Buddy came to us on pretty short notice. He had been foster-to-adopted, but unfortunately, his adopter’s had a dog that responded very poorly. He had to get re-homed on short notice, and luckily, we were available.
After having him for a week, we took Buddy to an adoption event at a local brewery. He was great for the first hour, but I could see him getting more fussy and impatient as the event went on. It was easy to forget that he was just a puppy. Our first foster was 10 months, while Buddy was 8 months. I didn’t realize how much of a difference 2 months makes. Thankfully, we met the folks who would eventually adopt him at that event, and we knew he would be in good hands.
The Highs
Having more time with him we were able to do some training and really start to see his silly personality. Ian was really smitten and we kept thinking about keeping him. While we had him, I enrolled in an introductory training class and learned some new techniques for basic commands. Everyone in our neighborhood loved Buddy and lots of folks encouraged us to foster fail. Anyone could see that he’d be a great dog as long as he kept getting training as he got older.
The Lows
Tragically, Buddy had a bought of evil digestion in the second week we had him. We had a couple of long and gross nights of colitis poops. Buddy didn’t mind the week of chicken and rice meals though. I’ve never been so relieved to be able to pick up a solid poop.
My partner and I have been talking about getting a dog for a while. But it’s really important to us to do right by any critter we’d be responsible for. And ultimately, we realized that right now, we can’t provide a consistent and routine lifestyle all of the time. But we are available in short bursts, so we decided to look into fostering. We had met some folks from SOSARL at a big adoption event in the fall of 2025. I still had their contact info and decided to submitter foster application. Once we went through the process, got interviewed and approved, it wasn’t too long before we were assigned our first foster: Sophie!
Bio
Name: Sophie
Breed: collie mix (definitely part great pyr)
Age: 10 months
Quirks: Immediately goes for the belly rub
Human Job: supermodel due to her permanent eyeliner
Duration of Stay: 1 week
Reflection
We knew we wouldn’t have her long since she was so pretty, so sweet, and so smart. We had Sophie for just one week. That was enough time to really enjoy her company but not so much that we couldn’t say goodbye. We were able to meet the folks who adopted Sophie, who were a great couple who already had a friendly pup with a similarly fluffy tail. We knew she’d be happy in her new home with a new brother to play with.
The Highs
Sophie was extremely sweet and smart, so it was really easy to love her. We think she had previously been a stray, so everything was new to her. We taught her some basic commands, how to use the stairs, and how much fun it is to run in the snow. If you walked past her, she’d always roll over and insist that you paid the belly rub tax.
The Lows
Sophie went on the world’s fastest crime spree. In the span of 10 minutes, she chewed through her leash, my phone charger, and Ian’s shoe laces.
She really hated being in the car and in the crate. it was really hard to see her so uncomfortable and scared. If we had more time with her, I’m confident she would have overcome her fears.
Whenever I’m doomscrolling on social media, I inevitably am drawn into the black hole of nihilism content. People, especially Americans, look at the world around them and don’t like what they see. And they feel powerless to do anything. The problems seem so big and it makes us feel so small that it can feel pointless to do anything at all. But that’s wrong! You can make a difference! And the biggest changes start with tiny baby steps.
Step 1: Commit to Something
The first step is to decide you want to do something. It seems obvious, but looking at the world around you, you’ll find there’s a lot of things you’d like to see change. And it can be paralyzing to see how big some of the problems of the world are. What can one person do? Well, it’s easiest to start small, start personal, and start local. Picking something achievable helps you build new networks of other motivated people and can help your ideas gain momentum.
For me, I started with the arts. As a lifelong artist, I am very intimately familiar with how important arts and culture are to the fabric of society and the benefits they have for our wellbeing. I live in a town, so for me, it was as easy as applying to the Arts Council, which is associated with the Town Council (more on that in this other blog). If you live in a city, municipal governance might have a higher threshold for entry. So, consider looking at local advocacy groups and nonprofits.
How to Find a Cause
Start with what you care about. Your morals, your hobbies, your experiences. Are you religious, a veteran, a vegetarian? Focus on one issue that sticks out to you. Try looking at local bulletin boards at your grocery store or the library to find groups that are already in your area.
Places that always need volunteers:
Senior centers & meals on wheels services
halfway houses & domestic abuse support centers
libraries
VFW halls & veterans services
food banks, social services, & homeless shelters
town councils & committees
animal shelters
school & youth events
Step 2: Just Do It ✅
Once you’ve found a cause you want to support, you need to decide what you want to contribute. There are a lot of ways to contribute and you can do as much or as little as you want. Passive support, like donating to a food drive or posting on social media are great and necessary. But the things that need the most help are going to be more time consuming, and usually in-person.
