In the Wild Margins: An Illustrated Life of Looking Closer

I have an unreasonable number of photographs of things most people probably wouldn’t bother photographing.

There are mushrooms growing out of fallen trees, moss-covered rocks, interesting bits of bark, feathers, acorns, and leaves in various stages of falling apart. There are blurry pictures of birds that refused to sit still, insects I couldn’t identify, and entire collections of photographs taken because the light happened to fall across something in an interesting way.

My camera roll is a peculiar combination of nature documentary, dog photography, and evidence that I apparently cannot walk past a mushroom without stopping.

I’ve always been drawn to the natural world, particularly the smaller details that are easy to miss when you’re focused on getting somewhere. Living near the Blue Ridge Mountains gives me plenty of opportunities to wander through the woods, explore familiar trails, and find something interesting even when I’m walking somewhere I’ve been a hundred times before.

Some of those discoveries eventually make their way into my artwork. Others become stories, research rabbit holes, or little observations I tuck away for later. Over time, I’ve realized that I want a place to bring more of those things together.

That’s how In the Wild Margins began.

The Things That Catch My Attention

When I head outside, I don’t always have a destination in mind beyond getting the dogs some exercise or spending a little time away from my desk. Sometimes I return with nothing more than muddy shoes and a few extra photographs. Other times, I come home curious about something I hadn’t noticed before.

A strange growth on a tree might send me looking into fungi. An unfamiliar bird call might lead me to spend an afternoon figuring out who was making all that noise. A particular leaf might catch my attention because of its shape, color, or the intricate network of veins running through it.

I enjoy finding out what things are, but I’m just as interested in the stories surrounding them.

How did this plant get its name? What role does that little creature play in the woods? Why do certain mushrooms appear after a stretch of rainy weather? What did people once believe about a particular tree, flower, or animal?

There are entire worlds of interesting information hiding in things we walk past every day. And the more I learn, the more I realize how much I haven’t noticed yet. That curiosity has always influenced the artwork I make. I love illustrating plants, animals, landscapes, and the details of the natural world. But I’ve also found myself wanting to share more than the finished illustration.

I want to share what caught my attention in the first place.

Somewhere Between a Field Journal and a Letter

I’ve kept sketchbooks, collected reference photographs, written stories, and made art inspired by the outdoors for years. But those things tend to end up scattered across different places. A sketch in one notebook. A photograph on my phone. An interesting bit of information saved somewhere on my computer, where I’ll undoubtedly spend twenty minutes trying to find it again.

In the Wild Margins is my way of gathering those pieces into something more intentional.

It’s a weekly illustrated publication that combines original artwork, observations, stories, and interesting discoveries from the natural world. Each installment is a single illustrated page, something between a naturalist’s field journal and a letter from someone who spends an excessive amount of time examining things beside the trail.

There will be illustrations of plants, wildlife, fungi, and landscapes. There will be curious facts, personal observations, occasional creative detours, and stories about the things I encounter while wandering around outside.

Some subjects will be familiar. Others might be things you’ve never given much thought to before. I don’t intend to make everything sound profound or turn every discovery into a lesson about life. Sometimes a beetle is interesting simply because it’s a beetle.

The Art of Noticing

The first collection of In the Wild Margins is called The Art of Noticing. It will bring together 52 illustrated encounters with the everyday wild, one page at a time.

I love the idea of building a collection gradually, allowing each subject to have its own space rather than rushing to fill an entire book at once.

One week might feature a familiar woodland bird. Another could explore a wildflower, a curious mushroom, or something found along a creek. There might be a story about a particular place, an interesting piece of natural history, or an illustration inspired by an ordinary afternoon outdoors.

The subjects will vary, but the thread connecting them is curiosity.

I’m particularly interested in the relationship between observing something and making art from it. Drawing requires a different kind of attention. You begin to notice shapes, textures, colors, and small structural details that you might otherwise overlook.

A leaf stops being simply a leaf when you’re trying to understand how its edges curl or how its veins branch from the center. The same thing happens when you learn more about the subject itself. What initially caught your eye becomes part of a much larger story.

That’s the experience I want to share through these pages. Not just the finished artwork, but some of the looking, learning, and wondering that happens along the way.

A Collection That Grows With You

One of the things I wanted to do differently with In the Wild Margins was to make it feel like an ongoing collection rather than a conventional newsletter that arrives and disappears into an overflowing inbox.

When someone joins, they’ll begin with Page 1 of The Art of Noticing, regardless of when they subscribe.

From there, a new illustrated page arrives by email every seven days, so everyone can experience the collection in order from the beginning, without having to track down earlier installments or worry about missing anything.

Each page is designed to be something you can save, revisit, or print for your own collection.

The publication will begin as a digital experience, but I have bigger plans for the artwork and stories as the collection grows. I’d eventually love to bring the completed volumes together into illustrated books, along with other digital and printed collections. There’s also the possibility of offering the complete collection of original artwork through a special collector sale someday.

Those ideas will develop over time. For now, I’m focused on creating the individual pages and letting the collection take shape. I like that approach. It gives me room to follow interesting discoveries rather than trying to predict everything the project might become.

Why I’m Making This

A lot of my work at Wild Ridge Studio involves creating artwork that eventually becomes something else. An illustration might become a print, a mug, a greeting card, or part of a larger collection. I enjoy that process, and I love seeing my artwork find its way into people’s everyday lives.

But In the Wild Margins gives me a different kind of creative space. It’s a place where the illustration and the story behind it can stay together. Where I can explore something because it interests me, spend time researching it, draw it in my own style, and share the result with people who might find it interesting, too.

It also brings together several things that have always been part of my life: being outdoors, making art, writing, learning, and following my curiosity wherever it leads. I don’t have to separate those interests into different projects or pretend they aren’t connected.

They’ve always influenced one another. Now they have a place to live together.

An Invitation to Look a Little Closer

You don’t need to be an artist, a naturalist, or someone who knows the scientific name of every plant along the trail to enjoy In the Wild Margins.

Maybe you enjoy spending time outdoors. Maybe you love illustrated nature books, field guides, and collections of interesting things. Maybe you’re the person who stops to examine a tiny mushroom while everyone else keeps walking. Or perhaps you simply like the idea of receiving a little original artwork and an interesting story in your inbox each week.

If that sounds like you, I’d love to invite you along.

In the Wild Margins is a paid illustrated newsletter for $6 per month or $60 per year. Each subscription begins with the first page of The Art of Noticing, followed by a new illustrated installment every week.