And now for the transition

The subtitle of my blog is “book arts, dogs, gardens, and transitions” and I’m afraid I haven’t served the last two items well on this blog. But I can say now that I’m in the middle of a new transition: I’m excited to have taken a job working with an wonderful group of people at Franconia Sculpture Park, just outside of the Twin Cities. I’ll be working on the administrative side while their Artistic Director keeps the artists supported on the large-scale sculptures that they build right on site in the park.

I’m excited about many aspects of the job. The park has a bit of that “Penland” feel in that there is creative work going on all the time. I’m looking forward to learning more about the materials and tools involved in big structures (I know that there is a blue-painted crane at the park and I’ve heard rumors of a pink fork-lift) and how a sculptor goes from studio-size work to really, really big sculptures. But my responsibilities will include keeping the money going in and going out in the right ways and working with the rest of the staff to help introduce the work of Franconia to more people. It’s not impossible that I could start a blog on the web site. In the meantime, you can search “Franconia” on Flickr and see some wonderful sculptures built in the park over the last 10 years.


After leaving my last job, I made the decision to take a full year off from work...an incredible opportunity for which I’ll never stop being grateful. I had the chance to rediscover my hometown, build a community with my book arts friends, and find meaningful volunteer work teaching ESL to immigrants through the Minnesota Literacy Council.

This isn’t a farewell post by any means. I like blogging too much! It does feel like this is a big enough transition that it deserves a mention, though. But maybe I’ll change the subtitle a bit. Perhaps something like “book arts, dogs, and gardens I love.” (You’ll have to come visit the Franconia site for updates on big sculptures!)