England. San Francisco Chinatown. The last card my grandmother sent me. It feels weird having these immensely personal things on a random wall in Traverse City, but what is writing but sharing your most inner self with the rest of the world? I'm immensely proud of this, and love when other people see themselves on these shelves, too. Yes! We are the same! 

​Snow


"Meanwhile," said Mr. Tumnus,
"it is winter in Narnia, and has been for ever so long"

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                                                                       The Lion,  the Witch, and the Wardrobe
                                                                                                                                   -C.S. Lewis

​​Leslie


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"It might be a whole secret country,"
she continued, "and you and
I would be the rulers of it."

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                                        Bridge to Terabithia
                                                                          -Katherine Patterson

​Only A Smile


That childlike smile that comes and goes 
About your gracious lips and eyes, 
Hath all the sweetness of the rose, 
Which feeds the freckled butterflies. 

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                                           ​-Mathilde Blind
 
​Tale of Tinúviel

As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinúviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.

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                          The Fellowship of the Ring
                                                        -JRR Tolkien



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​​Busk!

A silly little thing I did for my siblings.