A Road Trip, a Hockney Exhibit, and the Beginning of Something New

Earlier this month, we took a much-needed creative road trip—starting with the David Hockney exhibit in Paris. It was powerful to see how his work continues to evolve over the decades. From there, we drove to Strasbourg, France, where the cobblestone streets and half-timbered houses—straight out of Beauty and the Beast—sparked something unexpected in me.

When I got back to the studio in the Netherlands, I felt charged with a new kind of creative energy. For the first time, I didn’t want to focus on just one painting—I wanted to work on several at once. This was a big shift. Up until now, I’ve only ever painted one piece from start to finish before starting the next. But this new approach has allowed ideas to overlap and evolve in surprising ways.

Another change: I’ve been revisiting some of my older visual styles and blending them with the techniques I’ve developed more recently. It’s like reconnecting with a past version of myself, but with new tools and a sharper vision.

Because the sun doesn’t set until nearly 11pm here, my painting hours have stretched late into the night. After a full day printing shirts at the Akumu Ink studio, then coming home to manage our socials and prep new pages for our next book—there’s a window of quiet when the world is asleep. That’s when I paint. Headphones on, lights low, and just me and the canvas. I keep thinking these paintings feel like stills from a cartoon that never existed—but maybe should have.

This new series is deeply personal. Each piece feels like part of a dream world I’ve been building silently for years—and now I’m finally showing it to you. If you’ve followed my work and felt connected to the stories within the art, this next body of work might speak to you even more.