mallorydowd

By day, I am a social worker/therapeutic case manager. I work with traumatized and disadvantaged teen girls. It is very difficult but also very rewarding. Because of the stress of my job, making and consuming art is very important to my healing process.

I shoot primarily on a Pentax K1000. I also own a vintage SX-70 polaroid land camera. I love it, and I shoot on it as often as I can afford. Photography is my preferred artistic medium. I also enjoy DIY home projects and paper crafts.

I love eating it, cooking it, drawing it, looking at illustrations of it, reading about it (cooks illustrated, 101 cookbooks, etc.), sending and receiving greeting cards with pictures of it. You name it, if it has to do with good food, I probably dig it.

I prefer fresh, local, organic foods and naturally raised meats. One summer, my partner and I had a farm share (aka, CSA) and we loved it.

I love coffee and wine. I was a barista for years - starting at age 16. I appreciate the art of brewed coffee and espresso.

I need to be always discovering and sharing new music and experiencing live music.

I love bluegrass and soul, indie rock, classic and alt country, conscious hip hop, real jazz, folk, etc. I am a devoted independent radio supporter and appreciate the growing trend of vinyl/digital album releases. I worked as Program Director at WIDR FM in Kalamazoo during college, and those were the best of my college years.

I currently live in Chicago, but I'm a Michigan girl.

I am aware of ancestry in the following: Ireland, Germany, England, Canada, and Switzerland. On my mother's side, there is a proud Mennonite heritage about which I would like to learn more.

I am: - 26 years old - white - atheist - spiritual - a product of the public education system - a lifelong learner - very interested in living healthier

travel, autumn, bicycles, being outdoors, photo walks, reading, writing, blogging, unusual and intricate stamps, colors and patterns reminiscent of New England (blues and whites, stripes, images of boats, harbors, docks, clam bakes), earth tones, homemade buntings, vintage/rustic weddings, thrift shops & flea markets, old dusty books with illustrations and instructions (great for crafts!), Rachel Maddow, maps, typewriters, board games, good films and tv (i don't feel like making a list).

sewing, jewelry making, letterpress art, investments, web design/how to use dreamweaver, eating raw & fermenting, farming, how to stick to exercise routines, steampunk.