Next Issue: INCOMING

And they said it couldn't be done!

Apr 23, 2025

Believe it or not, the next print issue of Treehouse is done, stapled, in envelopes, mostly with stamps, gotta pick up more stamps, and about to head out to print-edition subscribers. I have been an absolutely FLURRY these past few weeks catching up on these print issues, as I had grown increasingly behind while life’s obstacles did what they do. BUT, the fun part of that is now there are about to be many, many zines and also my studio is both a creative font and a complete and utter disaster. For me, those two things generally seem to go hand-in-hand.

So! What’s in the new issue, you are very likely wanting to know.

For one, there is, as is customary, a cover. I’m dabbling more and more in the frankly deep and deeply impressive availability of creative commons artwork out there. I will continue to work with artists on some editions of the zine (like the next one, actually), but artist wranglin’ ain’t easy kids! So, it’s just really great to know that these resources exist, in high res, and FRANKLY are a lot of fun translating to a Risograph printer because you can be as playful and wacky with your color choices as you damn well please. And by you I mean, of course, me.

The cover is a woodblock print by 19th century artist Utagawa Hiroshige, called Hodogaya: Katabira River and Katabira Brige, No. 5. Here’s what it looks like in real life and here’s how I translated it to the riso printer:

Different! Fluorescent pink? Yes I think so! Fun. I had fun.

Onward—inside.

I went up (in?) to Searsmont, Maine to visit a friend, Kate Geronemus. Kate is mostly a chef—formerly of Chez Panisse, currently of fancy people’s personal lives—and also makes these stunning and extremely good-smelling 100% beeswax candles, sourced from bee people all over Maine. I watched Kate dip and dip and twist and dip candles and took photos and talked about LIFE for a while, too—because, you know, dipping candles is not a fast process. Kate’s candles are available at The Post Supply, Working Loose, and First Fig. Thank you Kate for having me and for being so good at so many things!

Apparently I was riffing on light sources for this particular issue, because I got it into my head to make some homemade nightlights. I played with a few different ideas and options, but then my gaze fell on these little shadow puppets I’d made many, many issues ago. Since then, they’ve since been pretty well ~~admired~~ brutalized by my children, so I thought perhaps they’d enjoy a new spruced-up life as a nightlight.

And then there’s a wee little moment at the end of the zine that you’ll see only if you’re holding one in your hand! If you want a zine, too, you can subscribe to Treehouse as Paid + Print Zine—it’s the third tier there, what Substack calls Founding Member and I call Truly Remarkable Human Beings.