For my first newsletter of 2025 I’m sharing with you some of my last work from 2024: A Wilco poster for their December show in Tulsa. I have a limited quantity available in my shop here if you’d like one.

I made this poster using cut paper scraps, which was a satisfying and calming process.

I’ve found that my best and most fulfilling work happens when I spend less time laboring over it. I like simple and quick processes that accurately represent what I’m seeing in my head in a given moment. If I spend too long on it, I might lose it. I think I spent a lot of 2024 figuring this out.

In 2024 I also decided to not take my work very seriously. Doing this actually ends up making my work much better, eases my self-doubt, and helps me compare myself to my peers less. I do have to remind myself each day that my success as a person has nothing to do with my work, success happens just be being here and being alive. When I’m able to do that it feels liberating, more fun, and helps me be more useful to those around me.

As for 2025, I don’t have any resolutions. I think this winter is a time for me to just take it all in. While I do that, I think I’ll be enjoying the following things:

-the music of Jesse Welles

-the birds in my new backyard

-reading resources on The Anarchist Library

-A Period of Transition by Van Morrison

-the daily routine of sweeping off my new porch and stairs

-rereading East of Eden for the third time

-making little treats and pickled onions for my family

-value-based living

-working on my basket weaving, which I recently started to learn

I have a lot more work to share, you’ll be able to see it here.

xx

Madalyn