Who inspires you?

How have people close to you taught you just by being themselves?

Here are four people in my family who have influenced the way I create, envision and run Waveform just by being themselves.

Grandpa Derr

My grandfather was a very handy guy. He built tables, fixed odds and ends, and made a miniature playhouse (with working electricity and plumbing!) for his children to play in. Some of his tools are in the studio. Much of what I know about his maker projects is retold to me from my mom – we didn’t spend much time together in his workshop, but so many of her stories involve the creative antics of her father. His way of making, mending and saving set the standard for the way I like to live. I remember his hands in particular, big and gnarled – the hands of someone who has made many things in their life. I photographed them for an art piece in college. When I am woodworking, lost in a building project or repairing something in the studio I feel he is with me.

Grandpa Monahon

Grandpa Monahon was an artist, designer and writer. He noticed how much I liked art from a young age and taught me how to paint, draw and make things since I was four. He taught me about palettes, brush types, and signing and dating your work. He turned my drawings into storybooks. We exchanged letters for much of my childhood and into my teen years. He used to run “The Lively Press” – a quarterly zine mailed out to a list of friends, family and acquaintances. I visited my grandparents in Maine on my own for the first time when I was 11 – I stayed a week, and at the end of the week my grandfather framed all the paintings I had made and hosted my first ever “gallery opening” in his art shed. His house was full of art, odds and ends, creative exhibits and tangents. He encouraged my art-making my entire life and created a norm just by being himself. Norms of curiosity, following rabbit holes, writing, letter writing, drawing and painting. He cultivated an inherent need in myself to communicate through art.

Momma Jane

My mother cares for spaces. She has designed and built three houses in her life, managing each project and working closely with all the moving parts. She grew up helping my grandfather out with outdoor projects and home maintenance. Our home was the central location for the extended family – she hosted family reunions every summer for 17 years. Every summer around 40 people would convene and experience the home she created. In addition to growing up in a very cozy home, which I believe helped me create a feeling of home in the studio, she grew up making her own clothes and always mended ours. I learned how to darn socks, fix a button, hem a pant. Her sewing box is a reminder of how to care for the things we have.

My sister Kelly

My older sister was the owner-operator of Alpine Dance Academy, a dance studio in Summit County, Colorado for eleven years. She built out her studio, choreographed hundreds of dances, worked with hundreds of families, created a non-profit with a scholarship fund for competing in Denver, put on multiple shows a year, hired an awesome team to support her vision and created an amazing dance community through years of hard work. From a young age, my big sister helped create norms in my life: creating policies that protect my peace. Being in charge. Owning and running a business. Stepping away from a 9-5. Dedicating my time and energy to the arts. She embodies what I call, “big sister energy.” I would often visit her in Colorado to see her studio’s performances, and sometimes sit in on her classes: watching Kelly create her space throughout my late teens and twenties, framing photos of her students, creating rituals and norms in the form of an art space that was a second home to hundreds of kids during their formative years. She was organized and evolved over time. I didn’t realize it at the time, but listening to her talk about work for ten years primed me for customer service, strong boundaries and sustained vision.  

Who has influenced your life by just being themselves? Are there any stories, memories, photographs, special objects or rituals that remind you of them?