You know that bear-shaped bottle of honey at the back of your cupboard? The one you pull out from time to time to find it crystallized solid? Then you pop it in the microwave for a few minutes, and suddenly the honey starts flowing again? (As fast as honey ever seems to, anyway.) I feel that way every time it starts getting warm in the summer.

I moved to Eastern Oregon a half dozen years ago, and the hardest adjustment has been the lack of sun in the winter. (And it’s not because it rains all the time here like it does in the Willamette Valley; it’s because my bowl full of a town is victimized by a temperature inversion effect. But I digress.) The weeks of cloudy weather in every direction is brutal, along with the subtle depression and constant fatigue that comes with it.

Towards the end of the cold season this year, I found the need to lean extra hard into things that spark some joy in my life, chief among them was the act of giving things to people. And I discovered my favorite way to feed this need: art swaps.

The Beauty of Art Swaps & What I Got

Art swaps unite my most favorite things in this world by allowing me to mail a creation of mine into the ether and hope the might and force of the United States Postal Service brings me something in return. I’ve been disappointed a couple of times, but I have been rewarded so much more.

Zine Swap #1

I had a few copies of the first printing of my laundromat zine (It’s a Dry Heat) left when I saw someone I follow on Instagram post about finishing up a photography zine focused on graveyards and the history of a few cemeteries in Western Oregon. I sent him a message, and in exchange for a copy of my zine, I received this really rad zine Gravestones from @afflictionking. The histories were fascinating, and I really hope I can visit some of the same places sometime down the line.

Print Swap #1

I also connected with Aelita of @sungoddessstudios on Instagram, probably because I replied to a story she posted with some terrible pun. (That sound like something I’d do, anyway.) Throughout the conversation, she said she was filling a wall in her new office with photos taken by female film photographers. I sent her a few prints for her wall, along with a copy of my zine. And she sent me these absolutely stunning photos taken throughout Minnesota.

I have been deeply inspired by finding a community of female film photographers on Instagram in the last few months. I enjoy seeing photography from another perspective that feels real and beautiful to me, and it’s made me see my own photography as gentler and more valid in some ways. These prints Aelita sent me feel the same way.

Print Swap #2: Reddit Print Exchange

I noticed someone advertising a photo print exchange on several of the more common Reddit subs for analog photography, and of course I had to sign up. (It has its own sub now: r/printexchange). I sent a small handful of my prints off into the world to three people, and in return I got prints from one person, Instagram @mastersylvan. And I was so blown away by the beautiful compositions and the way the photographer used depth of field. I was further delighted to find from the note he included that we share the same taste in cameras and film (a Minolta X-570 and Kentmere 400).

Zine Swap #2

Lurking around the Reddit sub r/zines, I saw several posts for a zine that caught my eye: Hi-Fi Anxiety Zine by user u/getonboardman42. Looking at some of his recent posts, I noticed he also seemed to live near the area where I grew up. I decided to message him, mostly to let him know his zines looked great, and also to see if he would be open to swapping. And so we traded.

I was rewarded with a few issues of the coolest zine. I immensely appreciate the talent of his graphic design skills and finding the balance between a truly D.I.Y. thing that also has such thought and unique detail to it. For example, each zine features a punk playlist that matches the theme of the issue, and he has even integrated interactive pop-up features into his zines!

I also deeply appreciate the zine’s small taste of punk rock culture and history that feels like a sense of community for a genre of music that’s really important to me, but which I’ve never fit into the wider subculture of. (I don’t really look like someone who likes punk rock.) And, best yet, one issue features reviews of several local record shops in his area, which ended up covering a shop I visited a time or two growing up. I’ve missed home a bit more lately, and this felt like a balm.

I could keep gushing, but that would all be to say: this swap was a great one.