Hello, friends. 

It’s been a while and I hope you’re well or at least using your handmade coping skills to keep your train on the tracks and make a little joy for yourself during these trying times.

I’m popping back in after a long and unplanned hiatus to let you know that a new seven-episode season of the CraftSanity Podcast is forthcoming. It’s called “Dear Art Students” and I recorded it with my daughter, Abby, who just graduated from college with an illustration degree. 

As she approached graduation a year and a half earlier than expected, Abby was filled with the worries that come with entering the professional world with an art degree and no lucrative job placement. 

Instead of succumbing to her fears, she decided to do something to help herself and her fellow art students feel a little more prepared for life after graduation. 

Abby reached out to artists who had been mentors in some of her college classes, an artist we had met vending at zine fests, and people she met taking online art workshops. While I’ve interviewed hundreds of people for previous episodes of this podcast, Abby arranged all the interviews for this season that we’re about to drop.

I did my best to hold back and let Abby take the lead, but you’ll definitely hear a lot from me on these recordings as we naturally fell into a pattern of Abby filling her sketchbook with copious notes while I focused on keeping the conversation going.

I’ve always done the CraftSanity interviews myself with one or two exceptions, so this was a fun experience to have my daughter co-host and I’m happy to be able to share the new season with all of you, whether you are an OG CraftSanity listener or someone listening for the first time.

And the interviews are just the tip of the iceberg. Since Abby can write and draw, a combination of skills I don’t possess, she created full-color illustrated zines summing up the wisdom and advice of all the artists we chatted with. The illustrated zines were featured at Abby’s senior show at Grand Valley State University in December 2024 and she gave many copies away to fellow students, professors, and art fans in the hope that others would be inspired and empowered by the wisdom shared by the artists who agreed to be featured. The zines can be read in full for free on this site and print copies are available in our shop.

I could go on and on about this project, but there’s no need. I just wanted to let you know that I’m happy to finally have more interviews to share and grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Abby. I hope you enjoy the series and share it with emerging artists in your life. We’re dropping episode 1 this weekend, so stay tuned and let us know what you think.

It feels good to be making a podcast again. Thank you for being here to listen. CraftSanity, my friends. It still works for me.

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