Jon Spayde

Jon Spayde is a writer, editor, and performance artist in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Stories authored by Jon Spayde

Craft That Calms

The four craft artists we profile here make works that support more contemplative living, and all four understand the connections between that way of living and their own soulful, patient craft practice.
Light Houses

Four artists light up their architecturally influenced works to tell stories, create moods, and explore ideas—all with the mysterious poetry of illumination.
Craft Adventures

Craft and travel go together. There’s a long history of artists hitting the road in search of a “master” from whom to learn the secrets of a given craft. Today Instagram and other digital media are increasingly bringing faraway craftworks and secrets home to us.
Love Letters in Thread

Bahamian artist Gio Swaby creates what she calls “love letters to Black women” by making life-size portraits in embroidery and piecing—boisterously colorful images that, in the words of Gio Swaby: Fresh Up exhibition organizers, “highlight and celebrate the subjects’ use of fashion as unapologetic self-definition and self-expression.”