Riposte Card No. 13: Avian afterlife!

Or, Emily Dickinson by Laurna Germscheid

It’s rare that a Riposte Card hits the note of the month so perfectly, but Laurna Germscheid’s riff on a classic Emily Dickinson poem captures the cheerful sunshine mixed with existential dread of the Northern Hemisphere’s preempted winter.

If I shouldn’t be alive
When the Robins come,
Give the one in Red Cravat,
A Memorial crumb.
— Emily Dickinson

Three prints of this beautiful postcard were sent to my Founding Subscribers, but Memorial crumbs are still available to new subscribers!

And here’s Germscheid’s obligatory Riposte Questionnaire:

What's your go-to item in a well-stocked stationery store?

Sketch books. A new sketchbook is always very exciting so even if I'm not quite ready for it, dreaming of filling a new sketch book and making it my own is fun and motivating. 

Where do you go for inspiration and/or information?

Inspiration I can generally find anywhere. Walking everywhere is good.  

Is there one joke, witticism, or aphorism you live by?

“If I lived in the Wild West days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I’d carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like ‘hey look, he's carrying a soldering iron!’ and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, “that's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice.” Then everyone would get real quiet and ashamed, because they made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink.”
— Jack Handey

What’s the best thing to put on toast?

Fresh tomatoes with garlic, salt & pepper, and olive oil. Which is funny cause I'm not a big fan of tomatoes.

What work are you most proud of, and how can people support it?

Still working on this....but all of the art that went into the Birdsafe UofT initiative and the custom window film designs I'm currently working on make me happy. I'm also working on a new piece inspired by natural burials and will be incorporating linocuts for the first time which is very exciting so I hope that in a month or two this will be my new answer but you never know. Probably not. Oh, and I’m a mom so there is that!