Portfolio, handwritten

Words & Comics

Things Not Said

(A novel)

An illustration of the head and shoulder of an Asian woman, Daisy. Handwritten word describe her: fierce, intelligent, dead.
An illustration of the head and shoulders of June, an Asian girl with shoulder length hair wearing a collared shirt and chunky sweater. Handwritten words describe her: observant, doesn't speak, wears big sweaters.
An illustration of Imogen, an elderly Caucasian woman with white hair up in a messy bun, with pencils sticking out of it. Handwritten words describe her: kind, steady.

“It usually only takes people a few minutes after they meet me to start ignoring me.”

It’s been almost a year since June’s mother, Daisy,  died—and since June’s said a word out loud to anyone.

But from the corner booth in her Grandma’s diner, she hears and observes everything—all the things her small town neighbors say (and don’t) to each other. With the discovery of a strange tapping coming from a pink door in the pantry, Grandma starting to forget things, mysterious letters in the mailbox, and the threat of foster care looming, June can no longer hide in the diner, and her family’s own secrets and traumas begin to catch up with her.

Book Cover with the title "Things Not Said," and author name Gracie Klumpp. A smoking, shouldering match is the "i" in "Things Not Said."

While I didn’t expect to ever write a novel (read all about why I started this project here), I learned so much about my own creative process sharing each chapter as I went with my patrons on Patreon.

Things Not Said grew much bigger, and went much deeper than I thought it would into my own experiences, and I hope this story of grief, generational trauma and unspoken wounds is as cathartic to read as it was for me to write.

I asked my instagram followers and patrons to share their fears with me. Deep, dark, simple, shallow—it was up to them to share if they wished. So many of them spoke up with what haunts them most, and I was so overwhelmed and honored by their vulnerability. And I noticed a theme, with most of their fears (and mine): many of them had to do with something inside us we feared was there, or were terrified was not, or thought would disappear, or appear, or never go away. As a group, our fears seemed to hinge around the idea that we are not enough, or too much. Fundamentally missing something, or losing something that defined us more than what was left over. ⁠

So I made this.

Speak Your Fears Project

(A comic made in collaboration with followers)

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Mary Edith

(Stop motion puppet)

This fully-functioning stop motion puppet was made using multiple, usually separate methods as an experiment in fuctionality. Designed based on an antique photo I found (see the back inscription for a story), Mary Edith has a brass armature and polyurethane head, made to be replaceable.

Her silicone limbs are fully poseable, and her clothes were made to be removable and replaceable in case of a need for costume changes.

Papercut Illustration

(Various projects)

From literacy curriculum to branding design to just-for-fun, I’ve experimented with papercut illustration, usually including some mix of gouache, acrylic, and colored pencil as well as multi-dimensional paper layers.

It’s Still a Secret—But It’s About a Selkie

(A graphic novel)

(Unfinished concept sketches of some of my main characters)

In 2021, I won a grant to work on a graphic novel that uses myth and horror to explore themes of generational trauma, emotional and church abuse.

Born straight out of a very difficult therapy session, it’s very personal, very low blender (to borrow Amanda Palmer’s phrase), and I’m doing my best to throw out as many self-imposed “rules” as I possibly can as I write.⠀


It’s slow going, and I’m not sharing too much about it yet— its deep roots in my own experience with abuse means I’m taking my time on it. But I’m proud of myself for even starting something that’s been too uncomfortably personal to touch for years now.

It feels like an important part of healing, to begin to express my story *through* story.

*Selkies are mythological creatures in Celtic and Norse mythology who appear as seals in the water, and humans on land.

My story takes place in a small, isolated island in the cold northern seas.