Dear reader,

I promise I did not plan to say this thing.

My artist-talk on Day 2 of Sketcher Fest was titled - The BYOB Approach to Travel Sketching (BYOB in this case meaning, Bind Your Own Book). It was about the sense of play I have recently incorporated into my sketchbook habit - binding custom sketchbooks, and inserting fold-out sections, pop-up art, & sliding tabs. I would speak about making art for play, and paper-craft as a supplement of visual creativity. But I went astray. Maybe because I never script my talks, or rehearse what I will say. I just start talking?

That morning, I woke up, got ready, and went downstairs for the breakfast buffet. On my phone, over bread and eggs, I searched for “Mary Oliver poems”. I did not know what I was looking for, but I needed something as direction for the day.

This was the third search result on the page:

Reader, many years ago, on a sun-drenched morning off the coast of Montenegro, a Russian scuba-instructor taught me a valuable life lesson. If I close my eyes, I can still see that moment. I am a dozen feet underwater, struggling to hold my position, flapping flippered-feet, waving arms about wildly, breathing hard. I look up at the glittering surface of the water and suddenly I am consumed by the knowledge that, even so close to the surface, I could easily die right now. I am out of my element, flailing. I see the scuba-instructor then, floating a few feet above me, completely still. His legs are crossed, his hands resting on his knees in the meditative posture. He breathes deeply, his chest expands, and he ascends a few feet. Slowly, he exhales, and his chest contracts, and he descends a few feet. I recall what he had said when we were walking to the water in ungainly fashion in our scuba suits, carrying heavy oxygen cylinders. To be in control, you have to give up the illusion of control.

I was on a solo vacation across Europe right before leaving for the US, having quit my PhD program in the Netherlands to lead this new life you know me for. And this is how I picked up the most important rule to being an artist. To be moved by the currents of the world over which you have little control. To allow your body to turn. To lose the sure footing, and not seek it anymore. To surrender to waves and the waves beneath waves, to currents and the currents beneath currents. To breathe.

So I let the poem move me. I turned with its currents and, later that afternoon, I said some things I needed to say.

Reader, because it is a serious thing just to be alive, we are not here to make pretty drawings in perspective.

The job of the urban sketcher is bigger than that. In a distracted society, we are here to bear witness. We are here to pay attention. Attention paid over time, is what the poets call love. Attention spread across time, is what philosophers call being alive. Attention as the product of time, is what quantum physicists describe as the essential nature of reality.

Vulnerability is strength. Honesty is the only virtue. Your self on the page is the only reliable indicator of artistic value in the broken world. Because the artist has an important role in society, if society is to function properly. The role of the artist is to clarify what is beauty in confusing times.

It could mean something
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

(I no longer blame myself for unexpected tangents, but the people who keep inviting me to speak at things.)

💌 On popular request, I am offering limited, signed copies of this zine (shipping only within North America)

Big Small Talk

Sketcher Fest was a great opportunity to get face-time with people who love my work on social media, this newsletter, and the SneakyArt Podcast. Every interaction was special and, if you are reading this, please say hello in the comments! 👋🏼

Unlike the previous times I have attended though, this year we also had a lot of time and opportunity to interact with other Guest Artists. Over cola and beer and gin & tonic, over salads and burgers and flatbreads, we spoke about the business of being an artist of the broken world. We spoke about

• existing vs exploding on social media, and what either option costs in time, energy, and annoyance

• chopping our art into bits of content for the algorithmic gods to judge

• the role of art in authoritarian times

• imposter syndrome and living with it

• whether a culture of neoliberal consumerism leaves room for revolution

I have few opportunities to talk about these things in Vancouver, so I am glad that brings my drawing heroes to this corner of the world every year. I make the most of it.

• I am doing two workshops in Edmonds (WA) next month. These will be my last in-person sessions this summer. Folks in and around the area, grab a seat (or two): Building a Spiral of Curiosity | Drawing Tiny People

• My next open studio (July 31) is now a two-person collaboration with the amazing MiMOKO Ceramics. Monique is a wonderful ceramics artist who has her studio in the same place as me. This year, both of us are exploring new directions in our respective works. Drop by to see a lot of new things. Also, we are officially (secretly) working on a piece together!

📫 SneakyArt Mail Club

This month’s zine to paying subscribers is a Workbook for People Watching. If you are a paying subscriber interested in getting physical zines from me every month, email me your mailing address. If you are a free reader, grab this offer to become a paying subscriber, then email me your mailing address.

Thank you for reading. I am so glad to have a space in your inbox.

The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. I share the best pages from my sketchbook, and the best ideas from my journey as an artist and writer.