Skill-based ex: mending, social media posts, cooking
Social ex: phone banking, youth mentoring, door-knocking
Financial ex: recurring donations to non-profits, donating food/clothing to food pantries or shelters, liaising with event funders
Educational ex: teaching skill-based classes, story time at libraries
Organizational ex: filling out paperwork for events, attending organization meetings, organizing protests
The hardest part in getting involved is taking the first step. Swallow your fear and anxiety and just go for it. It may feel insurmountable, but you can join most volunteer organizations by sending an email. For local governance positions, you may need to fill out an application or get your confirmation notarized. Remember, there are people who want to help you, just ask!
Step 3: Profit?
I can’t overstate how satisfying it is to help out. There’s the obvious benefit of the actual target objective, whether it’s a trash pickup or running food to the elderly. Your actions are making an impact for the better. You really start getting those warm and fuzzy feelings the more you do.
And there’s more! You grow your social skills, get more comfortable trying new things, and learn new skills. When you attend events, you inevitably meet new people. You build connections, meet neighbors, and expand your network. That could lead you anywhere from a dinner party to a new job. The more you do, the more you get back. And when you are the one that needs help, you’ll have all of the support of the community you built. Take your first step and you’ll be surprised where the momentum takes you.
In March 2026, I attended the Global Service Jam hosted by MassArt. The Boston Service Jam is a collaborative event centering on developing a functional prototype for a service. There are Service Jams across the globe and everyone gains inspiration from the same prompt. I didn’t know a lot about service design before joining the jam. But all of the skills needed are ones I already practice as a visual designer– creative problem solving, research and prototyping, and developing actionable results. And ultimately, this event looked like a lot of fun!
We had just 48 hours to speed run through the process of defining, ideating, and producing a functional prototype for a service. We were given a prompt that was pretty abstract. It gave us a lot of space to define a problem that our whole group was interested in solving.
Some stills from the prompt video
Service Jam Structure
Day 1 Morning: problem and opportunity
Day 1 Afternoon: ideation and solution definition
Day 2 Morning: prototyping, iteration, and testing
Day 2 Afternoon: presentation and feedback
After splitting into groups, we started with idea generation. Inspired by the prompt, we wrote out any concepts and ideas on sticky notes. From our word cloud, we started affinity mapping, creating connections and refining down into the concepts we were the most interested in. Ultimately, the core issues we focused on were loneliness, the lack of inter-generational connection, and knowledge-transfer.
One of our primary challenges throughout the Jam was keeping our scope narrow. We had so many great ideas and a lot of passion behind all of them. But, we needed to focus if we were going to have a tangible presentation at the end of the Jam. After discussing with the team and our mentors, we finally refined our concept to a community-building event series at the local library.
word cloud and affinity mapping
The Librarians
Libraries are a third space, or place that is neither home nor work, where people can exist without spending money. We considered recreation centers and community spaces, but decided to focus on the library because of their ubiquity across rural, suburban, and urban communities. Libraries’s role in society has shifted significantly in the last few decades. Beyond spaces for accessing books, many have taken a more holistic approach to serving their community, such as hosting events, connecting the public with professional services, and providing access to local museums and attractions. However, there is a gap between there is a gap between the public perception (a quiet and dusty space for reading) and reality of libraries as a vibrant and community-connecting space.
Additionally, we were focused on the concept of the village elder and the lack of knowledge sharing we see in our current society. Not only from old to young, but from young to old, from worker to homemaker, from student to teacher, and so on. After some discussion and narrowing our scope (again), we defined our service as a series of community conversations hosted at the library. These conversations would invite knowledge-havers/mentors and knowledge-seekers/mentees to come together in a semi-structured conversation designed to facilitate connection building and enable information sharing.
Our Service Goals
Community Focus
Foster community relationships by creating an unstructured space that encourages conversation and connection.
Knowledge Sharing
Create a space to share information and skills within the community. Build awareness of existing library services
Support the Library
Galvanize the community to support and advocate for the library.
Research
Lucky for us, two of our mentors have spouses who work in local library networks. In our first conversation, we focused on gathering context and background information. We learned about the services that their library network provides (which was way more than we thought), their initiatives for expanding outreach to their communities, and their roadblocks. This gave us some important background to make sure our service was flexible enough to work with different library systems. Each has their own strategic agenda, leadership structure, resources, and limitations.
