There’s a tab open on my laptop that’s been there for three weeks. A half-finished drawing, a reference image, a colour picker frozen mid-decision. I haven’t closed it. I think that means something.

2025 was hard. Like, genuinely hard in ways I’m not going to get into here, it was the kind of year that takes a lot out of you and doesn’t really ask permission before doing it. I made it through, which sounds dramatic but also just feels true. I’m not dwelling, I just want to be honest that I’m starting this year from a different place than I expected to be.

Okay. Moving on.

The question I keep coming back to for 2026 is simpler than the ones I usually ask myself, not what will I finish or what will I ship, just: what do I want to make? Not for anyone in particular, not toward anything specific, just for the thing itself.

There’s a tarot deck that’s been living in my head for too long, there are photographs I keep meaning to actually sit with instead of just archiving, there’s a drawing practice I keep treating like a warmup for something more serious when maybe the drawing is just the thing and I should stop waiting for the serious thing to show up. And then there’s a whole other thing I’m building on the side, something that grew out of an obsession and turned into a project without me totally noticing, which is maybe the best way for something to start. None of these have deadlines. None of them need to become anything. I want to find out what they are by actually making them instead of thinking about making them, which is a trap I fall into constantly and am trying very hard to stop doing.

That’s what I’m bringing into this year. Just the intention to keep going, keep the tabs open, see what accumulates.

The drawing still isn’t finished. I’ll probably look at it tonight.