Long time, no see. Long time, no talky.

I’m starting this blog back up because I want to start putting something into the world again.

For a long time, I tried to keep up with Instagram, YouTube, newsletters, you name it. I genuinely enjoyed those things, but I also have a pretty strong perfectionist streak. I found myself spending more and more time building the business I thought I needed, and less and less time actually making art. Looking back, that’s been a pattern for as long as I can remember.

This past year has been one of the most pivotal years of my life because I finally put my foot down. I slowed down, took a breath, and started asking what actually needed to change.

I’ve gone by SMH for the last decade. They’re my initials, and that name has served me well. But I reached a point where I realized I needed to stop asking how to grow that version of myself and start asking what comes next.

For the past year, I’ve been working with a mentor, trying to find the direction I was really looking for. I feel like I’ve finally started to find it.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is simple: the art and the message have to come first. Before the algorithms. Before the social media strategy. Before the metrics. Before the business systems. Before the money. If I don’t protect the joy of making the work itself, none of the rest of it matters.

So I’m starting small.

For now, I’ll be sharing weekly studies simple drawings where I sit down and try to see the world a little more clearly. They aren’t perfect, and they don’t have to be. They exist because I made them.

Over time, I hope to share more here: thoughts from my book, newsletters, and whatever else grows naturally from this process.

More than anything, I just want to fall in love with making art again.

Thanks for stopping by. You’ll be hearing from me again soon.