I had ambitious dreams about writing on this blog. But the last half of this year really took its toll on my personal time. I found myself in a state of burnout again between work, church leadership training (“seminary light”), and trying to learn new things (shaders, p5.js, UX certificate). I really wanted to keep up a monthly cadence but it just wasn’t going to happen. I found myself feeling guilty about not writing as often as I wanted to and I starting writing things just to check the box. That isn’t the purpose of this space. So, I decided to take a break from it all together. Things are starting to look up again. Burnout seems to be subsiding and my free time is starting to increase again.

So What Have I Been Doing

Well, mostly work… The day job had a lot of projects come up that needed to be done before the end of the year and I went into getting things done mode. I am able to take my foot off the gas here just a bit and starting to hit a normal work-life balance. Will need to reflect on this as the year comes to an end so I can prevent this from happening next year. Don’t want to fall into that trap again.

I was able to make time for my art practice. Shaders have eluded me for the longest time but one of my favorite artists Ilithya released a course on shaders and it really helped me develop a strong foundation in shader art. I highly recommend the course if you have been wanting to dive into shaders. Most resources start pretty deep into the concepts and techniques. Ilithya does a great job of explaining some really complex ideas.

I have been working on a piece for a while that I am referring to as “Pathways.” I am not sure that name will stick, everything is still evolving. The piece has two parts, a base layer that consists of randomly generated color pools, and a layer of bezier curves that sit on top. I send the top layer to my Cameo 4 Pro paper cutter but I don’t have a printer that can handle the base layers. I recently made my way into Houston and was able to get some test prints produced for a few of the base layers. I am really happy with how these are turning out. Right now, I am working on how I can create multiple pieces from this idea. I have a couple of ideas for an interactive, projector-based version of this concept. We shall see.

I got a lot of irons in the fire. I have a few other personal projects I want to bring to life and I am hoping 2025 can lead to that.

Also, there was an election that took place this month. It seems like it was a lifetime ago. Maybe I will share some thoughts on that later but I am still processing it all…