7 things I loved this January

My $5 stationery pouch, a favorite Substack essay, and art in response to ICE

Welcome to SEE YOU, a companion for artists, hobbyists, and analog lovers devoted to a creative life—with practical ideas, inspiration, and reflections on making.

Today I’ve got seven monthly recommendations for your studio and creative practice. Later this week I’ll share the process of creating my personal website. Join to follow along!

Before we dive in, I’d be remiss not to mention that I am sad, disgusted, and frustrated by what’s been unfolding in Minnesota. I’ve donated my proceeds from 31 Days of Creative Resilience to Community Aid Network MN to support folks providing mutual aid in Minneapolis. Here’s an extensive resource for other frontline organizations and food relief efforts that could use your help.

1. Minneapolis artist Grover Hogan

I’m in deep admiration of artists who have been responding to ICE occupation in Minnesota through their work. Grover Hogan is one such artist who I discovered through The Twelfth House. I love how they are centering spirituality in their art as a way to move through grief and find strength during this time.

Papeles Pouch (left), Altar for Protection Against ICE (right)

Papeles Pouch is hand sewn and embroidered by the artist, including a 3D printed whistle, the artist’s passport and birth certificate, and Immigration Rights Red Card. Altar for Protection Against ICE gathers several divination items on a cardboard altar, warding off bad spirits and cherishing what keeps the artist sane.

2. Anticipating the Year of the Horse

I thought a lot about our current political landscape as I created two red envelope artworks for the upcoming Lunar New Year.

If 2025, the Year of the Snake, was about shedding old stories and ways of being, 2026 will be about blazing trails and running wild like the Fire Horse. I hope whoever sees this art can be encouraged to embody the Fire Horse’s energy in actualizing their vision for a better society and a more fulfilling life.

My red envelopes will be on view alongside 100 other artists’ work at Pearl River Mart Gallery in New York, NY. Come out to the opening reception on Saturday, February 7 or check out the exhibition until March 29!

3. Why artists can’t make money

Designer and writer Celine Nguyen may have already written one of my favorite Substack essays of the year. In “we’ve created a society where artists can’t make any money”, she explores how society has allowed culture to stagnate by making it hard to earn a living from creative work, contrasting this observation with Silicon Valley’s cultural decline of curiosity and weirdness in favor of profits.

From the essay:

⁠Artistic work still happens, even in dispiriting economic and cultural conditions. But the counterfactual still plagues me. Maybe we could have more work, better work, work from more of society, representing more subjectivities—if we could only organize and innovate our way to better conditions…

Digital technologies have largely solved the distribution problem for creatives; but they have not yet solved the monetization problem.

I appreciate how Celine ends this potentially doomsday essay with hope for a better internet and society, commending humanity’s commitment to creativity. I’m determined to champion artist legal protections like A-Corp, support unions and higher wages, and personally support artists however I can to fight for better culture.

4. Winter Practice journal prompts

Journaling prompts for the full moon

I’ve been enjoying the practice of lunar journaling through my zine Winter Practice, which comes with tailored reflection prompts for each new and full moon! It took me a while to get over my discomfort of writing inside the zine (I also have never directly written in a guided journal!) But the allotted space has been great for taking a brief pause to reflect with the moon.

If you want to secure your copy of my next seasonal zine Spring Practice, the preorder link is now live. Get it here!

5. Meditations for Mortals

Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks is one of my favorite self-help books. His follow up book Meditations for Mortals repeats many of the same sentiments in a digestible daily format—though I enjoyed the book too much to read it day by day!

Some of my favorite lessons were to use desire as fuel for action, rather than diverting energy and attention to overcome it, and that the unknowability of life is central to its enjoyment. The latter sentiment is a hard one to swallow for anxious folks, but it’s encouraging me to consider not knowing as a pathway to surprise, not danger.

6. Daiso stationery pouch

I bought a $5 pouch from Daiso last year to hold my stationery items after being influenced by stationery friend Nikki, and it is still going strong! I recently migrated my non-fountain pens and colored pencils here so they’re super easy to grab and use. The pouch also holds stickers, memo pads, binder clips, glue stick, and tape. My only wish for this pouch is that it weren’t dark grey, but the price was so right I cannot complain.

Speaking of stationery pouches, I am now a staff writer for indie stationery mag Pouch Magazine! We have a call for submissions for journal or planner spreads to feature in upcoming issue #3. Please submit if you have any layouts you’d like to share by February 9, 11:59 PM PST!

7. Non-AI background music

I have long listened to vibey background music via Youtube, ranging from lofi to classical to ambient to chill house. It drives me insane that most music playlist videos surfacing in my algorithm nowadays are from AI creators using Suno!

These videos never mention that they use AI upfront, but you can easily tell by checking the frequency of their uploads, the artwork accompanying the video, and whether they credit any songs or artists in their playlist.

From my quest to find human Youtube DJs and playlist makers, I now present you three of my current favorites: gesus8 for deep house (for an energy boost while doing rote tasks), GUN GUN for nostalgic hip hop, R&B and groove (for evening socializing), and marthakinz for ambient (for journaling, writing, and thinking!)

Thank you for reading! Some brief announcements from me: my next seasonal companion zine Spring Practice is now open for preorder until mid-February 🌸

My four week group workshop Zine Lab will return on March 3 and run every Tuesday evening 7:30-9 PM EST on Zoom! Learn more about the workshop and register here.