Prototyping
After our conversation and a quick lunch break, we had to get to prototyping. We decided that our presentation would be a skit walking through the service experience from outreach to event to post-event. We split into two groups to work more efficiently. My group focused on determining the outreach and post-event programming and the other group hashed out the structure for the event. We worked together to build some cardboard models like a phone prop and library space prototype. We got back together at the stage to unify our parts and run through the skit.
our teammate Haz made this amazing cardboard prototype of the library space
Presenting Community Conversations
For our Community Conversation, we selected an example theme to ground our presentation in reality. Our theme was housing ownership with the mentors being home-owners, and the mentees being house-seekers. The conversation framework would center on how home-owners were able to purchase their house, complexities that are not common knowledge (like closing costs), and the different struggles that home buyers experience over time. We included a moderator to ensure conversation is productive and diffuse tension as well as a non-partisan expert to provide additional insights and resources. In this example, that might be a state housing official or a real estate agent.
Once we had a service structure, we talked to our second primary research contact to check our proof of concept, see if any similar programming already exists, and identify any gaps or challenges we hadn’t considered. We gained some new knowledge about the complexities how programming differs between library systems and funding challenges.
We had just enough time to run through our skit once and block out a general script before it was time to present. After presenting, we had a conversation with the audience, made up of the other Jam group, our mentors, and MassArt faculty. We explained our ideas and gained new directions for growth. I left the event feeling like we had a really solid service that could absolutely exist in the real world.
scripting & planning our skit
As I reflect on my experience at the Boston Service Jam, the goals of our service prototype are evident in the Jam itself. Making connections, sharing knowledge, and building something new. We all feel the same desperation for community. Of course, it was satisfying to see how far we came in such a short time. To go from a word cloud to a presentation in just two days was amazing. Events like these can be the spark to larger things. I left feeling inspired. I am excited to continue building the community initiatives I’m a part of and to incorporate this methodology into my design practice.
Folks who know me, know I’m a big believer in the art of gift-giving and celebrating the love I have for my friends and family. Rather than a traditional holiday card, I knew I wanted to make something original to give my art away for free. So, I decided to print a limited edition lino block print. I love printmaking and this gives me a great excuse to break out my carving tools and take over the kitchen to make some art. Each year, I make a new design inspired by the Feast of the Seven Fishes.
As a proud Italian-American, one of my favorite traditions is the Feast of the Seven Fishes. It’s a Christmas Eve tradition that grew out of the Catholic observance of fasting and abstaining from meat before Christmas and the parable of Jesus feeding the masses. In practice, we celebrate by eating seven varieties of fish during the Christmas Eve meal. In my family, we consider more than seven to be good luck (and also tasty), so we usually add for a few extra.
It’s Not Too Late to Get a Print!
In case you missed the initial release, previous year’s print designs are available as blank holiday cards.
I joined the North Kingstown Arts Council in the Spring of 2025. After just a few months as a member, I’ve seen how the positive effect my work has on my community and it has enforced my belief that we all can benefit from giving back.
What Made Me Want to Join?
I’ve always been a civically minded person. From volunteering at my hometown’s senior center in high school, to organizing games of tag to get active during the pandemic summers, I love to be involved in the world around me. I had thought about getting involved in local politics before, but town governance can be pretty opaque, especially for someone with no experience. When I was living in Boston (okay, Brookline) I had started researching the steps to get involved in a committee there. But as soon as I was ready to hit send on an inquiry, I moved to Rhode Island.
One of my first impressions moving to North Kingstown was how artistic the community is. From the numerous artisan shops to the art association, there is art everywhere. I felt immediately that I could be a part of a something bigger. During the summer, there is a weekly free concert by the town beach. It’s the biggest series in the state and draws hundreds of attendees from near and far. It was one of the first things I learned about North Kingstown and I have enjoyed many warm summer evenings getting dinner from a food truck and listening to live music. These concerts, I learned, are organized and sponsored by the North Kingstown Arts Council.
How Did I Sign Up?
After a few months of settling into my new home, I started to look for ways to get connected with my neighbors. Luckily, some awesome folks, coincidentally my neighbors from a few streets away, started a community group called Gather NK. Their mission is a monthly meeting space to meet your neighbors and give back to the town. They host a potluck followed by a service/activity such as a trash pickup and hike or walk through town with the local historian. At one of the meetings, I met a current member of the Arts Council who encouraged me to join. Thankfully she followed up with an email connecting me to the chair of the council and a link to the application. And honestly, it was easy to join. I filled out an application with a little about myself and my interests. That got approved by the Town Council and I got that approval notarized at the library. All in all it took about 2 weeks.
