FIRST PEEP • A New Story Takes Wing

The Chapter Begins in StillWood

There is something magical about the moment you notice what you almost walked past.

A tiny crack in an egg. A curious visitor beneath a tree. A wee mushroom sprouting from a log….. These small encounters have always fascinated me, and lately they have been finding their way into a new body of work I call StillWood™……Where the Wild Whispers.

StillWood began partly as a return to something that has been within me all along.

My father, Joe Messer, was an incredible artist, and together with my mom Eunice, created Ceramics by Messer, their North Dakota pottery studio in the 1950s. Their work has since become highly sought after by collectors, but to me it has always simply been part of the creative world I grew up in.

Dad explored many forms of art throughout his life, including woodblock and linocut work during art school and again later. I grew up surrounded by his artwork, and all these years later I find myself especially drawn to those bold printed works — the strength of black against white, the expressive marks left behind by the cutting tools, and the way a seemingly simple image can hold an entire story.

“Some creative threads wait a very long time to be woven in again”

There is something wonderfully full-circle about finding my own way back to an art form that once interested Dad, and then discovering where it might lead me. StillWood carries a little of that history with it, but the collection has grown into something entirely my own.

Created as original illustrations, the pieces draw upon the visual language of traditional linocut and woodblock printing — bold black shapes, expressive carved marks, imperfect edges, and the beautifully distressed character of a hand-pulled print.

But it isn’t simply the look of old prints that interests me. It’s the idea of “carving” away everything non-essential until ‘the moment’ remains. Something you might have missed if you hadn’t looked a little closer.

And so it seems especially fitting that the very first StillWood piece I share with you is called FIRST PEEP

A tiny crack in the shell

From inside comes the very first little peep, while a barn owl watches over the nest. No wings have unfolded. No first flight has been taken…….just one small voice announcing: I’m here.

First Peep became a beginning for me, too. As I worked on it, I began imagining other creatures and other small encounters — each with a detail that gives you a reason to linger.

Soon, StillWood began to feel less like a collection of illustrations and more like a place I was wandering through — never quite knowing what might be tucked beneath a branch, drifting on the water, or waiting just beyond the next tree.

First Peep is only the beginning. There are more stories tucked among the trees, waiting to be discovered.

Welcome to StillWood™ • Where the Wild Whispers.

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