Twenty Years of Work That Doesn’t Fit on a Resume ... Multidisciplinary Writer-Artist-Researcher Seeking Work
A detailed look at where my skills came from and what I can do for you
If you’re here, you might have found me through my open letter about looking for work. This is the longer version that walks through what I’ve actually done over the past twenty years and what it means for what I can bring to your organization.
I’ve organized this by project and role, with a summary of skills and a “you might want to hire me if” section for each. Feel free to skim to the parts that are relevant to you.
If you know of anyone who would be a good fit in need of my skills, please forward to them!
Create Me Free (2001 to Present)
This is where it all started, and where it continues to grow.
In 2001, when I was a youth social worker in Tucson, Arizona, I started a literary zine for incarcerated artists. I managed contributions from 100+ participants, coordinated mentor matches between incarcerated artists and outside supporters, and got the publication placed in bookstores nationwide, long before social media was around to make contacting those stores easier. That taught me how to build something from nothing, how to hold space for people’s stories, how to coordinate logistics across distance, and how to believe in an idea even when nobody else could see it yet.
In 2006, Create Me Free evolved into my freelance writing and consulting business. Over the next 15+ years, I built a crochet blog to 600,000 monthly page views (and later sold it for five figures). I grew its associated Pinterest account to over 100,000 followers (sold with the blog). I became a monthly columnist for craft industry magazines for eight years. I published more than half a dozen books. I wrote copy and content for dozens of blogs in the craft, lifestyle, art, wellness and psychology sectors (here are some examples). I learned how to pitch, how to meet deadlines, how to manage my own time, and how to run a sustainable creative business when nobody was paying me a salary.
In 2021, I incorporated Create Me Free as a business and began offering more formalized services. That’s when I developed what I now call my Six-Part Creative Health Framework, a structured approach to understanding how health impacts creativity across process, medium, content, productivity, identity, and sustainability. That framework is now the foundation of my 1:1 Healthy Creativity Conversations and my Creative Health Blueprint assessments, which give artists a personalized, affirming, practical map of their creative practice.
Outstanding skills built over these 20+ years:
Editorial strategy
Content creation at scale
Platform building
Qualitative research
Framework development
Workshop design
Business sustainability
Project management
Self-direction
You might want to hire me if …
you need someone who can take an idea, build it into something real, and keep it running for years. Or if you want someone who understands both the creative and the operational sides of running programs and platforms. Or if you need someone who can write, research, strategize, and execute without needing a lot of hand-holding.
Book Author (2012 to 2023)
I’ve written and published more than half a dozen books, both through traditional publishers and independently. The Artist’s Mind: The Creative Lives and Mental Health of Famous Artists came out through Schiffer Publishing in 2023, and it required years of research, synthesis, and the ability to make complex psychological concepts accessible to general readers. Crochet Saved My Life (2012) and my expertise in crochet-as-therapy on the whole has been cited in peer-reviewed academic journals. The crochet-as-therapy exercises I developed for Hook to Heal (2015) have been used by therapists, social workers, teachers and peer counselors in settings including prisons, classrooms, and substance rehabilitation programs. Mandalas for Marinke (2017) documented a global community art project raising awareness about depression, suicide and crafting to heal and included mental health resources.
I chose to self-publish some of these books intentionally, to maintain control over pricing and distribution to marginalized communities. Others, I brought to traditional small publishers to reach broader audiences. I know how to do both. In both cases, I did much of the marketing myself, including hosting a virtual blog tour for Crochet Saved My Life and later a virtual Substack tour for The Artist’s Mind.
Outstanding skills:
Research synthesis
Long-form writing
Translating complex concepts for diverse audiences
Project completion (finishing a book is its own skill)
Working with editors
Self-publishing logistics
Virtual book tours and independent marketing
You might want to hire me if …
you need someone who can write at length with rigor and clarity. Or if you want someone who understands how to bring a project from concept to completion. Or if you need thought leadership content that positions your organization as an expert in its field.
In My Fluffy Pajamas (2023 to Present)
IMFP is my ongoing collaboration with Iranian-born immigrant artist Badri Valian. Together, we design and facilitate trauma-informed community art workshops that help immigrants visualize and verbalize experiences with displacement, adaptation, and belonging. We’ve partnered with the Chinese Culture Center, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 41Ross, ARTogether, and the Center for Art and Public Life. We’ve coordinated multilingual programming with translators in Mandarin, Spanish, and Farsi.
I co-facilitate the workshops themselves, assist with the art-making, and offer non-therapeutic trauma-informed support during sessions. When additional therapeutic concerns arise, I’m available to provide referrals as needed.
I’m also the primary grant writer for this project, and we’ve secured over $43,000 in funding from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, and the Center for Art and Public Life in two years. I manage grant deliverables, reporting, budgets, and fiscal sponsorship relationships.
Outstanding skills:
Grant writing
Partnership development
Cross-cultural collaboration
Multilingual coordination
Trauma-informed facilitation
Community engagement
Budget management
Public art logistics
You might want to hire me if …
you need someone who can write grants that actually get funded. Or if you want someone who knows how to build authentic community partnerships (not just transactional ones). Or if you need program development that centers equity and accessibility from the start. Or if you have workshop facilitation needs that would benefit from my combination of arts + psychology experience.
