Blog / 2025 / The Most of 2025

’Tis the season for “best of” lists, but, like author Emma Copely Eisenberg who describes herself as “fundamentally opposed to the ‘best of’ industrial complex,” I find myself called to counter December’s unrelenting highlights reel with something a little more nuanced.

Here’s my list of ten artistic “mostness” moments for 2025:

Most Encouraging Statistic

In a nationwide sample of over ten thousand people, 96% agree that arts participation builds wellbeing in their community. That’s right: almost all Americans agree that art is good for us! This happy finding was published this year.

Most Uncontroversial Opinion

When I told the Internet that juried art show fees are wrong, I already knew I wasn’t alone in my feeling, but the overwhelming response made it clear that artists are tired of this racket. Venues will only keep using the pay-to-play model for as long as we allow them. There are lots of other ways to get your work out there, as this article about how I make a living as an artist details.

Most Loved Blogpost

Explaining the differences between marks made by paint pens and those made by paint brushes is terrifically niche, but I received more emails about this post than any other this year, mostly from people who aren’t artists themselves.

Most Inspirational Collaboration

Reading is a big part of my personality—it’s one reason why this project happened—so it was lovely to make art for a short story published in the online flash fiction magazine Flash Frog.

Most Rewarding Commission

I’m always grateful when someone hires me to make custom art, but the one commission that most shaped my creativity this year is my portrait of Babs Siperstein for Garden State Equality. It took me in a whole new direction for my work, as I explain in this post about portraits of famous people.

Most Surprising Unintended Consequence (Negative)

When I put together this video about a coloring page protest poster, my purpose was to encourage others to speak out against the cruelty of the Trump administration, but my vlog backfired after I shared it in my monthly newsletter ten days later, right as Jimmy Kimmel’s show was cancelled. Many longtime supporters of my work unsubscribed from my mailing list, because, as I explain here, they were at a different place in their grief about all the ways the current POTUS is demolishing America.

Most Surprising Unintended Consequence (Positive)

When I sent this proposal to Mural Arts Philadelphia, I was hoping they would take on the project. Instead, they invited me to be part of 52 Weeks of Firsts, a public art exhibition that will be on display all of next year and that I talk more about here.

Most Satisfying Exhibition Moment

I didn’t participate in many shows in 2025—see above re: juried art shows—but my favorite was at my local library, because of the colorful way my community showed up for my work.

Most Impactful Anniversary

In a year full of milestones—ten years of support from readers like you and five years off of social media—it’s the 13^th anniversary edition of Crime Against Nature that really shaped 2025 for me, probably because I’d never have thought to create the new edition without a nudge from a friend in China.

Most Nutritious Book I Read

Karen Hao’s Empire of AI is full of vital information for every human being on the planet right now. It lays out not only the environmental devastation of the race for artificial general intelligence, but also the human toll of building this technology—not just on artists, but on all of us.

Towards the end of the book, Hao addresses the question of how to ensure AI does good, and the most insightful answer comes from Ria Kalluri, a researcher at Stanford, who reframes the query:

“Goodness. Benefit to humanity. These terms will always be in the eye of the beholder. Rather, we should ask how AI shifts power. Does it consolidate or redistribute that power?”

In May of this year I added an anti-AI declaration on every page of my site, and in September I made my case that AI slop defines the online experience in this era—an argument that’s supported by Merriam-Webster’s recently announced choice of “slop” as 2025’s word of the year. Still, it wasn’t until I read Hao’s book in October that things really clicked into place for me. I cannot recommend the book enough.