Blog / 2026 / Breaking Through (With a Postcard)

His cool was the kind of cool that 18 year old boys specialize in. He was on the dais with a handful of other people, introducing himself as part of a panel of intergenerational experts, and he’d just announced that he’d been accepted at a well known art school in New York this fall. As the audience clapped and cheered for him, he only stared off into the distance, seemingly looking into his grand future.

His cool was the kind of cool that intimidates me.

I was thoroughly enjoying the conference, and, maybe for that reason, I wasn’t about to risk even a “hello” to this teenage artist. But, as often happens at these events, the cool kid and I ended up chatting in a small group of attendees. I’d been handing out postcards of my art and, once we were talking, I saw no reason not to give a small colorful print to him as well.

His response felt like breaking through, for him as well as for me:

“You actually have your own style!”

More than a statement of fact, it was a declaration that moved through his core and exited his person through a mouth that had unexpectedly formed an O of wonder. The detachment he’d cultivated as a way to define his new adult self from the effusive child he’d been could not hold up in the face of his big feelings.

He needed me to know that he could see me.

As of this week, I’ve been a full-time artist for 23 years. In 2017, a tech company named a photo filter “the Seemel” in honor of my style. I’ve been invited to speak about creativity in the US, Canada, and Europe on numerous occasions, notably at TEDxGeneva. The Oxford University Press, Newsweek, and Hyperallergic are just a tiny fraction of the publishers and media outlets that have featured my art, and I’ve worked with Princeton University, Mural Arts Philadelphia, and Jobs With Justice among many other institutions. In recent years, I’ve received a project grant from the Puffin Foundation and an individual artist fellowship from the NJ State Council on the Arts.

The recognition from a cool kid is obviously different from all these accolades, but it’s no less important. I may not be able to include his awe on my résumé, but I hold it in my heart. His validation gives me the courage to keep on keeping on, which, to my mind, is the hardest part of making a life with art.