This is the autumn where things are wild for me. Here’s a list of all the things I’ve been up to or will be up to, from September through the end of the year:

• PA Humanities Exchange Fellowship initial weekend (End of September)

• Downtown Installation (Beginninng of October)

• Opportunity Fund Panelist Day (earlier this week)

• Evolve Gala and Fundraiser (Saturday, October 17, 6pm-10pm)

• Installation of solo show

• Documentation of solo show

• Solo Show Opening Weekend (11/14-11/15)

• Paperfolding Workshop (12/5)

• Solo Show Closing Weekend (12/20)

• Day Job

• Every-other-month streaming for Access Mob Pittsburgh

• Finishing out Disability LEAD Fellowship

• Family Holiday Stuff TBD

• And more stuff that I’m sure I’m forgetting

It’s a bit overwhelming, but it’s all very exciting!

The PA Humanities Exchange Fellowship (which is a lot to say, it’s generally referred to as the PaX Fellowship) is a HUGE honor to have been selected for. PA Humanities has selected 50 artists and culture-workers to bring together both virtually and physically, including three weekends around the state, over 18 months. There’s an honorarium, support, and honestly just kinda working with and talking with the rest of the cohort has already been inspiring and humbling and motivating and encouraging and all the other positive present participles you can think of. The first weekend was in Pittsburgh, which was my first time spending a night away from my home since February of 2020, and it was both nerve-wracking and really great. My PAPR that was in part funded by the Craft Emergency Relief Fund has made it possible for me to participate in things like this without getting sick, which is honestly more than I thought was possible. We had a reception at the Warhol museum, went to Carrie Furnace, had a small driving tour of the Hill District, toured the New Granada Theater and the August Wilson House, and spent a lot of time talking and learning and thinking and listening. It was incredible! Here’s a headshot they took on the last day.

I have some art in a window next to Arts Landing in Downtown Pittsburgh - specifically, at the back end of The Eagle restaurant, across a walkway from the Pure Barre entrance, wrapped around a corner. Some of the largest pieces I’ve ever made are on display, and they’ll be up at least through the end of the year.

This Saturday, October 17th, is the annual Evolve Evening of Arts fundraiser and gala, and not only will I be there, but I’m also the featured artist! If you want to buy tickets, you can do so here: https://secure.givelively.org/event/evolve-coaching-inc/evolve-s-14th-annual-evening-of-arts-for-autism-2026 and you can view the promo video on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ddq6kyiDobW/ . Tickets are almost sold out - and please note that I’ll only have one piece in the auction, while there will be two more, much larger, pieces at their longer show at their new Inclusion Center, which opens 11/6 and will be up at least into the next year. Feel free to buy a Disability Community Member ticket to the show, if you feel that’s you, and come see me in a fancy setting!

Most of what I’ve been working on is related to the biggest news, my solo show. It’s titled The New Normal. Here’s my artist’s statement about the show:

The New Normal (2026) is a selection of paintings based upon a meditation and reflection about the frustrating, enraging, isolating, and occasionally desperate natures of chronic illness and disability, made while struggling through serious health problems. It is roughly broken down into four collections:

Things Left Unsaid is of some of the most common things I want to say when I am unwell or in crisis, but cannot, obscured by texture and only readable if you know how to see them.

The Wanderer pieces are deliberations on the isolation of being immunocompromised in a foreverdemic – exploring unforgiving environments alone, with no guide and no help coming.

Defiance contains the most direct expressions of my experiences as a chronically ill, disabled, and disconnected person, exploring the abstract rules of geometry while ruminating on loneliness, disconnect, embodied emotion, and living grief.

Unwell To Begin With directly explores the ephemera of disability and chronic illness through the relationship between important information and our ability to understand it when in a suboptimal state.

As a whole, these works provide a doorway into the experiences of navigating a complex, isolated existence while the majority of the world returns to a similar way of functioning as before the world changed for everyone. Some people have gone back to the closest thing they can find to a pre-COVID existence. Saying it's over, we're post-COVID, laughing about sourdough and streaming shows, complaining about how hard it was to stay home. Completely ignoring the millions who are too sick with Long Covid to leave their houses. Forgetting about all of us with compromised immune systems. Your new normal may be a lack of 24 hour stores or getting sick more often. Mine is social breakdown, loss of connection, fear of other people, precarity, and a suppressed rage. We could have worked together to flatten the statistical curve of COVID cases. We didn't have to let it run rampant. The only curves that were flattened are the ones in frames here.

Masks are required and will be provided. The entrance is wheelchair accessible. All of the works will be for sale, and a preview is available at https://www.burnsbothendsart.com/thenewnormal. I’ll be there all opening weekend, 11/14-11/15 10am-6pm, at Radiant Hall McKees Rocks. I’ll also be hosting a paperfolding workshop in the space on 12/5 from 4pm-6pm, and will be opening it up again for all and sundry to come see it on 12/20 from 4pm-6pm. I will also be scheduling guided showings by appointment - bring your family, your kickball team, your air-aware/covid-cautious cohort, your class, your congregation, anyone you want! Just send me an email and we’ll get it set up and figured out.

I’m very excited and very nervous about showing The New Normal to the world. I don’t know if anyone will come, or if anyone will get it. I still feel like an imposter in so many ways. But if I’m an imposter, then fuck it, let’s go, I’ll be bold and try and have frank discussions with anyone and everyone and be proud of what I’ve done even if nobody comes.

But I really hope you come. I’m being vulnerable and brave. If you just want to go to an event where everyone will be masked, or if you miss seeing me, or are curious about how my art looks in person, stop by. I’ll be there, with my emotions and some traumas on full display. And in January, I will be able to rest.