As followers of my previous blog, The Fanciful Lobster, may remember, I make my own holiday cards every year. Initially, this served as my proverbial fist-shaking at the consumerism of the holidays, but with seven years’ worth of cards under my belt, it’s now become a tradition unto itself. It’s my way of checking in… Continue reading Good Tidings, Williamsburg Edition
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Deck the Halls, Williamsburg Edition
Colonial Williamsburg loves the holiday season. From its fireworks-laden Grand Illumination to ornament making at the Aldrich Rockefeller Museum, it embraces December festivity. I appreciate good holiday decorations myself, so with the semester winding down and projects wrapping up, I took a break with Brandon to go look at the them. Of all the decorations, I… Continue reading Deck the Halls, Williamsburg Edition
Semester Project 3: American Capitalisms
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been telling you about the final projects I’ve been working on for the semester. Today we’ll wrap up by taking a look at the paper I’ve been writing for American Capitalisms. I’ve been writing about museums as consumers, and the ways in which they use material goods and… Continue reading Semester Project 3: American Capitalisms
Semester Project 2: Digital Humanities
Last week I talked about what I’ve been doing in my Intro to American Studies class. Today I’ll talk about my main project in Digital Humanities. The first part of this project is something you’ve already been looking at: this website. Since I had already made a website for myself over the summer to document… Continue reading Semester Project 2: Digital Humanities
Semester Project 1: Intro to American Studies
For each of my classes this semester, I’ve been working on a larger project synthesizing the major ideas of the course with my own research interests. This week, I’ll tell you what I’ve been working on, beginning with my Intro to American Studies project. This class has focused on laying the groundwork for our future… Continue reading Semester Project 1: Intro to American Studies
Iris Trio, Part 2
Last week I started talking about an iris print I had been wanting to make. This week I’ll show you how it turned out. I completed this project over the summer, before I moved to Williamsburg. I began this project by going through my sketches. I eventually settled on three flowers, each drawn between… Continue reading Iris Trio, Part 2
Iris Trio, Part 1
When I was living in Roswell, I became interested in drawing iris. I’ve long appreciated these flowers for their dramatic, ruffled petals and rich colors, but southeast New Mexico, as it turns out, is replete with them. I could find them growing all around Roswell in the spring, and the Roswell Museum collection itself boasted… Continue reading Iris Trio, Part 1
Why a New Website?
After weeks of planning, copying, and pasting, my new website is live and ready for viewing. Yet why bother with a new website at all? After all, wasn’t the site I built over the summer serviceable? The answer is yes and no, so today I’d like to explain why I made a new site. When… Continue reading Why a New Website?
What I’m Taking This Semester
So now that you know why I’m in graduate school, what does my actual schedule look like? This semester I’m taking three seminars: Intro to American Studies, American Capitalisms, and Digital Humanities. Intro to American Studies is well, just that: an introduction to American Studies as a discipline. You learn about the history of the… Continue reading What I’m Taking This Semester
Why I’m Here
It occurred to me earlier today that I haven’t explained why I’m in graduate school at William and Mary. After all, I had a pretty comfortable job working as a curator at the Roswell Museum. Why would I drop all of that to return to the life of a student? Today I’d like to answer… Continue reading Why I’m Here