about

I am an indie artist; seeking to contribute and create in a variety of fields and medias. Below, find my more in depth history and current direction.

aimee sits on a rock, next to a loch

Future ☠✍︎⚘

My 2024 year theme is “Maven,” a determination to deepen expertise in my crafts; writing, art, and swordplay, among others.

Present ☕︎⚖︎⛅︎

I have been feeling a little more isolated in the world, but joining Bicolline and founding the Magpies with my best friend has been a dream come true. I like having something to look forward to, I cherish our mismatched Mischief, and I adore the other guilds and friends I have forged up there in the Canadian wilderness. I find it more and more important to hold exclusive space to make and keep good friendships.

The rhythms of self employment, publishing, print runs— while still working on finishing new projects, is a melody I am still trying to learn. Please check my Works page to see my works in various states of progress. On the home front, I have a silver and gold yin yang of two fluffy forest cats, and a relationship I am proud of.

Past ⚒︎⚐⚕︎

I was raised in the rural rocky mountains of Colorado by hot air balloonists. I grew up reading, dancing, skiing, making art, and Working. I’ve done and been everything from balloon crew to cave guide, forest ranger to elementary school teacher, professional fairy princess to nematologist, water lab manager to cosplay woodworker.

I went to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, working as a resident assistant and soil lab scientist. My degree is in Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences, with concentration in Sustainable Food and Farming. I moved back to Colorado after graduation, where I started the Aimee Woodworks business, worked as a teacher, and managed a wastewater lab. I got married, bought my first home, and continued collecting jobs, as my single income had to cover everything. I have many fond memories hustling glitter as Aspen’s licensed street fairy.

After five years of adult life in my Rocky Mountain hometown, I traded rural for city and moved to Denver. My woodworking business continued there until the Summer of 2020, when The Unofficial Legend of Zelda Cookbook was finally published!

Around the same time, I found historical martial arts and picked up a longsword for the first time— now I perform my sword drills every morning!

Joining a local martial arts community helped me to recognize and escape an abusive ten year relationship. The divorce and isolation from friendships and community was harrowing, but the view from the other side, and the rest of my life, was worth the anguish. I have over three hundred hope-tempered poems borne of the experience, and I hope to share those with you soon.

Amidst all of that, I suffered a quite egregious injury— I tore nearly everything in my knee. ACL, MCL, FCL, Meniscus— all badly torn or severed. IT band sprain, bone contusions. The surgery and recovery redefined my perception and scale of pain, but my broken lifestyle; the inability to be mobile and active in the ways I was used to, for years afterward, was quite depressing. I am still not fully recovered, but so thankful for the care and love of those closest to me, who got me through it.

More recently, (thankfully it was benign!) I had a salivary gland tumor removed from behind by ear. This moves my lifetime surgery count to four, and I would prefer to not have any more. However, it is important to stay on top of things, monitor your body, and get things checked professionally before they become problems. My injuries and recoveries over the last few years have taught me to be more aware and proactive regarding my health and fitness— I encourage you to learn that lesson the easy way!

In addition to the physical, I’ve resolved a few mental mysteries! For those who know me, it may come as no surprise that I have ADHD and OCD, a little spectrum of my own. My neurospicy level is higher than I realized— I have discovered my own Dyslexia, which explains so much; Dyslexia is not what I thought it was at all. I had no problems learning to read, and apparently there are many just like me (to learn more, I highly recommend “Proust and the Squid” all about the reading brain and how we’ve hacked our brains into doing stuff they never evolved to do). All of this has done a lot to help me understand and motivate my present self, while extending grace and forgiveness to my past selves.

I am moving forward still, seeking good people and forging fine friendships, learning step by step.

Books 📚 📖 🖊

Reading is how I train myself to stay motivated and focused for long periods of time, which is so crucial for creative work. It also has the enjoyable side benefit of being entertaining and potentially educational!

Here is a link to my bookshop.org recommendations, a certified b-corp online book store, where your purchases can support local indie bookstores of your choice; a wonderful alternative to other online bookstores! May I also recommend Storygraph, an independently owned and run site where you can track your reading habit, books to read, and reviews; similar to Goodreads (you can even easily port your Goodreads info and libraries into it). Goodreads is owned by Amazon, and my preference is, surprise, toward local and independent.

Here are a few titles that have been particularly influential to me, you can pick up most at your local library.

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Stoicism and Philosophy — While I appreciate the sources, I do not appreciate the tech-bro (broicism?) reclamation of these surprisingly modern ancient texts to justify a better-than-thou self-absorption over communal duty. Please do not mistake my recommendations of these books to be an endorsement of that particular modern lifestyle— I do not believe stoicism should be used as just another productivity hack.

  • Letters from a Stoic, by Seneca, which you can read and download for free here. This took me over three years to fully read, but each letter is bite-sized, good to read one every few days or each week, to have a longer time to digest.

  • Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius, some recommend this over Letters, but I prefer Letters as an introduction. As emperor of Rome, Marcus is a little crazy.

Personal and Writing —

  • Proust and the Squid, by Maryanne Wolf, if you enjoy reading, you must read this! What are the historical contexts around our reading, how do we do it, and how come some people read differently? We never evolved to read— so what are the effects of hacking our brains into it? This book was instrumental in my realization that I have always been dyslexic!

  • My Life in France, by Julia Child, this memoir recounts my idol, Julia Child’s, years in France while penning the cookbook that changed domestic cooking all over the world. I read this shortly after writing my own cookbook, and its little stories and sentiments are so apt and endearing.

  • A Memoir of My Former Self, by Hilary Mantel, I absolutely adore “on writing” style collections from authors; and this life’s work compilation of essays, articles, and musings by the author of Wolf Hall fills me up.

Training and Community —

  • Fear is the Mind Killer, by Kaja Sadowski, a must read for any HEMA and martial arts trainer or practitioner. Kaja goes heavily into how to train consensually violent arts for those who have experienced non-consensual violence, or have been societally trained out of ‘violent’ behaviors. Why do so many femmes and thems quit HEMA, and why do so many cis-white-het men stay? This book opens the doors wide and can serve as a manual to start a truly inclusive club that keeps everyone safe and growing; mentally and physically.

  • The Windsor Method, by Guy Windsor, Guy is a bit of a hema personality, but this solo manual goes deep into the kind of pre-hab training that can help prevent future injury. While sword fighting is more easily done with more than one person, this is a lovely guide to keep your spirits up if you have only your self.

  • Lost Connections, by Johann Hari, a story-driven dive into the catalysts behind depression, and how we can use that knowledge to build lifestyles that cushion us from the darkness.

Inspiration and Entertainment —