Start here: A Guide to The Open Spread
A welcome to those who found their way to The Open Spread.
Hi, I’m Ginnie.
I’m so glad you’re here.
I illustrate and write little stories and make things.
I teach storytelling at a university.
I grow flowers, and sometimes, they grow me.
The Open Spread is the place I come to think about drawing, sketchbooks, story rhythm, and the quiet patterns that shape creative life. The kind of things that grow slowly, need stillness, and don’t always make sense right away.
This is not a blog in the traditional sense.
It’s more like a sketchbook left open on the table, or a field walked at dusk. A space for noticing, gathering, and letting thoughts unfold on their own timeline.
Some entries are essays; some are just a drawing and a single sentence. And some sit somewhere in between.
There’s no urgency here. You don’t need to read in order. Just start wherever feels like a soft place to land.
Since the posts are growing, I thought it would be good to create a master list for anyone who is new here, or anyone who wants to find their way back to something more easily.
Studio Letter is my monthly note from the studio, sketchbook, farm, garden, and creative life. I send it at the beginning of each month as a way to gather what’s happening, what I’m making, what I’m thinking about, and what’s coming next.
Sketchbooks
New Year, New Sketchbook Routine
September Sketchbook: Evening Page & The Flock
My Autumn Sketching Kit + Sketchbook Process
A Slice of Illustration is my short-form podcast series about illustration history, image-makers, and the strange little worlds artists leave behind.
Episode 3: Aubrey Beardsley and the Beauty That Feels Uneasy, coming 7/15
Episode 2: Arthur Rackham and the Dark Side of Fairy Tales
Episode 1: The World of Edmund Dulac
Picture Books and Visual Storytelling is where I think through picture book structure, pacing, story rhythm, wordless narrative, emotional timing, and how images carry meaning.
Pictures Can Think: On The Hunter and the Animals by Tomie dePaola
The Fold (Gutter) Between Pages
Border Play #3 (Finale): The Frame That Changes with the Story
Border Play #2: When the Frame is a Cage
Border Play #1: When the Frame Holds the Story
Silent Storytelling: How Silence Lives on the Picture Book Page
Creative Study is where classes and resources around sketchbooks, creative investigation, material practice, and long essays live. More coming soon.
The Meadow is our flower farm, garden, and home project. I write about growing flowers, making seasonal work, tending to land, , fixing a home, and learning through making.
Studio Table - More soon.
If you’d like to keep walking with me, you can sign up for Studio Letter for free, my monthly note from the studio, sketchbook, farm, garden, and creative life.
For deeper posts, videos, process notes, sketchbook reflections, seasonal essays, and longer creative studies, you can join The Studio Table, the paid side of The Open Spread.
I hope something you find here meets you in the middle of your own making, gently and without rush.
Thanks for walking a little further into the field.
Ginnie
