Look For The Artists
Making and doing as a hopeful act.
My online shop is back from winter break! All calendars are ON SALE as well some other assorted things. // Need writing inspiration and a supportive creative community? Join Kerri Anne for the winter 2026 session of DIVE Writing Group. Kicks off the last week of January, sign up now to secure your spot.
Hello friends,
I went to Minneapolis last winter as part of research for my book (yes yes I am still working on it), and while I was there, I got to check out Art Shanty Projects.
This public, temporary art installation is only possible in winter. Imagine pop up structures, sculptures, and art performances on a frozen lake and you get the idea. It’s basically one big art installation on ice. Or as the organization calls it, “whimsical, weird and joyful winter art experiences.”
Taking inspiration from pop-up ice fishing villages and huts, frozen Bdé Umáŋ / Lake Harriet becomes a public platform for artists. There are few regulations and building codes—an artist’s dream!
The whole thing felt incredibly creative and collaborative. And yes, very cold. A joy for someone like me who spends damp, rainy winters often dreaming of the crisp, clear feeling of snow and ice on a sunny day.
Banned Book Reading Room was like a mini library of banned books. The books were stuffed with an assortment of neon yellow, orange, and red pieces of paper, calling to mind a flame. I learned that Charlotte’s Web was a banned book1, because of the death and talking animals apparently.
There was a pavilion where you could take part in a collaborative weaving project using naturally died fibers. A performance installation Ladies of the Lost Continent, where you could choose the name of a female Antarctic Explorer and the artist would bring her to life. An interactive, balancing structure called A Poem for Entangled Living by the artist network Spill Paint Not Oil. A show about pigeons.
In other words: so many good things.
Art Shanty Projects kicks off this weekend for those who are nearby, against the backdrop of the horrific federal escalation in Minneapolis. As the organization writes, “We firmly believe that art is never neutral, connection is an act of resistance, and gathering is community care.”
I’ve had this on my mind and much more this past week. I’m enraged, but I’m also thankful for the artists, for every single person who decides that an act of creativity is an act of solidarity. The puppets! The songs! The brass bands! The knitters making red resistance hats like the Norwegians wore in opposition to Nazi occupation!
What always fills me full of hope and inspiration in dark moments is watching creative response. Learning how to turn rage into something more generative.
Many of you may know the advice that Fred Rogers often shared about what to do in challenging times:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
Having grown up on Mr. Rogers, I can easily conjure up his voice in my head saying it. It’s excellent advice. I’d like to add an additional version: look for the artists.
Look for the artists. You will always find people who are singing, dancing, making things with their hands.
The artists are the the ones who know what loving, vibrant worlds they want to keep alive. They’re the ones creating. They’re the ones dreaming. They’re the ones who know how to problem solve. They’re the ones bringing people together.
They’re the ones who know that big projects don’t come to fruition by individual fortitude alone. They know it takes a village. They know they need to support that village, care for it, tend to it.
Look for the artists. They’ll give you the hope and inspiration when it’s needed.
-Anna
Oh look, another zine…
After making my Winter Work zine last week, I felt the need to make another one. Documenting my own thoughts and feelings in an analog way feels important right now, both in the face of politics and the rise of AI. I want us all to be making more art, even if (in fact, especially if, it’s not for distribution).
“Look for the artists” was a phrase that came to mind as I was finishing this one. Proof that you never really know what you’re going to make when you start—it’s the process that gets you there.
I have a policy of not making any concrete decisions about projects in January, because I like to see what comes together, what builds. So I won’t say I’m at a “zine a week” project quite yet, but you never know. Sharing these at least feels like bringing a little more texture to your inbox, a way to cut through the digital noise. I hope that they serve as a little inspiration for your own work.
If you want to help support people in Minneapolis, here is an excellent list of all kinds of organizations that can put your donations to good use.
Like many others, I loved seeing Alex Dawson’s poem this week. If you like it, then go read her piece about the poem going viral: “Meanwhile, I am sitting here, giggling at the irony that a poem that is essentially about getting offline has fared so well online.”
“I give myself over to the task of cleaning. I scrub my desk thoroughly with bleach and a rough sponge, toss the papers, put away the ink jars. As I perform these tasks, I’m percolating on my ideas, letting them bubble and stew, gathering the energy to make them real. It’s like I’m winding myself up, like a toy. When I finally sit down to draw, all I have to do is let go.” Hallie Bateman on the process of sitting down to make work.
An extra spot opened up in my friend Isobel Coney’s Creating From Nature retreat at Singla in Northern Norway this summer! Someone should definitely snag this.
A 65-year-old oak tree fell to the ground on account of a fungus. Artist Steve Parker sliced the trunk, and turned the pieces into vinyl, encoded with sounds of birdsong.
I loved this prompt from Jami Attenberg this week.
“What happens when political fear gets metabolized as personal inadequacy?” Kate Bowler on January in America.
“the more tools that become available to help us to stop the appearance of age (if not actual aging) the more visibly aging has become a radical, if not downright rebellious, decision.” Glynnis MacNicol on faces.
Thank you to Sabrina Y. Smith for helping me to discover Ora the Molecule.
Thank you for reading Creative Fuel. This is a reader supported publication made by a human. The words are mine, the art is mostly analog. If you enjoy reading, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
“Due to themes of death and the fact that the main characters are talking animals, a parent group in Kansas sought to ban the book from their students’ school libraries. They argued that talking animals are ‘unnatural and blasphemous as humans are the highest level of God’s creation.’” VIA
Anna I always look forward to your Saturday post but today it was just exactly what I needed to hear( really everyone needs to hear it ) thank you always for your collective care and timely reminders the world is better because if it xo
I love every single part of this post. Sadly, my hope baseline was sinking, and now I have a boost, a guide.