It’s 2025, and it’s time to open up the books on commissions! The beginning of the year is a good time to take stock of how the last year left you. As the revelry of the holidays shrinks in your rearview, you can take stock with a sober eye and assess honestly. Looking back, I can see that I went from one of my best years (most of 2023) professionally to one of my most consequential years (2024) professionally and personally. It's not all bad; nothing ever is, but the pendulum swung hard away from the high points of 2023. the last 18 months had huge losses, struggles, sleepless nights, hard decisions, and a prolonged health scare that loomed over us for months.

Without getting into the weeds with this, I can see it was stuff happening to me. To my family. I was along for the ride, willfully gritting my teeth through it and weathering the storms. All that said, without realizing it, I took decisive measures in other parts of my life that made it measurably better. I was getting healthier. I committed to things more readily. I focused more on what I could control and sweat the results less.

So here we are in 2025, and it looks like a future where we aren’t in control of much. But we do what we can for ourselves and our people. That starts here for me by opening up commissions. It also means I’m going to start using this blog again. In its current form, social media is a terrible place. It seems to have no interest in connecting us and exists only to feed us to its owners. You can still find me there if that’s your preferred way to enjoy my stuff, but also let me know what you’d like to see more of here, and maybe I can make that happen.

This meandering post started as a “hEy, I’M bAcK! oRdEr A cOmMiSsIoN!” and became a vague confessional statement of intent. I’ll have a better plan next time, but thanks for reading all the same!

TAKEAWAYS:

• be aware of what’s happening to/around you

• be proactive in your decisions

• get a check-up, for Pete’s sake (if you can)

• commission me for some artwork