Skewed North by Jolene Dames: Atlas

When Nothing Feels Real Anymore

Jolene Dames — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:50:35 GMT

When you learn how to fake anything, it’s hard to believe anything.

And I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that.

The other thing is that when you create illusions for a living, it becomes really hard t…

The World is Heavy, Here's Some Comic Relief, Jolene Style

Jolene Dames — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 03:10:02 GMT

Hey, guess what? I feel like I forgot how funny I was. Until I did a few quirky things this week that reminded me.

Colorado: Chaos, Cookies & Creative Sparks

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:44:44 GMT

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF INSPIRATION: A series of funny, strange, and unexpectedly meaningful moments from a life lived off course.

Yucatán: Sunsets, Sunglasses & the Stories We Rewrite

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:40:00 GMT

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF INSPIRATION: A series of funny, strange, and unexpectedly meaningful moments from a life lived off course.

New Zealand: Glaciers, Gut Feelings & Goodbyes

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 20:35:46 GMT

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF INSPIRATION: A series of funny, strange, and unexpectedly meaningful moments from a life lived off course.

Episode 6: When Love Feels Like Knowing

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 02:35:18 GMT

This is the final chapter of Cosmic Interference.

And the hardest one to explain.

Because what I’m talking about here— isn’t just love. It’s something quieter. Something deeper. Something that doesn’t …

Episode 5: Episode 5: The Not-Quite Honeymoon

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 02:27:27 GMT

In this chapter of Cosmic Interference, I’m telling the story of our honeymoon.

Except— it wasn’t really a honeymoon. It wasn’t planned.
It wasn’t polished. And it definitely didn’t go the way I though…

Episode 4: Happily Ever Uh-Oh

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 02:15:17 GMT

I was never supposed to get married. That wasn’t a phase. That was a decision.

And then I met Patrick.

In this episode of Cosmic Interference, I’m telling the story of how someone who had fully opted o…

Episode 3: Me, in THAT Bed

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 02:08:59 GMT

In this third episode of Cosmic Interference, I’m going back to a moment that didn’t look like much at the time—but changed everything.

It started with a photograph.

A bed.

A place I had never been—but …

Episode 2: The Road to Hawaii

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 01:50:26 GMT

In this episode of Cosmic Interference, I’m telling the story of the drive that changed everything. Not all at once. Not dramatically.

But in that quiet, unmistakable way where something shifts—and yo…

Cosmic Interference: The Story I Told in Pieces

Jolene Dames — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:53:08 GMT

I made something for you.

Before I knew what Recalculating was, I was already recording it.

I didn’t sit down and say, “I’m going to make a series.”

I just started telling the story.

What Happens When You Stop Moving

Jolene Dames — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 22:52:48 GMT

What Happens When You Stop Moving

I’ve been off work for about a week and a half now. We were snowed in from the Snowmageddon of 2026.

I was supposed to leave town—drive through Buffalo, head up to Sar…

Rooted, Restless

Jolene Dames — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:31:11 GMT

I’ve been in Pittsburgh for fourteen months.

And everything in me wants to leave.

Me in Pittsburgh…Still…

The last time I stayed in one place that long, I was in my twenties and broke. And honestly, I’m not sure that even slowed me down then. I remember fifty bucks, a good friend, and a last-minute drive to Chicago like it was nothing. Movement has always been my default.

Which is why what I want right now — badly — is to get out of town.

So of course, life has asked me to stay still.

That tension doesn’t come naturally to me. But it’s familiar. These last several months have carried the texture I know well: commitment layered on top of longing. Work while it’s there. Say yes to the gig. Do the job. Finish the show. Get out of town. Rinse and repeat. For years, that’s been the rhythm: work, make money, travel, make art.

This is the tension I know best—being committed to the life I’ve built, and pulled by the life that’s still calling me.

Lately, though, the pattern has shifted.

Circling Back to Nomadic Novelties

Jolene Dames — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 14:46:32 GMT

Back in March, I shared the very first peek at Nomadic Novelties — my long-running obsession with found objects, wanderlust, assemblage, and the strange poetry of things the world leaves behind. If y…

The French Castle Photo Montage

Jolene Dames — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:30:40 GMT

Greece Photo Montage

Jolene Dames — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 09:55:33 GMT

Greece Photo Montage Part 2

Jolene Dames — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 09:04:25 GMT

🎥 Dispatch from the In-Between

Jolene Dames — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:50:19 GMT

If you’re here reading this, thank you. I don’t share this part of my story everywhere.

Some of you might know I spent last September in France, living in a castle. It wasn’t exactly a vacation. It w…

The April Compass

Jolene Dames — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 15:11:56 GMT

Nomadic Novelties: Stories Told in Found Objects

Jolene Dames — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 14:01:02 GMT

I’ve always believed that the world speaks in artifacts. That every object—no matter how small, broken, or overlooked—carries a history, a whisper of where it’s been, a trace of the hands that once held it.

That belief became Nomadic Novelties—a book of assemblages made from found objects collected from all over the world.

But this book wasn’t created overnight. I’ve been working on these assemblages for eight years—gathering, arranging, reimagining. And for the last three years, I’ve been immersed in turning them into a book. Not just capturing them in photographs, but writing the stories behind them—giving voice to the objects, their origins, and the unexpected narratives they create together.

This book isn’t just a collection of art—it’s a map of my travels, a visual diary of wandering through 38 countries and all 50 states, picking up fragments of places, stories, and moments. Picking up pieces of myself along the way too.

The Art of Gathering & Reimagining

Some people collect postcards. Some bring home souvenirs. I collect what the world leaves behind.

A rusted key from an abandoned house in Spain. A tattered playing card found on a New Orleans sidewalk. A metal trinket washed up on a beach in Greece. A snapped-off drawer handle from a hotel in Cuba.

Things most people walk past. Things most people don’t even notice.

But to me, these objects are artifacts of experience. Each one has traveled, been lost, been discarded, and somehow found its way to me.

In Nomadic Novelties, I didn’t just collect these objects—I gave them a second life. I assembled them, photographed them, and then wrote the stories they told me. Every piece in this book is a physical manifestation of movement, memory, and transformation.

Here’s a sneak peek of its pages.