Blog / 2026 / Comfort Food for My Hands

The interlocking pattern in this rainbow heart image has been my main doodle since I was a teenager. It’s something I return to whenever my creativity is flagging. The swirls get me out of my head and into my hands.

That’s exactly what I needed at the beginning of 2026, when I made this piece. The state of the United States seemed pretty dire back in January, even though we hadn’t yet started an unprovoked and murderous war in Iran. I rainbow-swirled this heart into being as a way of helping me feel present in my studio.

More recently, I brought the swirls into the third dimension for the first time in over thirty years of doodling in this way, creating a crown of fire for my Halloween costume. I’d made the bobblehead skull for past celebrations, but I wanted to transform the death head into a representation of climate change. For my 2026 iteration of our mortality, I added the swirling crown as well as the rain cloud, the flashes of lightening, the smokey orange sky-legs, and the bag full of pollution—AKA the bag for my Halloween haul.

Working on the crown calmed me, as the interlocking pattern always does. It’s helped make the lead-up to the midterm elections a little more manageable.

Today, as I focus on remaining hopeful, I find myself looking for comfort food for my heart. By which I mean community. By which I mean you.

What’s your swirling doodle? How do you center yourself?

A decade ago, I figured out with the help of a friend that my interlocking abstract pattern was inspired by MC Escher’s work. You can see all the pretty that these patterns make on shirts and throw pillows and journals among the abstract designs in my print shop!