I have been house/cat sitting for a friend for the last two weeks while she went out of town. Four cats total: two affectionate and social, one blind and rambo (rambunctious), and a big sweet scaredy. It took about five days before big sweet scaredy came out from under a blanket on the foot of the bed. Wonderful cats, very sweet. This meant though, that I needed to balance getting time with my two kitties 30 minutes away. Relationships with pets are still important, they like having hoomans...

Even when I don't think of myself as being a resolution-maker each year, I decide to keep being creative and making art. The desire to keep drawing, painting, creating, and collaborating waxes and wanes when there are other things going on in the world that can drag down my morale. In 2025, I hardly did any plein air painting! Most of my time and efforts were poured into illustrations for A Dragon Named Parasol . If you're lucky enough to not be overwhelmed by all the horrible things going...

Reader advisory: discussion of death and naked people. This post sat in my 'drafts folder' for a long while as I made updates to the website. Looking to get out to somewhere new and hopefully relaxing, I set out to find a location that popped up on GoogleMaps as being "beach" on the Wisconsin River. As I drove to my supposed destination, I found it gated and several signs posted that the area was closed. The vibe was that whoever put these things in place really, really didn't want people...