Florida, letterpress print, 11 x 14, printed on a Vandercook #3 on 140lb paper
Now in the Etsy shop.

I spent a good part of four years of my life in Florida. Finding myself at the age of seventeen in a pull with NYC and Sarasota, FL, I let Sarasota take me away. I think it was because I wanted to be someplace completely different and switch up my surroundings as much as possible. I have no regrets. I met some of the most interesting and closest people in Florida while at college. Sarasota was a quirky and beautiful place – white sand beaches, lush gardens, a beautiful art museum, and a rich history. The circus history in Sarasota was really interesting and still lingers in some unknown and forgotten corners of the city. (Hence the reason I have an elephant on my Florida map.) We would take nightly jogs along the bay, find ourselves in drum circles with strangers, and skip illustration class once a semester to hit up Siesta Key Beach. I have a deep nostalgia for this Florida, but every time I return it’s not the Florida I remember. I guess that is how nostalgia works, it’s a longing for what was before and that can never be again. It’s wistfulness and its best. The people who made it what it was have all scattered the world. Even the campus I called home is completely different, but Florida will always have a certain place in my memories. The state represents the times I could escape two completely different places a few times a year and always come back to the other and call it “home.” Maybe in the end, this did not work in my favor, as now being more landlocked, I daydream having two completely different worlds I can run to when I tire of the other. I thank Florida partly for this uncontrollable wanderlust with the world.