I’ve spent most of my life in printshops. My career has been in local printshop graphics—helping people turn their words, designs, and ideas into something they could hold in their hands. Alongside that, I was publishing GAJOOB, first in print and then online, a zine dedicated to giving independent musicians a voice. GAJOOB is still alive today, branching into new sites and projects as my interests evolve.
That balance between making a living and following a creative path has taught me something important: a creative life is by nature undefined. It doesn’t come with a clear map or a single destination. It’s always being explored. And when we embrace that truth, we allow ourselves to be curious, to be surprised, and to express our sense of wonder through art of all kinds.
As I get older, I find myself reflecting more on the stories we carry. Every life is full of them—about our childhood homes, the people we’ve loved, the work we’ve done, the things we’ve dreamed. Too often those stories stay quiet, but they don’t have to. A song lyric, a drawing, a poem, even a handmade zine can capture a moment in a way that lasts.
That’s what creative aging means to me: continuing the journey, finding new ways to tell those stories, and leaving behind something more than memory. And it doesn’t have to be solitary work. Collaboration—especially across generations—can transform these projects into bridges between past and future. A grandchild adding music to a lyric, a neighbor illustrating a poem, a community gathering stories into a book—these acts turn personal history into shared art.
For me, art has always been a way of honoring wonder. It’s how we remind ourselves that life, even in later chapters, is still unfolding, still offering something worth creating.
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