Art Writing and Criticism (2012 to Present)
I write about art as a way of making meaning, not just description. My work includes exhibition reviews, artist profiles, art historical research, and catalog-style descriptions that connect visual work to cultural context, psychological insight, and lived experience.
This is the thread that runs through much of my other work, but it deserves its own section. My book The Artist’s Mind: The Creative Lives and Mental Health of Famous Artists (Schiffer Publishing, 2023) required years of research into the intersection of art history and mental health, tracing how creativity, illness, identity, and culture have shaped artists across centuries. That research didn’t end with the book. I continue to write about both historical and contemporary artists, exploring how mental health informs creative practice and how art-making functions as a form of meaning, expression, and survival.
I’ve written exhibition reviews, educational content about art movements and individual works, and pieces that bring psychological and historical perspective to visual culture. I’m equally comfortable writing for scholarly contexts and general audiences. I care about rigor, but I also care about making art feel accessible and alive.
Outstanding skills:
Exhibition reviews and arts criticism
Art historical research and writing
Artist profiles and interviews
Catalog essays and didactic writing
Translating visual and conceptual work into engaging prose
Research at the intersection of art, psychology, and culture
Writing for both scholarly and general audiences
You might want to hire me if … you’re a museum, gallery, or cultural institution that needs exhibition reviews, catalog essays, or accessible art historical writing. Or if you want artist profiles that go beyond surface-level bios. Or if you need wall text, didactics, or educational materials that actually engage visitors. Or if you publish arts criticism or cultural commentary and want a writer who brings psychological and historical perspective. Or if you work at the intersection of art and mental health (as an art therapist, arts-in-health organization, or creative wellness program) and need content grounded in both research and real understanding of creative practice.
Mandalas for Marinke (2015 to 2018)
When beloved crochet designer Wink (Marinke Slump) died by suicide, I founded a global collaborative crochet project to honor her memory and raise awareness about depression and suicide. Over three years, I engaged 300+ crafters worldwide who contributed 1,000+ symbolic mandalas. I maintained a daily blog featuring contributor stories and mental health resources, curated gallery exhibitions in Southern California, and facilitated healing circles at those events. Most recently, the project, along with my other crochet-as-therapy books, was featured in 2025 in the Innovations in Fibers exhibition at Nine Eighteen Nine Studio Gallery.
Outstanding skills:
Community organizing at scale
Managing distributed contributors
Daily content creation for extended periods
Curating sensitive material
Facilitating grief and healing work
You might want to hire me if …
you need someone who can mobilize a dispersed community around a shared purpose. Or if you’re working on sensitive topics and need someone who knows how to hold that work with care.
Center for Mindful Psychotherapy (2021 to Present)
For over four years, I’ve been the primary content strategist for this nonprofit collective of 100+ mental health practitioners. I handle content writing, manage editorial calendars, coordinate social media, and work directly with therapists to feature their expertise and services. I keep the therapist directory current and create member newsletters and educational materials.
Beyond content, I’ve managed significant technical transitions as the organization has grown. I led the migration from MailChimp to Substack based on user research and cost-benefit analysis. When our traffic outgrew our original web host, I headed the migration to a new system, which I now maintain. I implement limited coding (HTML) as needed and coordinate with web designers and developers to keep everything running smoothly.
Outstanding skills:
Content strategy for healthcare
Editorial calendar management
Website management and maintenance
Platform migrations
Coordinating with clinical professionals
Basic HTML implementation
Vendor and contractor coordination
SEO optimization
Serving clinical and non-clinical audiences simultaneously
You might want to hire me if …
you need someone who understands healthcare content and the practitioners who deliver it. Or if you want a content strategist who can also handle the technical side when things break or need to scale. Or if you need someone who can work with busy professionals who don’t have time to explain everything twice.
AI Content Strategy and Implementation (2023 to Present)
Let me be honest: I came to AI skeptically, like many artists and writers did. But I’ve learned that AI can be a powerful tool when used ethically and strategically, and a harmful one when used carelessly. I now help organizations figure out how to use AI in ways that serve their mission, respect their audience, and maintain the quality and integrity of their content.
I have worked as an AI Workflow Specialist and Strategist for several therapist-centered businesses including Center for Mindful Psychotherapy and Seshio. I design prompt engineering strategies ensuring high-quality, clinically accurate, EEAT-friendly content. I evaluate AI tools for healthcare applications with a focus on HIPAA compliance. And I advise leadership on ethical considerations, because that part matters.
Outstanding skills:
AI tool evaluation
Prompt engineering
HIPAA-compliant implementation
Change management
Training non-technical teams
Ethical frameworks for technology adoption
You might want to hire me if …
you know you need to figure out AI but you’re worried about doing it wrong. Or if you want someone who will help you think through the ethics, not just the efficiency. Or if you need someone who can train your team to use these tools confidently and responsibly.
What Now?
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. If something here resonates and you see a place where my skills might help your organization, I’d love to hear from you. I’m open to being hired as a consultant / service provider for your organization but also open to in-house roles (PT, full-time, contract, temp-to-hire or hire). Seeking remote but will consider hybrid in San Francisco.