Hello! Welcome to my first newsletter. I really wanted one place to put updates, particularly as I move around my accounts going into 2026.

Announcements

• I have a Patreon. There are two tiers-

  • For $1 or more, you get access to everything I post, including polls and WIP updates. I can’t keep up with making seperate rewards for supporters, but I will post behind the scenes over there and share finished work earlier than I put it on social media.

  • For $8, you get a monthly reward mailed from me directly. This will be a zine or other small art, such as a lino print or small laser-cut object. I’ve been wanting to do a zine subscription for a while, but want to present it in a way that I can realistically promise. This is the update I am most excited to present right now!!

    

• New store! I’ve been having problems with Gumroad for a while, so I moved everything over to BigCartel. This is where I’m selling everything that I make and ship personally

Recent Art

• Fish Zine! I have a couple different illustrations that were featured in this zine from Coin-Op Press.

I actually don’t have much from the past few months that I’m allowed to share yet, but I want to look back on my favorite art from this past year.

I leaned into being an animal illustrator, and started drawing local birds as a way of staying connected to the nature available to me.

I somehow don’t have ANY papercraft illustrations from this year that I’m allowed to share yet, but hopefully that just means I’ll have a bunch in 2026!

I only drew two comics this year, both about trans people having sex. That’s a lot less than I was hoping to make, but one of them is being published next year on a much bigger stage than I could have predicted. Life comes at you, I guess.

I worked on two games in 2025! C.A.T. was created as part of the Autistic Creative Hub 2025 Game Jam, and Torchbear was made by James Weishaus, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at a local festival when I was tabling.

I got more into collage zine making as a way of art making that’s explorative and non-professional. This is one I made for a New Years Party (More pictures of these are on my Patreon)

What’s Next?

I did a lot of tabling in 2025, especially in November and December. You know what I didn’t do much of, that I really wanted to this year? Draw comics.

There are a lot of reasons for that- the main one being that comics are not my biggest source of income, and I ended up quitting my job to make art full time this year! That’s meant a lot of bookbinding, tabling in person, and advertising commissions on the internet.

I will absolutely keep doing those things, but I also have big ambitions. I want to draw a graphic novel, and I have a couple shorter projects in the works. I want to finish drawing my birds. I want to put more people in my illustrations and more invertebrates in my comics, instead of feeling like I have three seperate art careers.

Lastly, if you’re in Chicago, you’ll see other things I’ve been up to. Not everything needs to be put on the internet. Remember: We keep us safe.

Recommendations

Reading: The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumokuren, Mamo by Sas Milledge, A SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF TRANSSEXUALITY by Oscar Woodiwiss, The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo, Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration edited by Diana Marie Delgado

Games: The Plucky Squire by All Possible Futures, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap by Nintendo, and my 2025 GOTY pick Blue Prince by Dogubomb

Thank you so much for reading. 2025 was a year of doing something new and uncertain every day, and it’s been so hard and so rewarding. I truly appreciate every single person who has made it possible, especially those of you reading this newsletter because I asked if you would be my guinea pig while I figured out having a newsletter.

-Ari