2025 - buzzer beater post

reviewing a year that i never wrote about on substack once as it was happening

When I look back on 2025, I’m going to remember it was a year where I committed to the slow burn. My entire adult/artistic life has been dedicated to the principle of prolificness. In 2009 I heard a short story on the New Yorker’s Fiction podcast called The Colonel Says I Love You by Sergei Dovlatov. It’s a piece of creative non-fiction by Dovlatov about being a young writer in Soviet Russia and his trials balancing his impenetrably serene wife and his fledgling writing career. She offers him the advice to write a thousand novels, trusting one of them would be a hit.

Meanwhile, I was living in Paris and spending all my free time in museums. What struck me the most, taking in so much art, was the sheer volume of what’s been created. In particular, I remember visiting Musee Picasso and just being like, this dude filled up an entire museum. Plus the one in Barcelona. Plus the ones I don’t know about. Plus his major hits being in other museums and rich people’s homes all over the world. I resolved that the masterpieces weren’t the results of genius but from a willingness to always be creating. That the only way to make something lasting and enduring was to make lots and lots of lesser works that no one will care much about. And so when I decided I was an artist, this became my core belief.

But, in the last year (and a huge reason why this is my first post all year long) I’ve had my nose to the grindstone on projects in a way that’s brand new to my creative process. I’ve begun to value refinement and process in a way I never have. I’ve forced myself to slow down and hone rather than just go go go. I can’t share the results of what I’ve been working on immediately, but I can tell you that I’ve made some of the very best work I’ve ever made in the last year. It’s just unpublished until further notice because the projects are still growing. But, it involves lots of writing, new creative partners, and a new body of photographic work.

In the spirit of that, and inspired by Bryan Walen’s recent post, I wanted to pay homage to this year that brought me a new process. Bless your heart, 2025. You were a year that changed my life. I can’t wait to see what grows from you in the years to come.

Here is the year in snapshots. More about life, not too much about work, because boring!

January

NY, NY! I was invited over to the city by my collaborators at Vogue and really decided in my freetime to lean into the tourist activities. I finally got to visit the Statue of Liberty just to discover she’s only that big. But, she’s beautiful and we love her. What a woman. Also, finally got to spend a proper day drawing pictures The Met, laugh at The Comedy Cellar, and ate at that one gorgeous steakhouse with the red booths that I can never remember the name of.

February

I have been itching for years for a European vacation, but had been punting it down the road because I didn’t think I could do it as a single dad. I felt like I should wait to meet someone or wait until I felt more who-knows-what. But, I hit a new point in my grieving era where I finally stopped feeling inadequate because of my loss and felt capable of living the life of my dreams as it is. My family might be small, but goddamn it, we’re beautiful (just like the Statue of Liberty). So, we went to Paris, Chamonix for a ski vacation, and visited friends in Provence. It was easily the best vacation I’ve ever been on. Don’t be afraid, people. Life is short.

March

My first ever animated film, The Dream Machine, premiered at SXSW in Austin, Texas, and I was invited into the Criterion Closet. I don’t know if I could have ever dreamed of checking off two life goals within 24 hours of each other like this. But, what a stunning thrill. My next post is going to be about the creative process of The Dream Machine and the 15 years it took to make. It’s a huge part of me reconceptualizing my creative process toward a slow burn.

April

In January, Martha and I started LA Art Club, where on the first Saturday of every month, we invite a group of friends to come with us to a new museum. In April, we went to The Broad. This is Martha and my childhood best friend Sage’s daughter, Thomasina. They were taking turns drawing the art they were taking in. This was a moment that made me so grateful to be raising a child in Los Angeles.

May

I love living in Los Angeles. I love sitting outside in the morning. I love my coffee shop. I love journaling. I love drawing. I love trying to improve slightly every day; moving the needle. I love domestic routines. I love artistic ambition.

June

This is the underwear I wore the day Martha was conceived. They were hand-dyed by Jesse in Martha’s Vineyard back in July 2015. They are forever the luckiest thing I own. I retired them immediately, but pulled them out of retirement in June for a meeting on the westside that went exceptionally well (part of the slow burn written about above). Bless these undies.

July

I was barely around in July. Santa Barbara for one of my greatest buddy’s wedding! Barcelona for a shoot! Martha’s Vineyard for a family vacation! C’mon! I was breathless. But also thrilled. Life, if not my art, remained extremely prolific.

August

Here’s my writing partner, Annie Monroe, lying on her daybed, pregnant as could be. We’ve been writing writing writing writing all year while she was growing this little guy who finally joined us on this side of things in September. I am a big-time believer that babies bring abundance. It’s the most beautiful process to watch. So grateful I got to watch the daily time-lapse of that baby’s blooming from the front row.

September

This is Dane Johnson, longtime friend and collaborator. I met Dane at a pool party in 2012, and we bonded over doing trick dives. 13 years later, we still get to be friends and make beautiful images together. This was on a shoot for Hollister, which has been one of my all-time favorite clients, led by creative director Katie Markus, whom I met on a Billabong shoot in Cartagena in 2019. I love the longevity of these relationships. It’s one of the things I value most in this whole world. It’s a huge win to get to continue spending time being creative with people I love.

October

I was properly obsessed with baseball in 2025. I went to I think 8 Dodger games and watched nearly every single Mariner game on TV that I could. It came to an absolute fever pitch (!!) in October when both teams made the playoffs. I fully developed IBS, and my good luck rituals became truly overwhelming and exhausting. But! Worth that championship, babyyyyyyy!!!!!

November

I turned 40 this November. The lead-up really was difficult. Jesse was diagnosed with her lymphoma a week or so before her 40th and started chemo on her birthday. I have since been shocked every time I’ve watched a friend turn 40 without stress, without worry, full of health, full of hope. But, I have nothing but good things to report about my 40th year, including an absolutely gorgeous Thanksgiving slumber party in Topanga with some of my closest friends, followed by the most stunning day after beach day in Malibu.

December

Sometimes the world will just grab you by your little baby face and say, “If you don’t understand that you’re surrounded by miracles upon miracles, I don’t know what I can do to teach you.” I got to take a work trip to the Bahamas in December, and it was just that over and over. Nothing but the most dreamy water, lagers that drink way too easy, and friends staying up late laughing on repeat. Plus, some of my favorite images I took all year. Or maybe in the last few years!

I’m writing this post in the Delta SkyLounge in Seattle, WA, on my way home to Los Angeles and on my way home to 2026, a year I’ve been waiting for like an old friend. See you soon.