The Materials Lab: What Can Framing Scraps Become?
What can framing scraps become? Explore creative reuse through donated mat board, old frames, art experiments, and unexpected possibilities.
Jessica Carey
Check out the latest posts
Creativity Is Not a Luxury: Why Making Matters Beyond Survival
Creativity is more than a hobby. Explore how making can support regulation, identity, connection, play, and well-being—and why creative access matters.
The Death of the Beginner: Why Adults Become Afraid to Make Bad Art
Why are adults so afraid of being bad at art? Explore perfectionism, creative confidence, beginnerhood, and the freedom to make imperfect art.
What Becomes Possible When We Ask Together: Building the Village
Recently, I told the members of my art club that a polymer-clay company had sent me a generous collection of materials to experiment with and eventually write about. They were surprised—not only by how much I had received, but by the fact that I had reached out in...
Who Gets to Call Themselves an Artist? Rethinking What Makes an Artist
Who gets to call themselves an artist? Explore how skill, credentials, professional status, disability, access, and gatekeeping shape artistic identity.
When You Had to Raise Yourself: Parentification, Self-Neglect, and the Fear of Being a Burden
Learn how parentification and family trauma can cause self-neglect, burden shame, autistic burnout, and fear of asking for help—and how healing begins.