For most of my adult life, art has been at the center of things. Whether I’m orbiting around it or it’s orbiting around me, I’m not entirely sure, but that gravitational pull is always tugging on me.

Over a decade of my life, that sensation was anchored in this very place. I hung and lit dozens of exhibitions at MAINSITE. I designed countless promo pieces. I talked about art and artists professionally, spreading the word about the talent we had in abundance while also presenting it in this gallery in the best way I knew how.

Most of us that get into this field are artists in our own right … or at least started out that way. But beyond a lucky few who can strike the balance, just about all of them eventually sacrifice their own work to support that of others. Eventually, that gravity I mentioned became crushing.

So a year and a half ago, I left my job here to dig that creative spark out from the thick layer of demands it had gotten buried under. To find the joy in it again.

And for something that many think of as a frivolity, I think most people who make art agree it’s a fight, one balancing your vision with your limits, a course that veers from euphoria to crushing disappointment and back again. Whether your creation is worth the life you gave it and the time of those engaging with it is an existential time bomb, one that we’re addicted to relighting the fuse to over and over again.

And then you remember … this is all supposed to be fun.

For me, that’s color. That’s vibrance. That’s movement and personality.

I work a lot digitally, but with this new collection, I wanted to make it more tactile. My style — informed by pop culture imagery and intense color palettes — remains, but raw. Torn edges are layered with paint pens and brush strokes for something that is inherently flawed but allowing for happy accidents. To come alive beyond the screen. To be a kid again. To be human.

There’s an unease in the air — a rocky political landscape and ever growing wealth gap — but that only seems like all the more reason to create, to read, to write, to sing, to strum, to paint, to knit, to sculpt, to bead, to animate, to doodle, to weave, to drum …

AI would like to pretend it offers a solution to the struggle that is human creativity, but it’s a problem that doesn’t need solving. The beauty is in the struggle. Joy is an act of resistance, and so is creating something yourself to hold in private or share with others.

I did the latter here, and I hope you have a little fun viewing it with me.