Over the years I've created little projects to feed my creative side. They also give me joy and purpose.

Collage

My current creative outlet is collage. I've been dabbling in collage for over 20 years, and it's been my primary medium for the last 4 years. An online abstract composition course led by collagist Melinda Tidwell reignited the passion during the pandemic. My portfolio is currently my art Instagram account, and you'll also find my collages at OccasionalCollages.com (which is also available in the navigation above). Lastly, you can find cards and prints of my collage work at this Etsy location.

Polaroid a Day

In February 2025, I started a new blog: polaroidaday.com. Every day I post a polaroid from my travel archive. I’ve been bringing a polaroid camera or three on my trips for the last 15ish years and I stash the photos in a box upon my return. The act of finding the domain, setting up a blog, and cataloging my collection has been immensely satisfying. And I hope that they can be a diversion from other digital time sucks.

Drinking Wine With Jen

During the pandemic, I arranged a couple of socially distanced wine tastings with friends, and drinkingwinewithjen.com grew from there, sorta. While I’ve done a few private wine tastings, it’s not quite a full-fledged endeavor, but maybe someday it will be! I hate Zuckerberg but still occasionally post about great wine / wine adventures on Instagram.

Jen’s Dead Fish
For a little while, when I lived in Boston 2018-2019, I was drawing and painting compositions based on photos I took at open air fish markets. I have a very large collection of inspiration photos from my travels, but only so much time in the day. See the completed drawings on Instagram here.

Jen’s Dead Birds
I also started to draw & paint the dead birds I encountered on my walks in Boston, and continued the practice when I moved back to Minnesota in 2020. I almost had a solo exhibition of this work, but the universe said otherwise. Probably for the best. A few are on Instagram here.

Painted Fish Studio

paintedfishstudio.com was my online identity from 2007ish-2015ish: I blogged and created. I hosted mostly-monthly art parties (pARTys) during this time frame, where I honed my teaching skillz. My primary medium during this phase of my life was bookmaking, and I was also very invested in stocking up on the last of the original polaroid film and taking instant photos. I self published 2 instant film books: one a collaboration with my friend Jen Victoor on a monthly word; the other a collection of my vintage chair photos. My Etsy shop from that time is still live, but I broke the blog. And I still bind books here and there…