Hi friends,

If you’re coming from my newsletter, you know the past few weeks put me through a bit of a ringer. If you’re not coming from my newsletter: Welcome. And to catch you up the past few weeks have put me through a bit of a ringer. Boom. All caught up—but also, WHY ARE YOU NOT SUBSCRIBED TO MY NEWSLETTER?! DO YOU NOT LIKE CHANCES TO WIN FREE PRINTS?! DO YOU WANT ME TO BE YELLING AT YOU TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER?! HUH?! HUH?! HUH?!?!?

Just Joshin ya. Live your life how you want to, boo. #nohardfeelings

Anywho, like any other month when you’re a first time parent/emerging artist, this past month [and a half] was a busy one but on top of that it felt like it was exceptionally busy for a number of reasons. Erin’s (1) birthday was in March so there were lots of projects and planning that had to go into that. A couple birthday projects were collabs between me and Wolfy (2) which I was very excited about. Also, in March we had a parent teacher conference, one of my niece’s  birthdays, and COURT (TWO TIMES!) which is always nerve racking.

We had a small victory during the hearing in early March but by now we’ve learned to really measure our responses because with every step forward something behind the scenes happens and it’s like 10 steps backwards and it can really fuck us up emotionally.  This last month and a half has been no different in that regard. As a bonus we had a special court hearing AGAIN this past Monday (#toosoon) and there weren’t many silver linings that time. No matter how much you learn about how broken the foster system is, nothing can fully prepare you for the experience of witnessing its failures first hand and loving someone who it is failing and feeling powerless to help them.

Self care. Grace. Trusting the process. Self care.

Things this past month and a half weren’t all bleak though. I did have a number of distractions in addition to birthdays and family stuff, namely attending many of the Medium Photo Photography Festival events which ran from April 1-16.  I participated in a community pop-up sale where I was happy to slang postcards and prints and meet and connect with an awesome group of photographers, artists, creatives, and aficionados. Most of the other events I attended at the festival were artist talks, gallery openings, and seminars on subjects that I’m highly interested in (e.g. book publishing). It was A LOT and it was fucking awesome. I had such a great time connecting with my people (artist/photographers) and as they say in France: I learned a shit ton.

After two weeks of the Medium Photo Festival I was absolutely wiped but the show had to go on and I spent much of last week completing a grant application before I was able to finally take a breather.  That leaves me in the present where I am trying to finish getting these posts up (I'm only 20 days behind schedule...) and I'm starting to get prepared for my upcoming ArtWalk event in little italy (April 29-30). If you're a local and you want to come pick up some prints, postcards, or just say what's up and check out the scene I highly recommend it. I'll be in booth 522 on Date St. Come through!

So this is my first public journaling that I am sharing on my website/blog. Previously I had done it on my FB (during the first 100 days or so of COVID), and in my newsletter for the past few months, but this feels like right the place. The goal is to write at least one monthly journaling post where I’ll also include photos taken during that month in both a slideshow format (via YouTube) and in an online gallery format for those who want to take their time with any of the photos as the slideshows will go by pretty quickly.

You can check out this month’s slideshow below or this month’s gallery even more below.

Thanks for reading and I hope you are all taking care of yourselves.

Be well,

Richard :)

P.S. You may notice the pictures I show don't always coincide with the words I write and this is for two reasons. A) The photos I post on these monthly journal entries are essentially a separate visual journal. A window into my life. Some things I can show, others I cant (see note 2 below) but in either case B) I generally believe that the viewer is intelligent enough to make sense of the photos on their own without me spelling it out for them. That said, if there ever are any questions as to what's going on in any of the pictures you can always ask. Preferably in the comments below but also, you can DM me on Insta or shoot me an email.

Notes:

(1) Erin is my better half. The love of my life. My partner. My world.

(2) Wolfy is the name I use to speak about Erin and I's foster child. There are a lot of rules about not sharing info publicly due to her being in the foster system so I use this code name and shy away from details about her and her story (that latter more out of respect to her than the rules of the foster system FWIW). She is the second love of my life, the best fucking kid in the world, and Erin and I are hopeful that she will become a permanent member of our family at some point in the future, hence all the court talk.