My dream collaborators are people who live with "creative bravery." People who have the courage to imagine new possibilities and invite others into their worlds.
Amy Putney Koenig is an artist and community builder whose distinctive style shows up on murals and boarded-up buildings across town, in oracle decks and galleries. We share an overlapping 'orbit' in Des Moines (her husband owns the bike shop where I bought my beloved Yuba, for instance) and I've always felt drawn to her work.
I was honored when Amy approached me to help her take the next step in developing Shapeshifter: The Art of Family Tragedy & How to Be Amazing Anyway, a deeply personal project that would share her story in a new way.
Shapeshifter is an interactive memoir that weaves Amy Putney Koenig’s personal narrative with original art and creative exercises. The book highlights how inherited grief stemming from the traumatic childhood death of the author’s aunt Susan cast a shadow over generations.
Putney Koenig tells her story in flash essays interspersed with both haunting and inspiring images. She explores the impact of Susan’s devastating accident on her own childhood and how its echoes influenced her approach as an artist, mother, and death care worker. Anchored in the art of remembering, the slim volume offers an unflinching view of one woman’s addiction, rebellion, recovery and forgiveness. Each chapter ends with prompts designed to help readers cope with loss by harnessing their own creativity.
We worked together to secure grant funding to seed the project, which was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the lowa Arts Council, which exists within the lowa Economic Development Authority.
Now that Amy's book is out in the world (she has an author event at Beaverdale Books on Nov.1!), it was time to gather reflections on the process. We caught up at the same neighborhood coffee shop outdoor table where we recorded some of her story sessions together.
You've incorporated Susan's death and its impact on your family in art shows through the years. Why did it feel essential to put this story into book format?
APK: I never set out to do a series of art shows around this story, but it kept unraveling for me emotionally, spiritually, and domestically through my mom's death.
It felt important to write because of all the people along the way who came to the shows and had conversations about similar experiences in their families and in their lives. They told me how much they benefited from an opportunity to talk about [family secrets, pain, and death]. I feel like my work is there in this realm to inspire others to look into their stories and not be afraid to share.
What barriers did you overcome in telling your story in a new way?
APK: Remembering to not doubt myself and say, 'No one wants to hear this. They're sick of that conversation.' Remembering to keep going----to not get in my own way.
We have so many stories inside of us, and I had to remind myself what this one was about. I spent a long time organizing notes and papers. I was making it into this big, big thing, but what I really wanted was for it to be about the art and Susan and the things that intertwined with her death. My experience of waking into awareness and asking how I can be a different example. It was hard to distill all of that.
Stringing the words together was also uncomfortable for me because I had this perception that my voice needed to be tough and cool. I really loved that persona of, like, 'Isn't it funny that I got my face kicked in?' I was afraid of being vulnerable when really it's all about being vulnerable.
Learning the story and softening into the sorrow. Visualizing a little arm being dragged and the bruises and all that stuff that goes with that----that was a part of writing.
Art has a veil. Writing the truth has this permanence of, 'Yes, I have been hurt. Yes, I was broken and confused.' Working with you helped me get past my inability to be vulnerable.
What's your hope for this book?
APK: Recovery and death and hard things in life not being whispered as failures, but as integral to life. I was talking about the book on a podcast recently, and through our conversation, the host said he realized he could tell his community about something that happened to him. Hearing individual stories of opening up the conversation----that has been beautiful. That's the idea of it, right?
What advice would you give others who have a book inside them?
APK: I knew I could tell the story, but having someone to take all my jumbles and scratches and words helped. We had interviews and conversations instead. Know what works for you.
I have this idea that I'm a loner and that I have to do it alone, and then it doesn't get done. Don't be afraid to collaborate.
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You can buy Shapeshifter on Amy's website and at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines. You can also commission paintings, murals and other pieces by Amy.
Thank you, Amy, for trusting me and stretching me to partner on something so personal!
Yorumlar