Happy New Year + Progress, consistency and quality

“Start small and become the kind of person who shows up every day. Build a new identity. Then increase the intensity.” - James Clear

Happy New Year, friends! I spent some time while I was off for the holidays thinking about starting a “100 project.” There’s something appealing about the accountability of it. A defined number. A visible goal. Regular urgency. A sense of completion is built right into the structure.

But the longer I sat with the idea, the more I realized the number itself wasn’t what I was after. What I wanted was consistency. What I wanted was to stay connected to the work without turning it into a generic task to complete. I wanted to be accountable to progress without manufacturing stress.

So instead of committing to a certain amount of output, I decided to commit to a very reasonable amount of time. Fifteen minutes a day. Minimum. No requirement to finish anything. No pressure to make something worth sharing. Just showing up and working. Some days, those fifteen minutes will naturally turn into more. (Some days it will be a lot more!) On other days, the time will be minimal. And that’s fine. The rule isn’t about productivity. It’s about staying in a relationship with the process.

Without a finish line looming every day, I hope that I’ll be enjoying the act of making every day more. I’ll pay closer attention. I’ll experiment more freely. Progress will still happen, but it will happen without anxiety, and I’m sure the progress will add up quickly, even if it’s just many small steps.

I think that growth and quality are often born out of steady presence, not ambitious targets or urgency. Accountability doesn’t have to mean producing something tangible every day. Sometimes it just means keeping a promise to yourself, and that’s good enough.

Throughout the end of the year, I took a break from my art, but still made some progress. I really wanted to get organized in my studio, so I spent some time clearing things out and making my space livable again. (This counts too!)

I also officially finished this piece below. I wasn’t in love with it at first, but it’s surprising how framing something properly and seeing it in a room can change how you see a piece. I like it now and will have it for sale on my website soon. There are many layers of collage and paint and drips. It feels very organic and moody.

On to other news… At the end of the year, I read that, after years of discussion and negotiation, the High Seas Treaty is scheduled to come into force this month. (January 2026) This agreement creates a framework for protecting international waters, which make up nearly half of the planet’s oceans. Until now, these areas have largely existed without coordinated stewardship.

This kind of protection doesn’t promise immediate transformation. It creates conditions. It allows better decisions to be made over time. It acknowledges that care at this scale has to be collaborative, patient, and sustained. I like that.

It’s encouraging to see attention shifting toward long-term thinking rather than short-term fixes, or nothing at all. As I keep advocating, ocean health isn’t restored through single actions or dramatic moments. It’s shaped through frameworks that support consistency, much like a creative practice. This treaty doesn’t solve everything. But it gives future efforts a place to stand. Learn More.

And finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about attention as we wrap up the end of the year. Specifically, how rarely we give it fully. I came across the concept of “slow looking,” a practice used in museums and education that encourages spending extended time with a single artwork or object.

The idea is simple. When we slow down long enough to really look, our understanding changes.

What struck me is how transferable that idea feels. It applies just as easily to conversations, daily routines, and creative work. When we stop rushing toward conclusions or outcomes, we begin to notice subtleties we would otherwise miss. We can miss life if we’re not careful. I realized that I do that a lot in the name of progress.

Throughout my time off at the end of the year, I spent a lot of time really trying to focus on being in the moment. One example was reading several physical books. Normally, I don’t do this because I love to multitask. I love audiobooks that allow me to consume a book but exercise or completing a task.

But what I realized is that I have a real problem now focusing. It’s bad. I noticed that when I tried to read for extended periods of time, my mind wandered a lot. This is happening all the time outside of reading, too. My mind is always elsewhere. Rarely in the moment. Always thinking about what’s next.

I’ve noticed that the moments that stay with me most aren’t the busy ones. They’re the moments when I linger, focus, live intentionally in the moment, and resist the urge to move on too quickly. Slow looking (living?) isn’t about efficiency. It’s about presence. And presence, more often than not, is where meaning quietly accumulates.

To close out this edition of Studio Notes, here’s a picture of my wife and me from Christmas Eve. This year will be a renewed focus on being in the moment with her as much as possible, too. This year is our 30th wedding anniversary!

I hope you have a great week, and thanks for following along! Happy New Year!