reflecting on 2025, hoping for 2026
First of all, how the heck are we more than halfway through January already?
Second of all, 2025 was insane in good and hard ways and I’m just glad to be here.
A brief review of 2025 highlights:
April - June gallery show at Axis in Pioneer Square
Summer markets
Holiday markets
Driving a boom lift in North Bend for a logo mural project
Creating, printing, and selling my first apparel item ever
Getting accepted at Big Whale Consignment to sell prints
Being interviewed for an online publication
Completing a digital marketing certificate
Visiting family (including my new niece)
Going to Mexico for the first time for our honeymoon
Many concerts, but especially seeing Hozier in August
Camping and visiting Crater Lake
Trying new art forms: collage, pole dance, revisiting blind contour drawing
The year was full and fast and at times very overwhelming. It’s impossible and pointless to try and sum it up neatly and put a bow on it, so many aspects of the year are ongoing and impact the future and what comes next that it’s impossible to say it was just in 2025. Many of the things I wanted from the year did happen, and many didn’t. I had my gallery show, but didn’t sell much of anything at it, almost all the paintings are just sitting in my house (hanging on the walls, but still). I would have liked to sell more, to have more income from the art that I spent so many hours working on and perfecting. I grew so much in my art, I would’ve loved for people to internalize that growth and reward me for it, selfish as that sounds. I am planning for 2026 to submit many of those pieces to new shows, new opportunities, to continue pushing for them to get their moment in the sun and get the chance to move on to their next home.
Post gallery show, I got really burnt out, from painting, from life in general. I didn’t make any art for months. I wanted to, but every time I tried it fell flat. In June, my grandma passed away and it was like my whole world slammed on the brakes. I started to write poetry, some of which I’ve shared, some I haven’t. I started to run again, to move the grief through me. But I still struggled desperately to paint. In September, I started the Artist’s Way with a group of other creatives and that started to shift things for me. I painted again, just small things, just for me. In October, my husband and I went on our honeymoon in Mexico City and it was a reset. Time together, so much time at museums and cafes, so much to see and do and eat. It was hugely inspiring. I started drawing more, collaging more, I signed up for a pole dance class when we got back, I wanted to try new ways of being creative. I started therapy again. I lost a connection with a sibling I thought I’d never lose, the grief came flooding back, freezing me in place.
As November and December rolled around, I got involved with holiday markets again and started selling Christmas ornaments once more, making a bunch of brand new ones for the season, painting in small ways. I am not yet unstuck, not completely at least. But I’ve tried so many new things and pushed myself in the ways I could. I finished an 8 month long marketing certificate at the end of 2025 and am hoping to start looking for new work soon. Something creative but organized, like me. Something with an easy commute or a blend of mostly remote work with some in person days. Something that makes me feel like maybe I'm making a real impact, while also supporting my partner and I in our long-term goals. 2025 was a bit of a grind. My hope for 2026 is to be curious about what is next. I signed up for a 6 week pottery class starting in February, an 8k in May, and a half marathon in November. I am choosing to believe that I have time to do all the things I want to try.
At the same time, there’s so much pain that stops me in my tracks. Freezes me away from creating, makes things seem pointless. There is actually much that I can do, but most days have felt monotonous and overwhelming. I want to throw my phone in a lake and put my head in the sand, but I can’t. I can’t pretend there aren’t atrocious things happening alongside the good things that are also peaking through. It feels like I am the moss or the weeds growing through the cement of a sidewalk and refusing to quit. I was reading Robin Wall Kimerer’s book, Gathering Moss, at the end of 2025 and she talked about moss growing in the harsh environment of the city and how it should be such an insurmountable challenge, and yet they do. And the moss growing is a sign that there is health and the possibility for life despite the harshness of the environment.
May we be like moss in the city, a sign of life. My word for 2026 is curious, I want to see what is next. Personally, politically, environmentally, I want to hold on to the hope of curiosity and the ability to dream up something better. Remaining curious and open to possibility might be the very thing to get me to feel hopeful in the hardest and darkest times, and boy howdy are those times ever present in my mind these days.
Goals for 2026:
Another chance to show my work, preferably in a gallery space
New job with better pay!
More time hiking and camping
Creating for myself/loved ones more
A small trip with just my partner and I
Trying a new class or type of movement every month
