Welcome to 2026! Let’s talk about new art and art shows!

Finally, art about daydreaming at your computer

Clearly I am still workshopping a title for this piece. Behold, new artwork!

I completed this at the tail end of 2025, though the line work was originally drawn in 2023. In 2022 and 2023 I drew multiple sketches of scenes like this; I felt incredibly burnt out by work and longed to have more creatively stimulating…anything. A few years later and I find myself feeling similarly (still? again?). I’d like to colorize another one of these; this one is daintier and simpler in composition, but the other one has a darker edge to it.

There is something decidedly fey about daydreaming, especially when presumably on the clock. Physically you are where you’re supposed to be, but mentally you are anywhere but there. That is the more mythological inspiration behind this piece, alongside other projects I have going on.

In the spirit of bringing a little chaos to a monotonous scene, I used multiple media to complete the illustration. There are a variety of colored art pens, fountain pens, and brush-tipped pens, some of which I’ve had for going on twenty years (and they’re somehow still functional 😮). The faint blue squiggles are colored pencil.

I have a history of making semi-autobiographical illustrations, and this feels like a late successor in that line. The pose is similar, but the new fun feature is the use of color. Enjoy!

Art on walls: NoNo Tattoo Collective (ongoing), Sour Cherry (SOON!)

NoNo Collective (now til end of 1/2026)

ICYMI: I'm one of 15ish artists with art on display at the NoNo Tattoo Collective in Berkeley, CA. I have two pieces in the show, and both afaik are still for sale. The artwork will be on display until the end of the month (January 2026), but the parlor has irregular hours, so call/email to make an appointment to stop in! I’m happy to buddy up and hang out with anyone wanting to go on one of the weekends remaining in January. 😊

Sour Cherry Comics (1/31/2026 - 6/??/2026)

I’m back at Sour Cherry Comics, the magnificent queer-owned comic shop in the Mission in San Francisco! It’d be wonderful to see you and your friends at the art show opening on Saturday, January 31, 6-9pm at 3187 16th Street. I have four pieces in the show, two which have never been shown publicly before! They are all extremely affordable!

If you can’t make it that evening, the show will be up for half of the year, so you’ll have plenty of time to pop into the shop or attend another fun event or interesting book club.

Art without resolutions

Given that it’s January and maybe the only word you can hear echoing through your brain at this point is the word “resolution”, I thought I’d quickly comment on where I’m at with new year resolutions and my art practice: yeah no.

I make daily, weekly, and monthly to-do lists, and I consistently do not hit art goals or to-do items. I find that prescribing art time too specifically for me makes me not want to make art at all. So I simply am resolving to…not set explicit art goals, aside from something like, “work on one art project this month”. That way a specific project doesn’t get “assigned”, there is no pressure to complete, and there is no schedule for it.

I hypothesize that my dysfunctional relationship with art-making time is a symptom of a larger problem: I really don’t have a lot of time to unwind, and I am full of anxiety! 😅 I know we all are these days, so I hope me sharing this lets you know we’re all figuring things out together.

Latest inspo

• In case you loved the last newsletter, Are We the Baddies? Part II, I have a short San Diego public radio podcast for you! Friend of the newsletter, Professor T.J. Tallie, was recently interviewed about the history of Jim Crow and how it provides clear evidence that yes, we are the baddies. He also offers some nuanced takes on how to balance hope and pessimism in this moment in time.

• Some of you know I’m fascinated by Furbies. One of my Christmas presents was the truly unhinged FURBYPHILIA anthology zine, compiled by Tamiko Sidore. Risograph fever dream Furby art, anyone?

• I’m rereading Tolkien’s The Silmarillion for the first time since I was, like, thirteen, and let’s just say I have lots of thoughts. I’ll probably write a lot of regrettable thoughts about this soon on Bluesky, in case that’s of interest to you…