Art, Literature, and the Law

My local bar association (Hennepin County Bar Association) did an issue all about “art, literature, and the law,” which just came out. It includes one of my “We will get through this” illustrations and some of my thoughts on being a lawyer who can speak are and law. I love how it turned out and it was so fun to be included!

It is fun to page through the issue and see so much creativity from members of a profession that is viewed as being anything but creative. I can’t quite put my finger on it yet, but it is weird to me how much law and art seem like total opposites but also very related. I think there may be a lot of creative people underneath the formal training and expectations of lawyers. That creative side just isn’t valued or encouraged unless it is in the form of making an innovative argument or, in the rare cases, writing a witty footnote.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Venn diagram of art and law and what it means to inhabit parts of both of those spaces. I have no answers, but I do find it interesting to explore…we’ll see where that thread goes!

Minneapolis Institute of Art Virtual Family Day

Last summer, I told a friend I just wanted to design activities for kids. (I was clearly inspired by all the art and doodle activities that artists and illustrators like Mo Willems and Wendy McNaughton developed in response to the pandemic.) Somehow, I spoke that into existence. This winter, with impeccable art direction by Mia’s Natalia Choi, I designed an at-home art activity for Mia’s April Virtual Family Day: Coloring My Feelings.

Families could pick up a tote bag of simple supples from the steps of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I loved seeing the different renditions of my little feelings blobs!

We also created a recording of myself reading The Book of Anger in my recently muraled studio space. The entire experience was just grand!

Adding Nuance When Click Bait is the Norm

After coming across social media posts (from news outlets across the world!) and news articles suggesting a recent Minnesota Supreme Court case was doing something it very much wasn’t, I felt compelled to try to explain what was actually going on in the opinion. What follows is more of less a sketchbook attempt to infuse the nuance missing in all the click bait. Imperfect, but the bones are there.