What Do I Do With NKAC?
After joining, the main volunteering service is just attending the monthly meeting. We review and approve funds to creative projects, ranging from concerts to events at local museums to grants for artist installations. Once I got there, I realized I could contribute my design skills with social media management, flyer design, and website management. I knew I could improve their online presence and just 3 months in, I had grown the Facebook page by 150+ followers and 50k views and had launched their Instagram account and grown it by 100+ followers and 5k views.
It’s as simple as this: give what you can.
I know a lot of us feel hopeless right now. With so much out of our control, whether it’s national politics, climate change, or the cost of groceries, it’s easy to feel hopeless. But that’s exactly when you have to realize you are not powerless. Sure, you’re not going to fix the whole entire world, but what about thinking smaller? What about helping your community? Surely you have a couple hours a month or $20 bucks that you could donate to something that matters.
I recommend starting with something you know you can do. As an artist, I know art. And I care about art in my community. I want to see more art in my world. It’s not running for president, but it counts for something. The NKAC’s summer concerts provide an evening of free cultural enrichment for hundreds of my neighbors, our support allows for students to expand their access to cultural education, and our initiatives allow visual, musical, and performing arts to flourish in our town.
So think about what you care about. Food access, transit, environmental protection, senior services. Find something you know you can make better. Find a group of other people trying to do the same thing. Start showing up. Meet people. Build your community. Grow from there. You’d be surprised how satisfying it is and how easy it is to make a better world possible.
I know people feel very strongly about AI and so I wanted to give a brief overview of the role AI takes in my design practice. I’m not going to rehash the argument everyone has been having but I will give you my two cents so you know what you’re getting when you work with me.
Generally I agree with all of the criticisms that are leveled against AI. Models were trained on unethically sourced data. It does consume far too much resources in a world that needs to focus on reducing its energy and water use. It is being used as an excuse for laying off thousands of workers. It isn’t really doing the things it’s owners say is should. But its important to not be afraid of the bogeyman. Nothing in the world is black and white, and this issue is no exception. There are obviously useful applications for AI. No, not Studio Ghibli-ing your profile picture. But boring stuff. Like NLPs that make it easier to find a specific diagram from an instruction manual. Or medical advances from generative algorithms catching things humans haven’t.
In practice
In my practice, I generally take a human-first approach to design. An that means there usually isn’t space for generated content. My art style and aesthetics are driven by the human-made mark, which is something AI cannot replicate. My work is all about connecting your business to your customers in a way that is authentic to you and your services.
When I kick off a project with my clients, we will go over the use of AI in the project. I will never use AI tools without client awareness or consent. Any project I have used AI on will feature a clear disclaimer of how and what I used AI for.
In the interest of transparency, this is the list of AI tools that I have/do use:
ChatGPT for draft content and concept generation for minor copy such as social media captions. In practice, the tool is only used for guidance and all generated copy is rewritten and edited for my use.
Photoshop tools such as background fill or generative expand.
Adobe Express and Canva tools such as canvas resize and 3-D text.
In the fall of 2023, my partner, Ian, had just gotten a job in southern Rhode Island and we were getting ready to officially move in together. But as we looked towards the summer, we had a problem. Southern RI is a very touristy area in the summer and so most of the winter rentals became summer homes or AirBnBs in the peak season. This left us very few options, and even less affordable options. So we had to get creative.
Now, we had casually talked about living on a boat in the way couples usually daydream about life. Wouldn’t it be cool and fun and different? After spending time in London, I was enamored with the idea living on a canal boat. Ian is a lifelong sailor and oceanographer and spends a lot of his working time on boats. We’re both chronic Facebook marketplace window shoppers and started looking at boats in the area. Then, we heard that a family friend was selling his sailboat. This particular boat, Ian had been sailing on since he was a kid. Suddenly, the idea became more real.
Ian on our boat, more than two decades before we bought it!
1. Get your ducks in a row
Before we could commit to buying the boat, we had to figure out the logistics.
We needed to know:
could we afford it?
could we get it ready in time?
where would we put it?
could we pull this off?
There are a million what if’s and what could be’s. There’s a million reasons to say no. But, we knew we could figure it out. We said yes.
