Why surrendering to the absolute chaos of the universe is your new personality trait.
The universe is fully gaslighting you right now. Just let it happen.
You’re currently vibrating at a frequency that can only be described as “panicked chihuahua,” and honestly, it’s not the vibe for 2026. You’re out here in Northwestern Ontario trying to micro-manage the literal wind chill or the fact that the only gallery in a three-hour radius hasn’t emailed you back about your weird moss sculptures. Bestie, you are fighting ghosts. You are screaming at the clouds while the clouds are just out here doing cloud things. It is time to enter your “it is what it is” era before your cortisol levels actually cause you to combust in the middle of a Canadian Tire parking lot.
Look, the arts sector is currently a dumpster fire being pushed down a very steep hill, and no amount of frantic LinkedIn manifesting is going to change that today. We live in a place where the highway shuts down because a moose had a bad day, and you think you can control your “career trajectory” through sheer force of anxiety? That’s delulu. Instead of trying to curate a perfect, polished existence in a world that is objectively falling apart, why don’t we just lean into the chaos? Go make something so incredibly cursed and ugly that even the squirrels in the bush would be confused by it.
There is a specific kind of dignity in being a total flop when the stakes are fake anyway. We’ve been fed this lie that every hobby needs to be a side-hustle and every creative spark needs to be a “brand pillar.” That is high-key exhausting. You are allowed to be a person who makes mediocre beaded earrings that fall apart after two days. You are allowed to paint a sunset that looks like a bruised peach and then hide it under your bed forever. The moment you stop trying to control the outcome is the moment your brain actually gets to breathe for the first time since 2021.
Focus on the small, stupid things you actually have agency over. You can control the amount of glitter you get on your floor (which should be a lot). You can control which local playlist you’re blasting while you ignore your mounting dread. You can’t fix the housing crisis or the fact that it’s snowing in May, but you can choose to be the person who brings the best snacks to the community potluck. Kindness is clutch when everything else is mid. Being a menace to the concept of “perfection” is the only way we’re going to survive this decade without losing our entire minds.
So, stop checking the stats on that post you made four hours ago. Stop rehearsing an argument in your head with a person who doesn’t even know you’re mad. The world is going to keep spinning in its own chaotic, nonsensical way regardless of how much you worry. Put your phone on “Do Not Disturb,” grab a marker that’s definitely running out of ink, and draw something that makes you laugh. We’re all just vibrating atoms in a cold climate, pookie. Let’s at least be weird and unbothered while we’re at it.
Thoughts on art and the state of the world!
These fragments trace the rhizomatic flow of thought through art, life, and place — scattered impressions from studio corners, fleeting ideas scrawled in notebooks, whispered exchanges at galleries, and observations picked up on quiet northern roads. Some fragments linger on technique, intuition, and doubt; others drift through community, culture, and the subtle poetry of everyday moments. They offer no conclusions, only openings, inviting readers to follow connections wherever they emerge.
Wandering laterally between process, memory, and environment, these pieces map associations across creativity, identity, and belonging. They intersect with humor, failure, resilience, and collaboration, and trace the ways artistic thinking seeps into gardens, small-town rhythms, friendships, and civic life across Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario — and further afield. Each thought functions as a node, part of a living network of reflection, expanding and branching with possibility.
Discover more associative fragments, conceptual wanderings, and artful reflections on our thoughts page.
