This year has been scary, horrible but profound.

We all learned a lot about community. At SAW, in person, we have/had a small, very vibrant lovely family of students and teachers. Some come from far away for a week, some came from near or far for a year and stayed. I’m so grateful for all of them.

But of course, in 2020 we all moved online, and there, our SAW community expanded so much. Zoom calls! Shared projects! Shared despair! Shared help and shared love!

This new, expanded SAW community kept me sane, and probably, frankly, from depression.

For instance, the people in the SAW Six Month Graphic Novel Course were a group of great friends I didn't know I had, I didn't know I needed.

Turns out, creating a book parallel with a group of friends and peers is a profound experience. I already knew this, but I guess I forgot.

We’ll do this every year from now on; it was much too profound to make it just a pandemic-year aberration.

Hi friends!

Things I learned from 2020:

Don't create something to fit into a system (a visible or even invisible one.) And don't demand others fit in. Create to help each other see.

Let's rebuild our connections, our practice, our gaze.

Let's learn again what matters: helping people become their best selves.

I'm grateful for 2020, and I pray, I will have the strength to stay focused on what I believe in 2021.

Let's rebuild and continue to build

Us online freaks found our communities online. We showed up for each other, told stories, made stuff, shared our beings. Group stuff.

The virus, the last year, and the last 4 years at least have showed us that the systems are inhumane. The virus doesn't care about you. Systems don't care about you.

We can build systems that care. But they need to be monitored. They will be temporary, if they are to be human.

Post-pandemic we will be armed with knowledge of what matters. Friends, community, positivity, creation, support.

It's time to return to our communities, and if we don't have one, to find one fast. Build them.

BIG THANKS

I just want to say thank you to everyone who continues to help us grow the SAW community.

Specifically, I want to thank Barry Sawicki, who created our free online draw jam, every Thursday. It’s so great, and so many of you have joined us, thank you!

Barry’s amazing story in progress:

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My thanks to Emma Jensen, whose partnership in guiding the community, as well as her luminous spirit and great storytelling; she kept me and our people going this year. A page from Emma’s great 2020 comic:

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To Beth Trembley and Karlo Antunes, both of whom have been amazing assets in helping students faster and better than I can imagine.

A 2020 page from Beth (left) and Karlo (right):

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To Sidney Davidson, Justine Andersen, thanks for teaching in 2020!

Thanks to the amazing artists we had meet with us online: Kim Krans Leela Corman, Leslie Stein, Carol Tyler, Robyn Chapman, Ayanni Cooper, and Brendan Burford, and to the many we are lining up in 2021, thank you.