Maiden Voyage

The post it took four years to write.

One of my favorite paintings of 2022

The Launch

Here’s a post it took a mere four years to write.

For many years, my dream has been to send out a regular newsletter, and I wanted it to be a multi-media one.

I like to work, rather obsessively, across mediums. That has meant: interviewing and drawing fascinating strangers; gathering sound for nearly two decades, starting out with a mini-disc recorder in 2005; making plein-air paintings and live illustrations; writing essays, poetry, and diaristic nonfiction; and capturing the beauty around me on film.

I couldn’t find a platform that would enable sharing all these different kinds of art.

But I tried! I had a dalliance with Tumblr in 2012, and around the turn of the last century, I had a LiveJournal and a Blogspot, and my sometimes-incendiary posts only got me into minor trouble at school. I have sent out a free newsletter via Mailchimp since 2017. And I’ve had a comics Patreon.

On Substack, though, I can send out content across all of these mediums, and to both free and paying subscribers, so people who want to support my work materially get the chance to do so.

As our social media consumption and collective attention spans become ever more fragmented, Substack offers a welcome haven. I’m often in search of writing that holds my attention for ten straight minutes (bliss, in this age). Substack offers calm, still waters compared to the churning foamy tides of the Meta platforms.

A lot of my favorite writers have posted up here. My own writing fell by the wayside when I was a full-time illustrator, and I really missed it. In May, 2020, I wrote in my journal, “I’ll launch a Substack this week!”

I thought about it regularly for a couple of years.

Since at least the past year, I have added “Launch Substack!!” (with varying numbers of exclamation points) to my to-do list every single week.

What I’ve been doing with my life instead of launching my Substack

Never underestimate the power of procrastination (read: perfectionism), kids! I thought if I didn’t have every last nut and bolt figured out, then I couldn’t launch.

In a goosebump-inducing song on his final album, Blackstar, David Bowie sings, “I can’t give everything away.” I think that’s the plight of the artist, doubly so for the hyper-productive one.

I produce FAR more work than I could ever share on social media. I’ve written — no exaggeration — a few hundred pages of material since 2020.

This newsletter is an attempt to “give everything away” — in increments.

Susan’s Musings posts will include some combination of:

-Live illustrations from events, from comedy clubs to the 92nd St. Y. to Harvard Book Store to the Frieze Art Fair to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

-“Seen and overheard” writing and drawing, in the vein of my pieces for the arts magazine Hyperallergic.

-Journal entries

-Written and illustrated profiles of fascinating strangers, including: a takoyaki stand owner and self-taught puzzle expert in Japan; the number-one ramen noodle manufacturer in Mexico City; a Greek restaurant-supply store owner in Queens; and a historic-battle-re-enactor I met in the hills of the Cotswolds, England — just to name a few.

-Short essays, commentary, and humor

-Longer series, like my 10,000-word reported piece on social robots and elderly care in Japan.

-Poetry, occasionally

I haven’t yet figured out how to divide up posts for paying and free subscribers, but I’ll figure that out as I go.

In the meantime, please sign up here!

And on your way to subscribe, here are some live illustrations for the road.

This is from a recent PEN America event at Cooper Union, featuring one of the best humans on Earth, the writer Zadie Smith, in conversation with the brilliant Yaa Gyasi (Homegoing) whose name I belatedly realized I’ve been misspelling for years.

I have prints of this available.

And here’s a live illustration from the World Robot Summit in Japan in 2018, of a teleoperated robot tidying a traditional Japanese rock garden in a cavernous event space in Tokyo. Because why not?

Another SEEDy illustration from me

I’d so love for you to join me on this adventure into writing and art. Try the following link for a 30-day free trial of a paid subscription, or go for the free one. I’ve made yearly subscription prices affordable for those who want to support my work.

Thank you! I can’t wait to start our adventure together.

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