September 2022

Wellspring Mother Artist Feature:

Feature 1

We're honored to introduce you to Mother - Artist, Annelise Jolley (Annie). She is an essayist and journalist based out of San Diego, CA who writes about travel, food, ecology, and faith, as well as the interplay between these subjects. We encourage you to follow her @annelisejolley and get inspired by her writing at: annelisejolley.com
Thank you Annelise for allowing us to get to know you and share your brilliance!

We shared an excerpt of our interview on Instagram, but here’s the full conversation, we hope you enjoy it!

Mia + Jess

WELLSPRING: Please share with us your name, where you are from and what medium (s) you work with.

ANNIE: My name is Annelise, but most people call me Annie. I live in San Diego, CA. My medium is language; I'm an essayist and journalist. (I write a bit of poetry here and there, but it rarely sees the light of day.)

WELLSPRING: To what do you attribute your style of making? (This may include: influences, art movements, artists, etc...)

ANNIE: The kind of writing I do (creative nonfiction) owes a lot to the New Journalism movement of the 1960s (think Joan Didion and Truman Capote), although of course, other forms of creative nonfiction—like the memoir—have been around for hundreds of years. I'm influenced by all types of artists of faith who grapple with mystery in their work. Over the last handful of years, I've also learned from women writing literary nonfiction that is both intimate and deeply researched/reported: Jia Tolentino, Jordan Kisner, Sarah Menkedick.

WELLSPRING: Where do you look for inspiration?

ANNIE: Poetry, especially by poets who are interested in getting at the ineffable through language (I think of Kaveh Akbar and Li-Young Lee, for example). I'm not terribly knowledgable about food but I AM a very enthusiastic eater, so any culinary experience—from baking a peach galette to flipping through a beautifully-designed cookbook—tends to inspire (or at least make me hungry). And my most enduring love is travel. Anytime I leave home provides a chance to get curious, notice new textures, and be shaken out of stale ideas. Travel is so sensory and immersive. It's like being dunked into a visual art exhibit that's also filled with completely new smells and language and flavors.

WELLSPRING: What excites you about what you are working on right now?

ANNIE: Ooh, what a fun question. I currently have a book proposal out on submission. It's a nonfiction book about modern pilgrimage and unexpected pilgrims, and the journeys that transform all of us. I'm excited about the possibility of being absorbed in an expansive and months-long writing project. The idea of getting to dwell with a subject for that long sounds luxurious.

“I’m a fuller version of myself when I’m writing. We become more fully ourselves when we protect space for our creative callings. Pursuing your art will make you a better mother, a better human. (File this under: Note to myself.)”

— ANNELISE JOLLEY

WELLSPRING: Please share how/where you see your faith intersect with your creative expression as a mother artist.

ANNIE: In my stories and essays, I'm usually grappling with a question/s. Because I am a Christian, many of my most persistent questions are spiritual or theological in nature. I tend to use writing as a form of spiritual inquiry, and a way of working my through these questions. Also, my faith teaches me to value every person as inherently loved, worthy, and full of dignity. Reporting and interviewing constantly reminds me of this, which is humbling and gratifying at the same time.

WELLSPRING: How has your motherhood journey impacted your creative process or your way of seeing/thinking?

ANNIE: At the time of this writing, my daughter is six months old. I now understand why parents post monthly photos of their babies on social media and exclaim it's "impossible!" that said baby is already xx months old. It really does feel impossible. My daughter is changing before my eyes, and the weird fluidity/haze/time warp of new motherhood makes me believe that staying present and paying close attention is not just a nice idea, but actually urgent. All my best work is born from noticing and slowing down. So I hope becoming a mother is training me to look longer and closer at what's in front of me.

WELLSPRING: What encouragement or wisdom would you share with another mother wanting to pursue her creative call?

ANNIE: I'm a fuller version of myself when I'm writing. We become more fully ourselves when we protect space for our creative callings. Pursuing your art will make you a better mother, a better human. (File this under: Note to myself.)

WELLSPRING: Please share with us where we can see, read, or experience your creative work: (i.e. social media, website, exhibits, concert info, blogs, books, etc...)

ANNIE: Find me @annelisejolley—I'm a good internet pen pal! You can also read my work and sign up for my newsletter at annelisejolley.com.

Here’s a lovely quote where Annie reflects on pregnancy as a form of pilgrimage:

“While there is another being at the center of this experience, what pregnancy mostly feels like at this point is an individual endeavor: something happening to the self I’ve always been. I have only the most abstract idea of a secondary existence within me. Sitting in the cool of the monastery chapel, I try to pray for this tiny being. Your baby, my pregnancy app informs me cheerily, is over three inches long now! Their limbs are covered in fine downy hair. I sit with my legs crossed and a hand on my stomach, hovering over its beet-sized shape. But concentrate as I might, both words and prayer elude me. “I have so many questions for you, / for you are closer to me than anyone / has ever been” says the speaker in Ross Gay’s poem to his unborn child. Despite this proximity—closer to me than anyone has ever been—the life taking shape inside me feels distant as an exoplanet. To me the baby is dark matter, something cosmic, spinning into existence in a remote galaxy. When I close my eyes I imagine, rather than something within me, something far flung: the formation of stars, a bundle of cells burning to life in the dark.”

We hope you enjoyed this Wellspring Mother Artist feature!

Stay tuned for more, we’ll be releasing two each month as part of our Open Call Collaboration, you can check out the details here. Interested in being featured? Send us an email over at wellspringmotherart@gmail.com with a statement of interest and share your Instagram @ handle or other social media presence.