What I’m working on – February 2026

Good News! The longest month of the year is over! I really don’t understand how January is approximately 87 weeks long but it happens every year. Usually sometime about the third week of January when I’ve lived a thousand lifetimes in what is supposed to be about 21 days, I wonder if we will ever go outside again or if my fingers will ever be warm again. But we are past the mid point and the days are getting longer. And the month is over! Finally! Three cheers for that!

January has been an incredibly productive month for me this year. Maybe it was all of those extra weeks! I went on vacation to Hawaii and still managed to enter multiple open art calls, get multiple pieces finished and photographed and cataloged on the site, as well as finishing up a video project.

Where you can see my work

I just released the Into the Unknown video. You can see the video on YouTube. And if you aren’t a subscriber to my YouTube channel, be sure to smash that subscribe button while you’re there.

If you want to know more about the Into the Unknown project, you can read about making the book or read about making the video.

I tend to post day-to-day progress shots on my Bluesky account. So if you’re a skeeter, you can find me here.

I also have new work up in my portfolio! If you’ve never clicked on the “Portfolio” tab at the top of this page, my work is all photographed and archived by series there. You can check out Deconstructed Seascape, which I finished last year but only got its page up this month. I also have a new category for In Search of Alchemy, the series I’m working on right now. There are two pieces in that group: Three of Wands (A phylogeny of my creativity) and Six of Cups (Cherishing memories of Big Spring Park). “Six of Cups” is the picture at the top of this post. Below is “Three of Wands.“

Open calls I’m working on

I applied to three different open art calls in January. One I feel fairly confident I will get into. The second I have a very good chance of getting into. The third is a stretch goal, borderline aspirational. I hesitated to even enter the third call but it only comes around every other year. So I went ahead and entered since I had fresh work that I really enjoy and there was no entry fee. If I don’t make it, I’m congratulating myself on doing the scary one anyway.

This month I’m maybe working on a proposal for one open call if my chosen collaborator has time to work on it with me and then the arts grant which is due March 2. So when I said this month was all grant, all the time, I wasn’t kidding.

(I started a sidebar here about terms associated with an open call but as I started the sixth paragraph, I realized that it was a post all on it’s own. So stay tuned for next week’s post which will be about that!)

Paper things

Since I’ve just finished up several pieces, I’m currently casting around for the thing I want to work on next here. I’ve got some painted papers on hand so if all else fails I can doodle on those on breaks from grant work.

Crochet things

I started a hat. Then I ended up frogging the whole thing because I dropped a stitch and I was big mad I couldn’t find it. Other than that abandoned thing, I’ve got the same set of shawl, shawl, and cowl that I’ve been working on in previous months. I’ve been so busy working on art things and the admin work that goes with it that this past month that my crochet projects have definitely taken a hit. Even on the airplane going to Hawaii, I didn’t really crochet.

Other things in progress

Hey, did I mention that grant? I hope when I make my “what I’m working on in March” post I can safely say that the grant is finished and submitted!

What about you? What are you working on this month? I’d love to hear about it! Email me or start a conversation by leaving a comment on this post! If you’d like to keep up with what I’m working on, I’d love to have you as a newsletter subscriber. I include blog posts from here, cool things I find online, and pictures of my dogs. Sign up here.