everything will be alright...
value shot of current wip – 2025 – acrylic on canvas
January 1st, 2026
It’s a new year, but not a new season. My last post detailed my focus on my novel, and this post is going to focus… on everything. Let’s be real – last year was a battle in trying to balance two forms of creation with one brain. Both forms compete for cognitive energy, but only one ever seems to win.
But something shifted toward the end of last year. I found myself taking days to edit, and then days to paint. The progress slowed on both, but a quiet agreement began to make itself known. A compromise.
It is because of this compromise I am able to set intentional goals for the coming year, and to keep myself accountable, I am going to go ahead and share them right here. I will separate them by areas to keep it kind of organized (themes, website, painting, novel).
Themes
Last year I focused on my nightmares. Each painting I created came from one, whether it was symbolism slapped together or a snapshot of something I saw – it all came from the same place. It was an exercise in taking back control of my rest, my psyche, and my burnout.
Something I have kept to myself when sharing my art is the transparency that I am autistic. I had it hidden with this wild delusion that it didn’t affect my work, but it does. The entire reason I even had so many nightmares was because I was in a severe autistic burnout and I have hyperphantasia. Looking back, it feels silly to think otherwise.
I’d like to embrace my neurodivergent perspective a little more. It’s seeded in my writing through an autistic-coded narrator, and through my art in symbols and patterns. This year is less about the nightmare, and more about the dawn. In waking up from the pain and finding the ways that I grew from it.
dream sketch from 2024
an infinite climb – 2025 – acrylic on canvas
Website
Helloooo. This is going to have a major makeover this year (early). My plan for the website is to fully integrate more options for prints and media (still through Printful, adding maybe notebooks/mugs/shirts/stickers/etc), as well as expand the shop to include the originals.
Each listing is going to be updated to contain more of the nightmare backstory (as well as better details like dimensions, photos of the prints in real life, etc). I want to make the shop and collection of finished work give a more cohesive and comprehensive glance at what you, the viewer, would be investing in. Adding in the rest of my completed works will either be combined with or follow this major update (aiming for early spring on this one).
Other goals include incorporating more SEO, maybe shifting the layout, and figuring out a solid update schedule.
I also plan on committing to one blog update per month, likely around the first of each month. There may be more in the form of late night ramblings like last year. Time will tell.
Painting
Ending 2025 with EIGHT WIPs was a bit much for me. Goal number one is finish the WIPs. Including this one that made me want to throw it at the wall at one point. Considering I finished 2025 with 8 completed paintings, it just feels like an awful balance. Like, oh, yeah, you did something but you also didn’t do something… equally.
I love working on bigger canvas, but I have a small space and seem to avoid smaller pieces. So for 2026, I have decided to spend more time on little ones. Since my focus is still primarily my novel, I wanted to give myself a little more freedom with each piece. Typically I work on 16×20″ or 18×24″ canvas, and that’s the majority of my work. I even have a 2’x3′ in progress.
My process typically involves a preliminary collage mockup for reference, followed by me sort of following that and then just breaking down halfway through and spending weeks adding tiny dots and swirls and making sure the symbols and numerology line up. This is something I want to explore more through filming my process this year. I kind of started last year, and haven’t quite gotten the hang of it as a tabletop easel user, but I believe in myself enough to trust I will figure it out.
And share it. I’m not sure who will enjoy the chaos of my process, but I know I enjoy seeing everyone else’s, so I have decided to take up more space in 2026. By posting more art and more of my process on social media, and with at least one personal challenge in he spring.
endless wip from 2025 – acrylic on canvas
digital collage for future piece – 2025
Novel
Hi, if you’re still here, thank you. I saved this part for last because it’s currently the dearest part of my heart, but it’s also the outcast when it comes to the website and what I put forth publicly. My book came from a horrible joke I made in April and turned into an entire novel. Well, almost.
In the last six months of 2025 I was able to write the first draft, bulldoze it to hell in the structure edit, and get about a quarter into the rebuild/third draft stage. For 2026, beyond finishing this rebuild, it will only need a polish pass, and then I plan on going the traditional route and querying agents (likely spring).
I will talk more about it as I can, but for now, I will close out with a teaser. May you and yours have a wonderful 2026, and thank you for joining along for mine.
Squatch Season
An aloof alien camp ranger is forced to participate more in humanity when some of Bigfoot’s biggest fans start vanishing on the same day his strange new assistant starts. With the help of a giant reclusive legend, the newly formed trio must work against the clock to find the missing campers or risk exposing that the truth isn’t out there, it’s right here on Earth.
