Post-Flood Updates

Update shared on October 3, 2024:

We are safe, however, Hurricane Helene has destroyed almost all of my artwork. My work was at Trackside Studios in the River Arts District and Atomic Furnishing near the Swannanoa River and both places have been utterly devastated by flood waters.

I've added two additional tiers to my Patreon to commemorate all of my art that was lost to the flood waters. 

https://patreon.com/Amyreaderartist

Patreon provides me with stability each month, and that is one of the best things for me right now. I am going to be creating a sticker and a mini print each month for the two new tiers respectively. I've already picked out the first two months and will share them with you all shortly. The sticker and print will be different from each other. 

I was hoping to expand my Patreon in October to add in tiers with additional behind the scenes content, and monthly stickers, so I will be planning on keeping these tiers going indefinitely, but for now they will be the place I share the more than 35 works of art that were destroyed. 

The other option I'm looking into is creating a 2025 calendar with my 12 favorite pieces from The Flood Art as I'm calling it. This calendar was created and will become an annual tradition. Stay tuned for the 2026 version this fall.

Now back to the art:

To answer the question many have asked in DMs and texts, my work was not insured against flood damage.

Quite frankly, I never would have thought I needed to living in Western NC. I did the math and I lost $42,802 of original art, prints, and kits in a matter of hours on Friday.

I am deeply, deeply grateful that my family and I are safe. Our house was unharmed because we live up a winding hill and no trees fell ON our home.

However, it is so hard to put into words what it has been like to lose nearly my entire body of work.

I keep saying to my mom how we were prepared for a foot or two of flooding.

Not twenty feet.

I never thought my work could just float away and these spaces that I love so much would be destroyed.

We were prepared to dry out some soggy floors and get some big dehumidifiers.

Not start from scratch.

For me, losing my art has been like someone ripped out a piece of my soul.

My identity and my anchor. Through every difficult thing in my life, I’ve had art. Art is how I process. It is how I grieve. It is how I make sense of my world around me.

It has kept me safe and sane through my most difficult seasons of life.

And it feels like it has been stolen from me.

I will make more art, it’s in my DNA.

But not yet.

I hope you'll stick around as I rebuild and find my artistic voice once again in the aftermath of this tragedy.