January Reflections

For 2026, I am creating a series of paintings on individual playing cards. Each card holds a thought, an emotion, a moment that catches my attention and refuses to let go, forming a record of time and lived experience. Fifty-two cards – one for each week of the year. The collection is titled "Fifty-Two Reflections".

The Practice of Noticing

Now that I've completed the first month, I'm wondering why I've never done this before! I've done many paintings on playing cards over the past several years, which are a popular artwork of mine.

I knew this endeavor of one each week would require discipline and a creative commitment to show up consistently. I consider discipline something I can handle since I am usually good about commitment to projects - it's a task on my to-do list for the week. However, showing up creatively each week to this project has started to profoundly change the way I move through my days. What has emerged is equally about careful attention to meaningful paintings and the quiet revolution happening in how I pay attention.

I am a very task-oriented, Type A personality, so entire days can blur past in a stream of tasks and obligations. I have read loads of books and commentary on the benefits of really being present in the moment, though I feel our culture and my personality type make this difficult. Now, I find myself being more present. I've become a collector of moments, knowing that somewhere throughout the week, one will demand to be painted. This knowledge has made me present in a way I don't recall being able to tap into before.

An Unexpected Gift

What I'm discovering is that this project isn't just about creating fifty-two paintings by year's end. It's about cultivating a different relationship with time and attention. When you know you need to find something worth painting each week, you start looking differently at everything.

There's something almost meditative about it—this weekly cycle of noticing, selecting, and translating a fragment of experience into something visual. It's teaching me that inspiration is often quiet and constant, rather than a burst.

Moving Forward

I have forty-eight more paintings ahead of me this year. The paintings are becoming a record of not just what I created, but of what I noticed, what I felt, what small piece of the world serves as inspiration to be transformed into art.

Each month, I'm selecting one card painting available for purchase ahead of the 2027 exhibition of the full collection.

The first piece available from my 52-painting collection...

"Frost's Footsteps" | acrylic on playing card

Week 4: "Frost’s Footsteps"

A solitary trail of footprints winds through pristine snow, leading the viewer's eye deeper into a thicket of stark, barren trees. The scene offers a meditation on winter’s duality of harsh beauty and quiet serenity when the world transforms beneath a fresh snowfall.

These footprints trace the mysterious passage of Jack Frost - that mythical figure whose icy breath transforms the familiar into something otherworldly. He's passed through unseen, leaving only this evidence of his nocturnal work.

The significant winter storm that impacted much of the country inspired this week’s reflection. Some traditions link the suits of playing cards to the four seasons, with spades representing winter. The association of Jack Frost as the personification of winter itself makes him the perfect "jack of winter's suit."

"Frost's Footsteps" | framed 5x7

View artwork & purchase

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Does my year-long playing card artwork series spark an idea for you that will help encourage being in the moment? Or do you have a practice that you've already been doing for a while? I would LOVE to know about it. I absolutely love learning from others about what they find meaningful. Leave a comment or send me a message!