I love doing look backs in my life. Do you know what I mean?
Right now, I’m on set of this as the on-set scenic. It’s August 29, 2025, and in between calls and paint touch-ups, my mind keeps drifting backwards.
The last two years have been a whirlwind of creativity, risk, and reinvention. In 2023, I found myself on the island of Skopelos, Greece, on an artist residency that cracked me open as a painter. In 2024, a screenplay I hammered out during NaNoWriMo landed me in a castle in France for a screen writing scholarship. And when that week wrapped, instead of flying home, I tumbled into a six-week solo adventure through 17 countries and 38 cities.
That detour—the unplanned part—is what pushed me to start Skewed North.
So, consider this the boarding pass. Over the next month, I’m going to take you back into those defining adventures:
Greece 2023: The Residency That Changed Me – a month of silence, painting, and donkey paths that gave me a new compass.
France 2024: The Script in the Castle – how a late-night contest entry turned into a writing scholarship and one of the strangest, most magical weeks of my life.
The Solo Trip: How Getting Lost Started Skewed North – the 38 cities and 17 countries that shook me awake, and the decision to start documenting my story in real time.
My birthday! How I got here. Spoiler alert, it’s the same way you did. And why I am not doing anything “special” for it this year.
In case you’re new: my creative life hasn’t been linear. It’s been more like an atlas ripped apart, taped back together, and marked with compass roses that don’t always agree.
I’ve spent over 25 years as a scenic artist, set designer, and painter for film and TV. That career has taken me around the world, but in 2016, after my husband died, I needed something more than just backdrops and deadlines. I needed a way out. At least I thought. It turns out the path to anything hard is actually through.
During those 25 years I guess you could say I have been the patron for my own art. In between shows I have always struggled to choose between creating art and traveling. Sometimes I’ve married both by painting little postcards along the way. And all of it has led me to right here!
Why These Look Backs Matter
I’m a big believer that life isn’t about straight lines—it’s about detours. And these big look backs are some of my most important detours.
Each of them forced me to recalibrate. Each of them gave me new tools to alchemize chaos into something meaningful. And together, they form the compass points that explain why I’m here now, building this living memoir with you.
What’s Coming Next
Here’s the plan:
This post → Intro (free)
Next week → Skopelos, Milos, Athens, The Delphi & Santorini 2023 (subscribers only)
Then → The Castle in the South of France 2024 (subscribers only)
Finally → The Solo Trip Skipping through Europe like a stone (subscribers only)
I’ll take you deep into each one—the magic, the mess, the turning points.
And One Question For You
These look backs are really about one thing: listening. To yourself, to inspiration, to silence, to the chaos that pushes you off course.
So I’ll leave you with the same question that followed me from Greece into France and all the way back home:
How does listening currently exist in your life?
Are you resisting it? Rushing past it? Or are you—however imperfectly—tuning in to what’s asking to be heard?
Because sometimes, the yes that changes everything is the one you give yourself.
Just sayin’.
Until next time…