Sutton Long Design
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2020 Wrap Up

12/20/2020

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Despite my good intentions, my blog has been neglected for months. However, I've been reading, listening, and watching just as much as usual. Looking back over the year, these are some of my favorites in each medium. Most are what have brought me comfort or laughs or travel or growth — reality has been tough, so my entertainment has been easy and light. 

Books

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The fifth book in Sherry Thomas' Lady Sherlock Series. She is one of my favorite writers, and this is a fun, feminist, historical reimagining.
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I loved my years of studying Latin and all the etymology I learned. I also loved following Ann Patty's journey learning Latin as a retiree. And I didn't have to translate!
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This is a heartfelt  romance of yearning and young men finally finding each other. Its tone lingered with me for days after finishing it.
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Maybe the most transformative self-help book I've ever read. It gave me a totally new framework of seeing my past.

Podcasts

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Unlocking Us is Brené Brown talking with a WIDE variety of guests: artists, celebrities, neuroscientists, activists. And every episode is worth listening to.
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Art for Your Ear is hosted by Danielle Krysa. She herself is an artist and art teacher, so these interviews with other artists are a great BTS for how artists create.
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Design Perspectives is a recent find, and I've been loving these conversations with interior designers. Listening to creative women in business discuss what they do is my jam.
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In A New Earth podcast,  Eckhart Tolle and Oprah discuss his book of the same name chapter by chapter. It's been a great re-listen during this tumultuous year.

TV

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Most of what I've watched this year can be found on HGTV, but Home Town with Ben and Erin Napier is my total fave. From Ben's dad jokes to Erin's design aesthetic, it's just lovely.
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The Great British Baking Show returning to Netflix during the pandemic was a gift from the universe. The baking might not have been outstanding, but it was serious comfort viewing.
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Long Way Up is the third docuseries that follows Ewan McGregor and Charly Boorman on months-long motorcycle trips. This one starts at the tip of Patagonia and ends in LA. Total vicarious travel with lovely hosts.
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This title sums up my confusion about how I feel about Ted Lasso: "How on Earth is 'Ted Lasso' Actually Good?" But it is — it's sweet and funny and well-written and -acted. It's inexplicably great.

Movies

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For most of college, all I listened to was the Beastie Boys. This doc is a sweet revisit by Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond of the band's history.
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Palm Springs (my fave vacation spot!) is a romcom (love them!) with a time loop (what??). It's fun and funny and weird. 
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READ // In Defense of the Humanities

6/5/2020

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For many years, I've had a client in the international education industry. These years with Trump in the White House and now with the global pandemic have put the industry in the spin cycle, and who knows where it'll be when the spinning stops. This article in the NYTimes argues for the humanities, which have been in decline as students need to have jobs when they graduate with their very expensive college degrees and their back-breaking student loans. And for that, they migrate towards majors that will get them jobs: practical degrees, not ones like literature, philosophy, history, or anthropology. 

Neither of my parents graduated from college before they had me; and yet — or maybe because of — my education was extremely important to them. And my father in particular believed in a liberal arts education. I am so grateful that he was willing to pay for a stupidly expensive education where I was able to indulge in my love of reading and English literature. It has been a solid foundation for my career, which has always at its root been about communication in some form or another. 

Our society is in the midst of a bucking bronco of a change — so much of it needed — and my hope is that we can hold on to the things that bring meaning to my life when we stumble out of the rodeo: arts of all formats, plus books, books, and even more books. Also, a deeper understanding of who we are, why we're here, and what we owe to each other. None of which we'll get with a degree in finance or business. 

When you're in the tornado of change, the humanities don't feel essential. But afterwards, when the storm is over, art and history and philosophy and critical thinking are exactly the things that help us learn from what we've experienced and allow us to move forward.
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READ // Creative Block

5/19/2020

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I've been attempting to create a daily art practice for the past few months, with a little success and lots of fits and starts. A couple of weeks ago, I got myself in a real anxiety tangle, but so, so happily a friend of mine introduced me to Danielle Krysa (aka The Jealous Curator). After downloading all of her books from the library onto my Kindle — not ideal for art books, but good enough during a pandemic when the libraries have been closed for months — I inhaled Creative Block. Each chapter is an interview with a different artist, and at the end, each gives an exercise to break through a block. I can't cite the artist who came up with the technique that really helped me since my copy is back with the library now, but it's just this: go through your old pieces that don't work, cut them up, and make something new from them. So simple, but it freed me! And now I've started a whole series that I'm in love with. 

