When I arrived at the artist's residency in rural Portugal on a rainy Sunday afternoon this spring, everyone was at work in their studios. There was no internet and no one to talk to and it only took a few minutes to unpack, so I decided to sit in my studio for a while. I had bought a tiny box at a flea market and decided to cut pieces of paper to fit into it and do quick drawings of all the things I had seen in the last couple of weeks in my travels.
It was really satisfying to work on something so small and personal and when the box was full, the project was finished and had some sort of loose narrative. Since I've been writing children's books for the last few years, I wanted to keep working on these quick, finite series to see what would emerge. I also found it very satisfying to create something for myself, that would not be subject to the editor's feedback and to months of revisions.
Every Saturday, our host took us to the flea and farmer's markets in a nearby town. I scoured the flea markets, looking for a tiny box that suggested some kind of story.