Some good links for you:

🖼️ A few seats (one? two?) remain in my workshop tomorrow at Sketcher Fest. Grab them!

✍🏼 I spoke with VolumeOne - the first newspaper to publish my art - about returning to Wisconsin this month as a Writer-in-Residence at the Eaux Claires Festival.

🎟️ I am in a new space, sharing new art, prints, and all-new ideas. Drop by the SneakyArt Open Studio in Vancouver on 31 July. This event is free and open to the public.

🖼️ I will be back in Edmonds (WA) to run two workshops on 15 & 16 August. One is about drawing your world without hesitation and building a sketchbook habit. The other is about drawing tiny people. Sign up anytime this weekend to get a 20% discount!

I am offering two NEW zines at Sketcher Fest this weekend. Both will be on sale at the Sketchbook Fair & Market on Sunday.

Do you like to hold tiny art in your hands? Sign up to become a paying subscriber and get SneakyArt zines every month in your mailbox.

Get 30% off forever

Here is a peek at last month’s zine:

It’s a beautiful day in my corner of the world. My bags are packed - sketchbooks and clothes and ink and things - and I driving down across the border to Edmonds (WA) for Sketcher Fest.

Thank you for reading.

Are you in the Sneaky Art Mail Club yet? I am making zines every month and mailing them out to paying subscribers. If you are already a paying subscriber and would like to get them, send me an email with your address. Free readers, grab this offer to join the club.

🖼️ The next open-studio is on 31 July - new art, zines, block-prints, and more. Sign up to RSVP.

✍🏼 This August, I am doing two workshops in Edmonds (WA, USA). Learn to draw tiny people and/or build a spiral of attention.

💻 shared with me a wonderful way to keep a journal in the form of their new Domestika course on Creative Ethnography.

The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. I share pages from my sketchbook and good ideas from the journey to be an artist and writer.

Summer’s people are not like winter’s crowd. They linger and luxuriate. They lie down and live it up. They languish… They have arrived, and they have nowhere else they would rather be. They live around other people of summer, together or in alone-liness. They are reaping winter’s reward at this sun-starved edge of the world.

Last weekend, I was a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival. I met incredible people, ate very good food, and Make (Sneaky) Art sold out at the pop-up bookstore.

Canada lost to Morocco this week, and the skill deficit was glaringly obvious. This is the end of our World Cup journey, but Canadians are quite proud of what this little team has achieved.

I will be in Edmonds (WA, USA) this weekend for Sketcher Fest. Are you planning to be there as well? Drop a comment if so. I am bringing lots of sketchbooks, and many linocut stamps for visitors to my table.

Making this Month’s Zine

When I was getting ready for my workshop in New York this May, someone reached out encouraging me to apply to the New Yorker with my art. But I did not do it. A broken thing of myself that I carry, with all its incongruous pieces that no longer fit, is a strange fear of rejection. I do not need it. I do not care for it. But it is there, and it affects me sometimes.

Reader, what broken things of yourself do you carry around?

Leave a comment

I started the Mail Club for two reasons:

❤️ to make my work (words and drawings) into a physical product

❤️ to share real, tangible things with the people who support my work

In the paywalled section below, I share the process of putting together this zine.

📫 Making the Zine of June

• Cover: As the editor of my own magazine, I took vicious pleasure in rejecting the initial ideas by my cover designer (also me).

Read more

This month I had a book event in a small, independent bookstore in a mall in White Rock. Not many people showed up, but some came just to see me. I always say yes to small bookstores because it is good to be in real places meeting real people, and because I love small bookstores.

Last week I was at a kiosk in a packed mall in North Vancouver, with many new prints for sale. Very few people showed even passing interest, and I made only 3 sales all day. I learned that even though it is good to be in real places meeting real people, I need to identify which places are not good for me.

So, the idea of this month is to just do things without always obsessing over returns, but also sometimes not do that. I hope that makes perfect sense.

I was so bothered by the pop-up experience that I skipped the next day, even though I had already paid for the spot, to join an urban sketch meetup instead.

I sat under a tree by the side of the road with a cool, sweet coffee-thing and let the sketchbook heal me.

Does your sketchbook have healing powers too?

Leave a comment

What do you do all day at a pop-up when you don’t make any sales? You bring a zine to read, of course.

This month’s zine - that is going in the mail to all paying subscribers who have signed up for it - is based on The New Yorker magazine for a couple of reasons:

• I was in New York last month and this zine is full of those drawings.

• Someone asked why I don’t submit my work to the New Yorker and I did not have the heart to admit that I am terrified of rejection, so terrified that I would rather make my own DIY version of the New Yorker than submit work for them to inevitably turn down. I just responded, “Oh wow that’s a great idea!” and left it at that.

