DESERT CROSSERS
Here we are at the end of the month that brings us closer to the middle of the year and takes us into yet another beginning—clearly, it is time for another heartfelt welcome!
On behalf of the Time Travelers Union, we welcome all you Desert Crossers. You who hold rivers and seas and lakes and springs inside of you—you who can walk through landscapes of deprivation and continue to draw from the wells of creativity and care. We see you, and all that you carry which is hard to see. We are humbled by the way you keep time, step by step, one foot in front of the other. Where would we be without your insistence to keep going?
The desert is an extreme environment. We are living in a time of extremes. May we rejoice in the beauty, creativity, and endurance we find in places others may see as barren. Desert crossers also remind us of patterns of migration that are much older than national borders, and of a future time when these imaginary lines are no longer violently defended.
About the creative process:
Before we settled into our creative roles, we both tried our hands at every part of image creation. We still come up with ideas and themes together, but now Corina is mostly the one who draws the image, paying attention to composition and visual narrative, while Jo does all the painting—bringing to life leaves and skies and fur and feathers. Then Corina adds handwritten text, Jo and Corina both make a few digital tweaks, and the final image is done.
Not so in 2015, when we made our fourth calendar, Everything is Unfolding Perfectly. Back then we made the whole calendar in just a few weeks, with both of us just throwing the proverbial spaghetti against the wall to see what happens. Which is how we ended up with Corina painting this javelina in a tree against a starry sky, and almost immediately afterward deciding they wouldn’t be doing the painting anymore for our calendars. While this painting wasn’t one of our favorites, our love for javelinas remained and we wanted to go back and do these amazing creatures justice. This year’s image includes a parent and child, at home and grounded in a world with a crack running through it. May we all find that kind of grounding and nurturing right now.
Javelina, 2025
Javelina, 2015
