Turns out that all I needed to finally finish up my website was a poet asking to read my work.
For some illegitimate reason or another, I put off updating my website for far too long. The last one was clunky and didn't feel like it fit myself. Which, makes sense. After all, I made that one in early 2019, off the heels of the Chamber Music America conference in New York City. Back then, I felt like making a website would mean doors would open. Now I know that that's not how it works.
Two years later, here I am with a fresh website and more familiarity with the ever elusive concept of branding. I picked out a color palette. I commissioned an artist to make artwork for my social media. And I decided to take this a bit more seriously.
Seeing this artwork made by needlexpen and also thinking about what I wanted 2021 to be, especially in the aftermath of 2020, this feels right.
I asked Kara, the artist, to put Ashley is Saenabi as the writing because I want to create and share more of both my writing (aka Ashley) and my music (Saenabi). Ashley is Saenabi and Saenabi is Ashley. Sometimes I do get stressed because I have two crafts that I do, but in the end, they feed into each other. It's like a chemical equation that's balanced, sort of. If I'm recalling that correctly from freshman year of college.
This also means that I'll be starting to blog again! I stopped blogging in late 2018 and now I want to revisit the medium again. Similar to my previous one, I'll be discussing a mix of things, but this time, hopefully in a more well written manner.
A big thank you to several people who knowingly or unknowingly cheered me on to finish this website:
Leung Rachel Ka Yin : for asking to read my poems which I didn't have up at the time because I procrastinated. Thank you for giving me the push I needed (albeit unintentionally, but if it works, it works). Check out what she does here.
Tiffany Wu : for checking in with that status of my website which I've said I would do for, uh, months. And for also being a fellow musician & writer. Check out Tiffany on the harp (cause she plays the HARP like yes the harp harp) and her writing here!
Erin McBrien, Gabrielle Kershaw : for giving feedback on this website and for your friendships. Your companionships mean the world to me, truly. Erin organizes stuff for a specific county in Minnesota and writes incredibly well. Her website is under construction at the moment but I promise that it'll be fun to read and feature lots of old objects. And Gabby creates artwork that regularly amazes me; see them for yourself here.
I suppose in retrospect it's excessive to write a thank you for a website, but it's on brand, so why not, eh?
Thank you for reading, and here we go!