For the Winter 24-25 issue of Raw Vision magazine, I contributed a feature about the late self-taught artist Jesse Aaron who was inspired by the trees around his Florida home. As he often stated, “The wood will tell you what to do.” You can read an excerpt online and find the full story in the beautiful print edition!

For the winter issue of ArtDesk, I wrote the cover story on artist Edgar Heap of Birds and his upcoming exhibition in Oklahoma City. Read it online and in print!

While I was in Australia earlier this year, I got interested in how part of Melbourne General Cemetery was being restored from its colonial Victorian landscape to a native grassland. The story is now in American Cemetery & Cremation magazine in print and online!

Surrealism is turning 100 this year! For JSTOR Daily, I created a reading list about all the many aspects of this artistic and literary movement, from its connections to communism to its legacy in contemporary art like Afrosurrealism. Explore it here.

I had some fun making new zines for the fall, including a short one on the strange presence of the Fiji mermaid in museums around the world as well as mini zines on pet cemetery epitaphs, witch marks, lost museums of NYC, and ancient NYC public art. You can find them all on my Etsy!

For the Art Newspaper, I reported on the how the former home of the late artist L. V. Hull in Kosciusko, Mississippi, is being preserved as the town’s first visual arts center. It’s also the very first art environment by an African American artist to be added to the National Register. Read all about it here!

I explored how augmented reality is being used in cemeteries around the world for American Cemetery & Cremation magazine, from visualizing past borders of segregation to honoring military graves. Find the story online and in print!

For the Art Newspaper, I went to the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas at Austin and reported on its new expansion, where community, city, and the arts are all coming together. Read all about it here!

I’m excited to share that I’ll be writing a book for one of my favorite series: 33 1/3! If you’re unfamiliar, the Bloomsbury series features compact books each dedicated to a single album. My contribution will be about Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads. Keep an eye out for updates as I get started.

For the spring issue of ArtDesk, I wrote about Loie Hollowell’s work and how the “curving forms and luminous colors of the native Californian evoke the abstraction of artists who emerged in the twentieth century.” Read the full story both online and in print!

I covered the restoration of Minnesota’s Itasca Rock Garden for Raw Vision magazine. The elaborate environment of follies and foliage was started in 1925 by a farmer and now almost a century later it has been returned to much of its former glory. You can read an excerpt of the story online and find the whole piece in the print issue, where I also have some short reviews on Ted Serios and Michelangelo Lovelace.

For the Public Domain Review, I wrote an essay on the dance of death in centuries of art, particularly in printmaking where it has been used as a rapid response to war, disease, and other crises. Read it here!

I’m excited that this October I’m helping to co-lead a Morbid Anatomy tour of Paris with tarot scholar Laetitia Barbier. It will run from October 10 to 15 and we will visit unusual sights like the carnival arts museum, alchemical history locales, and of course cemeteries. A few tickets still remain!

For the Art Newspaper, I covered the conservation of a mural Keith Haring painted in 1989 in an Iowa City school. It’s on view to the public for the first time before it will be returned to its permanent place in the school. Read all about it here!

On Sundays from August 4 to 25, I’ll be teaching an online class with Morbid Anatomy called “Speak with the Dead: A Crash Course in Understanding Cemetery Symbolism.” We’ll explore symbolism from ancient rites up to the modern age. Sign up here!

What does NYC’s Dutch heritage mean 400 years on? I explored the complicated legacy of New Amsterdam through historic houses that are reflecting on how their structures tell stories of slavery and colonialism as part of the founding of what became New York City. Read the piece on the Art Newspaper.

On Saturday, June 9, I’ll be returning to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn for a walk exploring the language of flowers. We’ll see tombs that reflect the Victorian fascination with floral symbolism and decode the meaning of the blooms. Get tickets here!

For JSTOR Daily, I put together a reading list timed with the 150th anniversary of the Impressionist art movement. Read about everything from the importance of synthetic pigments to the influence of Japanese art!

For the Art Newspaper, I covered the conservation and opening to the public of the Prophet Isaiah’s Second Coming House in Niagara Falls, New York. It’s an incredible, kaleidoscopic house adorned inside and out with Isaiah Robertson’s art. Read all about it here!

The spring 2024 issue of Fine Books & Collections that I edited is out now! It includes stories on visual depictions of the arctic, bird field guides, doll house libraries, and much more. I also wrote its feature on the new library at the AMNH and why science needs libraries. Pick up a copy here.