In case this is the first you are hearing about The SneakyArt Mail Club:

❤️ I am making monthly zines for paying subscribers

❤️ I am sending it all over the world

❤️ You can sign up to get The SneakyArt Post in your physical mail too.

All you have to do is become a paying subscriber and email me your mailing address!

Subscribe now

A Few Good Links

💻 [Course Waitlist] My courses are reopening for registration this week. Sign up to the waitlist to get a special offer and all the relevant info in your email.

📚 [Buy the book] Every now and again, someone reaches out to share that they have my book, and I am reminded how good it is to have a book out in the world. Do you have a copy yet?

🖼️ [Teaching in Edmonds] I am leading two workshops in Edmonds (WA) this August. If you live around the area, sign up and join me!

Thank you for reading. I am so glad to have a space in your inbox this week.

Last week, I was invited to speak with creatives in Vancouver about some foolish things I have done over the years to be a sneaky artist. I am writing a longer post about it but, until then, I offer you this image of my last slide:

👀 Sneaking in to Sketcher Fest

In keeping with the spirit of all things sneaky, I have snuck into this year’s programming at Sketcher Fest as a last minute entry.

On Day 1, I am offering my popular workshop - Building a Spiral of Attention - which also forms a core part of my book, Make (Sneaky) Art. This workshop will help you defeat the blank page, and start and finish every drawing — no matter how complicated the scene.

On Day 2, I will present The BYOB Approach to Travel Sketching, where BYOB stands for Bind Your Own Book! This is my first opportunity to share how I combine sketchbook-making and paper-craft to enhance the creative decisions of every page of my travel journals.

Day 2 also includes a demo with Art Spot, the lovely arts store in downtown Edmonds. All day, I will be sharing my recent sketchbooks, offering prints for sale, and signing copies of my book at the Sunday Sketchbook Fair.

Grab your tickets to come see me and hang out with hundreds of wonderful sketchers and artists.

Buy tickets!

📪 I do MORE foolish things

In keeping with the spirit of making unwise decisions based on enthusiasm and curiosity, I started a mail club for paying subscribers this month!

Reader, this is my year of investing time and energy into physical things - prints, zines, sketchbooks, craft, and the real people who care about my work. Every month - until this succeeds spectacularly or fails catastrophically - I will send tiny-zines about tiny things to paying subscribers in the mail.

Is this wise? Or not at all? Let’s find out.

To further enable my foolishness, grab this deal to become a paying subscriber. Find info in your welcome email to start getting The SneakyArt Post in your mailbox!

Get 30% off forever

✍🏼 I do at least ONE wise thing

I wanted to say a whole thing about AI this week, and wrote a 1000 or so angry/frustrated words. But … why? I deleted it. Here are some other good words I found instead:

🤖 “What if Silicon Valley can’t brute force their products — and ideology — onto the masses again? To take it even further, what if the dot com crash and the AI crash are actually part of the same 25 years epoch of technological stagnation? I’m not going to lie, I find this line of questioning exhilarating.” - The bubble is getting a lot bubblier, folks by Ryan Broderick

🤖 “AI is, as it stands, not economically viable for anybody involved other than the construction firms, NVIDIA, and the surrounding hardware companies benefitting from the irrational exuberance of a data center buildout that doesn’t appear to be happening at the speed we believed.” - AI is Too Expensive by Ed Zitron

The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. Share it with others who might like this in their inbox. And thank you for reading!

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Sometimes I like to think of a train window as a screen with images streaking rapidly across it. Maybe a clump of trees. Or, a pole with haphazard cables. A bird buffeted by the winds. A cloud, alone. As if I am not moving, and the people around me are not moving, and the train is not moving, but the rest of the world is speeding by, over my head, under my feet, for my pleasure.

🎙️ This Monday, come see me speak at Art Tank at the Beaumont Studios in Vancouver. I will share how I turned my curious sketchbook habit into a job, and the business of being an independent artist.

✍🏼 [Saturday June 6] I am drawing + signing books at Black Bond Books in White Rock.

The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. Share it with anyone who might like it in their inbox. Thank you for reading.

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I was in New York this weekend, walking its Great Streets in search of Tiny Beautiful Things. I hung out with some wonderful people, caught an improv show, ran a workshop in Central Park, ate long slices of pizza like a ninja turtle, and drew in the middle of Times Square. On the subject of ninja turtles, I also saw Raphael at The Met.

Watch this:

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🤳🏼 Live from Times Square

On Monday morning, a couple of hours before my bus to the airport, I hung out at Times Square with . Jason does Substack Live because no one will sign up to his OnlyFans. I don’t know why I said yes. I felt a little dirty afterward.

