Summertime & Society6 Style

2019 has been the year of launching new projects. In February, I opened the Etsy shop I’d been contemplating for months. In March, I re-started the first draft of NIGHT GARDEN, a novel I hadn’t touched since 2015.

And this summer, I kicked my Society6 shop into gear.

Society6 is, in my (slightly-biased) opinion, one of the coolest online shopping venues around. Artists can upload their original work, then see it transformed into all manner of lifestyle goods ranging from blankets to bar stools, cellphone cases to coffee mugs, shower curtains to stationary.

I was super excited to see what I could do with my paintings. But I was nervous, too. What if my work didn’t showcase well?

But thanks to my most faithful patroness (merci, Mom!), I recently got to road-test some products. The trio of beach towels she’d ordered accompanied me on a father/son/daughter surf session at one of my favorite beaches in the world–North Packery, in my hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas.

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  Packery Channel Jetties

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  A Trio of Towels for the Thassalophile

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  DEVIL DOWN BELOW, painting & towel

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  WATERMAN’S FOLLY, painting & towel

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  ADRIFT, painting & towel

I can now report that the towels held up valiantly to the abuse of sand, sun, and saltwater. And Society6 did an excellent job ensuring every color was vibrant, every detail crisp. A pretty impressive feat, considering that it involved converting 11″ x 14″ paintings into 74” x 37” towels.

Texas: There’s No Place Like Home

One of the many (many MANY) odd quirks of Foreign Service life is a little something we call “Home Leave.” A congressionally-mandated series of leave days following the end of an overseas posting, Home Leave is designed to help culture-shocked American readjust to life stateside.

Since July saw the official end of our time in Suriname, we’ve been spending our month-long Home Leave traipsing around the country, visiting loved ones and preparing for our move back to ‘Merica, where we’ll be posted to the D.C. area. Our trails took us from D.C. to Michigan to Indiana to Texas, seeing treasured family and friends all along the way.