New Beginnings Part II - Lenscratch Exhibition January 2026

For the past several years, I have devoted all my energy to teaching while balancing multiple part-time jobs—at times as many as six different jobs simultaneously. My original goal in taking on the extra work was to save enough money to build my dream studio. However, the demands of working so many hours gradually pulled me away from my own art practice. I ended up not having time to work on the studio or enough time for my art.

Although I never stopped creating, I was making work at a much slower pace than I would have liked, and I found myself neglecting an equally important part of being an artist: sharing my work with others. I have always been someone who prefers to make work and quietly keep it to myself, but for the past several years I wasn’t submitting to exhibitions or seeking opportunities at all.

By the end of 2025 and into 2026, I realized it was time to change that. I set a personal goal to begin putting my work back into the world by submitting to exhibitions again.

Excited to have one of my new works included in the Lenscratch New Beginning Part II online exhibition. This work has been all about new beginnings for me in every possible sense of the phrase. Check out the exhibition here:
https://lenscratch.com/2026/01/new-beginnings-part-2/

Every year I say this year will be different. This year I will change the rut I have worked myself into, but each year I don’t make enough of a change. I can’t seem to figure out how to get myself out of this rut of overworking and forgetting the path I actually want to be on. Maybe, just maybe, this year will finally be different.