Looking Back, Looking Ahead

 

Last year was all about figuring out what my life’s “normal” setting is, learning to live in that new normal, and downsizing. Finally settled in 2025, I began looking ahead – to something that has been on my mind, unfulfilled for years.

Twenty years ago, a significant portion of my freelance income came from teaching – work that I genuinely enjoyed. In early 2020, I had been planning and looking forward to begin teaching in the Urban Sketchers workshop program – and then 2020 happened (my blog post announcing it was literally only a month before the world shut down for COVID). The workshop program never resumed when the world reopened, and by then, my full attention was on Greg. Some part of me, though, kept the idea of teaching tucked away for another time.

That time is finally here, and I’m excited to announce that I’ll be teaching in 2026! Prompted by the pet portraits I drew for ArtSpot’s fundraiser last summer, the Edmonds art supply store invited me to offer workshops related to animal portraiture. I’ll be offering two this spring: Pet Portraits in Brush Pen and Animal Portraits in Colored Pencil.

All the practice I did during InkTober and Pencilvember this year was, in fact, not just practice; I was also refining techniques so that I could articulate them to students. I’m looking forward to getting back into the creative process of helping others to learn.

Although we all like the neatness of closing an old year and beginning a fresh one, I’m more of the mind that life is a perpetual continuum.  To honor the unfinished continuity of life, shown here are sketches that got interrupted and were never finished. Life goes on, whether the sketch gets finished or not, and I’m looking forward to it.

Happy New Year!