A Philosophy of Doodling

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A Philosophy of Doodling

Doodling is the brooding of the hand

— Saul Steinberg

In this episode I interview the gifted artist and illustrator Mariah Ziemer about her philosophy of doodling, being a happy artist, and her new children's book about the Australian outback.

I met Mariah as an undergraduate in Southern California, where I was her Resident Assistant in the dorms. She was my most cheerful resident, studying kinesiology and making the soccer team proud. In end, her attention to the lines and ligaments of the human took a different form, and she switched her major to Art. You can imagine my delight when, five years later she wrote me to ask about the Masters at the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts (where I’m doing my Phd). What a joy to find ourselves reunited.

Mariah stuck around after her masters, when she was appointed to be an artist in residence for the institute. One of the great delights of last semester were our almost every weekly meetings over croissants and hot drinks to discuss faith, life, prayer, and, of course art. Before sending her back off home to Idaho, I recorded a podcast with her about her new project of free-form doodling, and her upcoming children’s book about the Australian outback, Jiemba and Friends.

Here is Mariah in my living room observing her brilliant doodlings with fondness…

I hope you all enjoy this lovely podcast (I so enjoyed listening back over it as I edited), and do check out Mariah’s wonderful new book which was released yesterday! Links to the book are below.