Colleen Newquist invites you to ‘Stop and Smell the Butter’

By Katie Jamieson

photos by Katie Jamieson

The shirt she’s wearing says it all: Dare to Play.

And it’s her mantra, too, says Colleen Newquist, creator of Stop and Smell the Butter, a thoughtful handwritten and illustrated zine of whatever’s going on in her life. “I really so strongly believe that it’s the act of creating that is where you find the joy. Not the finished product,” says Newquist. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, just create.”

In fact, she says, that’s a major appeal of the zine that she started about 20 years ago. “I really just write what’s on my mind, try to keep it spontaneous — mostly pen to paper.” Sometimes she’ll even cross something out or add in a missing word rather than redo a page. This attitude and “raw” aspect of the zine endear her readers to her.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a single issue where I didn’t hear from at least one person saying that something spoke to them,” says Newquist. “A lot of times, it validates peoples’ own feelings, I think, especially as I’ve been writing about aging and turning 60. I got a lot of favorable feedback on that, from other women. ‘Yes, oh my god, I feel the same way.’ It’s nice to know that I can have that impact on other people.”

Stop and Smell the Butter evolved from a personal cooking and recipe journal to what it is now, a mostly quarterly zine with around 70 subscribers. At one point she had “a couple hundred subscribers.”

The name comes from a sweet moment she had with her son, Aaron, when he was four. “We were baking cookies. He’s on this little step stool, we are stirring butter, melting butter,” she says. “I’ll always remember this, he pulled my head next to him and he’s like, ‘Oh, momma, smell the butter, smell the butter!’ I had this thought, if he retains nothing else that I teach him, let it be this, not just what to do with melted butter, but how to stop and smell it too.”

Inside the zine, you’ll find personal musings, like this one with her son, reflections on her time in nature, recipes, illustrations, her own found poetry art, and works from local poet Tom Rosenbluth. In nearly every issue, Newquist includes an illustration of a cat. “There was one issue where Joey, who was my favorite cat, died, and in honor of Joey, I didn’t have a cat that issue,” she notes.

Newquist lives in Three Oaks, Michigan, now but grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago and distinctly remembers wanting to be an artist when she grew up. But, when it came time for college, she started out studying special education because her mom had insisted, “do something practical; you can do art on the side.”

Then, in her sophomore year, an art teacher impressed by her work asked why she wasn’t an art major, and that was it. Newquist changed her major the next day, even though it cost her a scholarship. After seven years, three state schools, and various jobs along the way, she graduated with a degree in fine art photography.

Out of college, her first jobs were copyediting and writing for local newspapers. Then she landed a job in the news office at the University of Chicago and ended up working there for 25 years in many communications roles, from editing the university newspaper and business school alumni magazine to launching and leading an in-house creative agency and finishing as assistant vice president.

Now she works as a freelance writer and communications consultant in higher education. “I’m good at what I do,” she says. “Work always flows my way. I’ve never had to look for it like the whole time I’ve been on my own. That’s wonderful.”

Newquist and her husband, Michael Weiss bought their house in Three Oaks in 2012, but used it only on the weekends until 2016 when they left the Chicago suburbs for good. They each have their own studio behind the house where they pursue their art. Weiss is a ceramic artist.

Newquist’s studio is colorful and eclectic with art on the walls, writing directly on the walls and miscellaneous functional and vintage furniture. What’s the aesthetic?

“With this space …” says Newquist looking around her studio. “Drip the paint on the wall. Play! — that’s the thing. Even with our house, it’s been evolving. It’s only recently that I painted it bolder colors. It was a nice soft white with green trim and one painting per wall. I was like, ‘no, I want to feel the energy.’ Painted the dining room an orange color and put lots of stuff on the walls. What is that aesthetic? Anything goes? Here I stick pins in the walls all the time. It’s mine.”

Newquist’s found poetry art is also getting attention. The fall of 2022 her art was displayed as part of the “Mark My Words” exhibit at the Chesterton Art Center.

She mixes poetry with photography by cutting out words from old classic children’s books using an X-Acto knife, then arranging the words into poems over photos she’s taken. “I’ll just flip through. Try to empty my head and flip through and just scan, don’t read. Pick out the words that resonate. It’s a really fun way to explore what I might be thinking. Subconscious thing. I’m going to go play in my studio.”

She’s also been playing with writing a mystery novel. She claimed most of the month of July as a writing retreat to work on her book while housesitting for friends in Missouri.

“The protagonist is a 60-something-year-old woman who has an attempt on her life. She’s the victim. She’s quite promiscuous, with a range of men, from their 30s to 75,” says Newquist. “I’m just playing with this character and her men. It’s fun.”

She’s part of a local writer’s group, and it’s been fun to share the process with them. “The men are big fans of Ellen; the woman is not so sure,” Newquist says with a laugh.

Doing things in the community, as she does with her writer’s group, is a driving force for Newquist. She served as a Three Oaks Village Council member from 2018 to 2022 and said one of the biggest things she helped bring to the council was discussion. “Nobody was really digging into these issues and really talking about them, so I made people talk about them. Council meetings were a little shorter before I was on the council,” she says with a laugh.

Newquist also had a hand in bringing cannabis to the village. “I was like, ‘this is ridiculous, why aren’t we taking advantage of this economically?’ I’ve been a very outspoken advocate. Outspoken about the fact that I’m a cannabis user.”

She’s also very involved in the local Rotary Club, helping with projects like promoting pollinator gardens, planting trees, providing food to people who need it, and implementing literacy programs for kids.

“When I think about my philosophy of life, I’m a seeker, always struggling to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing in this world, with this life, and to me, it kind of boils down to, ‘Ease the journey,’” says Newquist. “That’s a phrase that’s always in my head. We’re all on this journey; if there’s anything I can do to make it easier for other people, then that’s awesome. What else can you do?”

Free issues of Stop and Smell the Butter can be found at Goods & Heroes or 6 Linden in Three Oaks, Michigan. Individual copies can be purchased at cnewquist.magcloud.com; PDFs are free. To subscribe and receive a hard copy in your mailbox, visit stopandsmellthebutter.com.