BONUS: Danielle's The Jealous Curator podcast is a series of conversations with artists. She's in season 4 now, so there are lots of episodes to catch up on!
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READ // Normal People by Sally Rooney

4/23/2020

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I am late to reading Normal People, which is not a shock because I don't generally keep up with modern literature, if that's even the right category for this book. It almost felt like it could be a young adult novel, which is actually more my speed in fiction these days. Having given up on sleeping and perusing the borrowed books on my Kindle in the middle of the night, I was surprised by how quickly I was pulled into the story and how little idea I had of what was going to happen to the main characters, who are both young and Irish, like the author. I finished the book in the morning and was astonished by how I had been so swept away by it. As aptly summed up in one of the two quotes I highlighted while reading, "life offers up these moments of joy despite everything." 

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READ // Hello Lighthouse

3/6/2020

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As I've been writing my own children's book, I've been reading about and researching the market, and one of my absolute favorite discoveries is Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall. Blackall is a two-time Caldecott Medal winner, for Hello Lighthouse, which she wrote and illustrated, and for Finding Winnie, which she illustrated. I'm in love with the illustrations in HL — the different ways she shows weather in the water, the nostalgic subject matter, and the color palette. Plus, it's a lovely and gentle story about humans and the changes brought by time. 
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READ // Sharon Choi in Variety

2/21/2020

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Having watched very few of this year's nominated movies or followed the run-up to the Oscars, the first time I saw Sharon Choi acting as Bong Joon-ho's translator was onstage when he won his first of four Oscars. I loved how she nodded as she listened to him speak in Korean, then turned to the microphone and seemingly effortlessly conveyed his thoughts in English. Apparently, the aspiring-filmmaker-and-translator turned down all other press requests but has written a lovely piece in Variety about her experiences over this awards season.
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READ // Alex Borstein in InStyle

2/13/2020

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Alex Borstein, an actress currently in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, wrote about being smart and spunky in the December 2019 issue of InStyle. I don't know much about her — haven't watched TMMM — but I responded strongly to her view of her own power, need to speak up and out for herself, and realization that smarts would outlast physical beauty. She says, "I am not without fear, but I am bold. I take chances, not risks. Chance carries with it hope and possibility." I love that! 

BONUS LINK: Alex Borstein interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air 
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READ // The Wolf, the Duck & the Mouse

1/17/2020

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My dog Chloe and I volunteer at one of SF's branch libraries a couple of Saturday mornings a month during story time. Marcie the librarian always selects a few books for the hour, and generally they're about animals. (Fact: kids who want to read to and with a dog tend to love books about dogs & other animals! 🐶) A book we read and that I liked so much I bought a copy for myself is The Wolf, the Duck & the Mouse by Mac Barnett with illustrations by Jon Klassen. The story is perfectly and imaginatively absurd, and the illustrations are both fun to look at and a great complement to the text. On one of my favorite spreads, the mouse stands with a pot on his head, clutching a hockey stick, and proclaims, "Tonight we ride to defend our home." It makes me laugh every time!

Also fun and funny: Mac Barnett TED talk
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READ // Transitions by William Bridges

12/23/2019

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Try independent bookstores first, but it is on Amazon.
Out of all of the self-help, self-growth, self-improvement, self-whatever books I've read this year, none have impacted me as much as this one. The author defines the difference between a change (it is "situational; it is the external event that is taking place") and a transition (the "inner psychological process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the new situation that the change brings about"). Therefore, what we think of as an ending is really the next beginning. Radical! Reading this book helped reframe my perspective on the recent changes and more long-standing transitions I've been experiencing — I feel a lot less lost and more settled in my continuing uncertainty. 
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READ // Article on disequilibrium and creativity

12/4/2019

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Having spent most of this last year in a place of uncertainty with my career and what exactly I want to do next, I am drawn to articles, books, and advice on how to get through times like these. Although this article is about the design process and the Constructivist method of learning ("we are natural learners, constantly processing the world in order to create our own understanding"), it is also true for times of uncertainty. You research and plan as best you can, but then you always encounter a period of time where you're not certain how the future will unfold. As a designer, I've been part of this creative process my entire career — now I see how I can use this as a framework of understanding to apply to my career as a whole.
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