2. If you want it, you have to work for it
We were lucky enough to find a marina with an open slip in a town that was perfect for us. Not too far from work and not too far from our families. Plus, a grocery store we could bike to and one of the best sandwich shops in the country.
At the same time, we had to look at our prospective boat. We spent a day thoroughly examining the ins and outs of the boat. There was a laundry list of cleaning and repairs to make it ready to live-aboard. We knew that beyond the money, there was a larger cost in the form of sweat equity. And all of our weekends. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. But aren’t the things that you need to work for worth it the most?
the repairs list
deep cleaning and de-mildewing
repair and seal multiple seacocks
replace the headliners
re-caulk the whole deck
cetol and varnish exposed wood
replace the broken fridge
wire electrical with new lines and outlets
replace plumbing lines
hook up hot water tank
install composing toilet
replace bilge pumps and batteries
The Repair Process
Gus says “I approve”
Getting dirty + making things clean 🧼
Removing the old headliners (thank you dad!)
Cutting new headliner
Reefing out the old caulk
Caulking it up
Sanding down the new caulk
Hoo baby that deck’s a beauty 👌
Inspecting the mast (thank you Ian’s dad!)
hehehe I’m stowing away (+ screwing on stanchions)
Powering up! (adding outlets)
Fuel lines are working!
She’s leaving the barn!!!
The inaugural sail! 🏴☠️
Our new home 🙂
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
We could never have done this by ourselves. I just want to take a second to thank our family and friends for their support, both emotionally and in lending us a hand. Especially, I want to thank Wayne, for not only selling us the boat, but allowing us to work on it in his barn and use some of his tools. Also, a big thank you to Ian’s dad who did some really critical plumbing and wiring. Finally, thank you to Ian for building a fun and interesting life with me.
Also, thank you to our headlamps and kneepads. They were the truly most valuable tools in making these repairs possible.
4. Go touch grass
People love to say it, but hate that it’s true. Going outside and connecting with nature is so fulfilling for your body and soul. I love to sit and watch the different animals that live in our bay and getting to know the native species in the area. By far, the critters I admire the most are the waterfowl. We have — loons, swallows, seagulls, osprey, egrets, and all sorts of ducks. It’s hard to pick a fave between hooded mergansers and buffleheads… Observing the tide as it ebbs and flows, watch the animals in the bay change throughout the season, noticing the wind direction, and watching sunsets all center me in my body and make me feel more connected to this planet we all live on.
Swallows at Sunset, one of my watercolors
5. Say yes to things (and keep saying yes)
The journey was not easy. From buying the boat in the beginning of February to launching in the beginning of June, we constantly had to work on the boat. Every weekend and many week-nights after work, we had to work on the boat. It’s easy to say yes at the start. But weeks of hands-and-knees work meticulously scraping and sanding and scrubbing will have you asking yourself if it’s still worth it. And over and over, the answer was yes.
Even the goal we were working towards was a leap of faith. It might sound obvious, but living on a boat is not the same as living in a house. Some things work differently. But things being different isn’t bad. And aside from leaving the hatch open during a rainstorm once, basically everything worked out.
More than anything else, this journey reaffirmed that it’s good to say yes. Life is full of twists and turns and sometimes things come up that you would never expect. And sometimes, it turns out to be something you love.
After months of isolation during pandemic quarantines and working exclusively on remote digital projects alone in my bedroom, I was feeling burned out, missing my community, and making art for myself. I always held a deep love for all types of artistry, and I love to try my hand at new crafts. I knew I needed to create a habit in my schedule that so there would be regular weekly time dedicated to non-commercial creativity. So, I decided to start hosting a craft night.
My goal was to create an accessible space for folks of all skill levels from seasoned professionals to those who hesitate to call themselves artists. I especially focus on crafts that you might have done in the kitchen as a child, like potato stamps and shrinky-dinks. I also started coordinating field trips for some historical inspiration and museum sketching. And when I’m traveling, I host virtual craft nights, where we can all be creative on a video share.
Some of Our Amazing Creations
Homework Week 8: Sandwiches
Homeworks
(optional)
I wanted to create more spaces to invite folks to participate in craft night, even if they aren’t local, so I started assigning homework. Every week, I post a homework prompt, meant to inspire participants to find some time in their week to be creative. They’re completely optional and designed to be completed in under an hour, to help alleviate any residual homework trauma from grade school.
If you’d like to join in on my virtual craft nights or homework assignments, shoot me a DM on Instagram.
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