Towards the end of the session, he thanked me for my thoughts, so I felt obligated to add for the audience’s sake that no one should actually listen to me about anything. I am a fool, just like Jason is a fool. Like, can you believe he flew all the way from Australia to New York just to tell jokes? That I came from India, abandoning a career in science, to make drawings? If we had only worked hard and applied ourselves, we could have been middle-managers somewhere, instead of playing with fountain pens in the middle of the street on a Monday.

I mean, jfc…

Anyway, watch it below or read Jason’s thoughtful reflections on our chat:

What started as a live drawing session quickly spiralled into one of the most profound, quotable, and vital conversations I’ve had in years…

New York Cartoons

DMA#48: Drawing Sneaky Art in Times Square: AI Slop & the Radical Act of Paying Attention

Thank you Samantha Dion Baker, À Chacun Son Goût by Tarik O., Jenifer Douglas, Art by Polly, Pat Coakley, and many others for tuning into my live video…

Listen now

2 months ago · 33 likes · 6 comments · Jason Chatfield and Nishant Jain

🧀 This Summer, in Wisconsin

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with old friend Michael Perry about my upcoming appearance at Eaux Claires, the premier music —and now, writer’s— festival in Eau Claire (Wisconsin). This will be my first visit back since 2019.

Mike is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist, corporate speaker, volunteer firefighter/first responder, and amateur snowplow driver (learn more).

Also, coming up:

🗓️ [Vancouver] My workshop for USk Vancouver Sketch Weekend still has some seats left.

🗓️ [Edmonds WS1 and WS2] Two workshops this August with Art Spot in beautiful Edmonds, Washington.

This week, I am -

📖 Reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee,

🎱 Speed-running through the Connections archives of NYT Games, and

🤖 Contemplating AI again.

NYC was so full of AI-startups posters that paid subscribers must now brace for a long-read later this month - on AI, Derrida, and That Thing You Do.

A shout-out to fellow writers I saw this weekend - , , , , and .

Thank you for reading. I am glad to have a slice of your time and attention this week.

Dear Insider,

I am glad to have you with me this year, as I recommit to analog art and physical practices and craft and texture and all the things that make me a thinking/feeling human. This month, I am launching a test run of The Sneaky Art Mail Club: a new monthly zine in the mail to paying subscribers.

For the first issue, I will reac…

Read more

Dear reader,

As Rohan grows, his amazement and curiosity and enthusiasm infects our minds too. It is an unexpected gift of parenthood — a chance to re-live the pure joy of being alive, to shed our accumulated layers of cynicism and jadedness, to cleanse the doors of perception and see the world as it (perhaps) truly is.

Today’s post is a Sneaky Art Drop, a thing of few words but many lines, from my world to yours.

Under a grey sky of Vancouver spring, I looked to the north in the company of seagulls and ferry operators. Back at the studio afterward, I reinterpreted the ink drawing as a larger painting with acrylic gouache.

In the linocut journey, I am re-imagining my carvings as stamps, symbols, and icons. If the art is not a singular product, is there any aura at all? Icons can have many meanings, and symbols grow richer with context and usage. So, what is this art that lives this way?

Leave a comment

This week, I bow to Mary Oliver and Ursula K Le Guin for sending many beautiful words my way.

Saturday was Canadian Independent Bookstore Day. I designed tote-bags for my favourite bookstore in Vancouver - Nooroongji Books.

To commemorate the day, I sat outside the store with an array of linocut pieces, showing book-buyers different ways to interpret them - as patterns on their totes, as stamps in their books, or as pieces of tiny art for their homes.

I also signed a few books!

I have two upcoming workshops in Vancouver and New York.

🗽 [Sat 02 May] - Only ONE seat left in my workshop in Central Park, Big Apple. Grab it!

🇨🇦 [Sat 30 May] - At Vancouver Sketch Weekend, I am leading a workshop about building a 5-minute drawing habit that brings creativity and curiosity into your everyday life. Grab a seat here, and feel free to share with any friends living in the Vancouver area.

📖 Now reading

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Dear reader,

A few years ago, I began leaving art in public spaces for strangers to find. My work was feeling too precious, and I needed to get over it. By giving away something I had made, I sought control over my destiny, my creative journey, and my skills.

Vancouver, and the Pacific Northwest in general, is full of Little Free Libraries, and I carry extra drawings in my bag just in case I run into one.

When I find a Little Free Library, I leave inside a drawing and a little note for the stranger who might find it.

I do it without expectations, and have heard back from finders only 2-3 times. It happened with this one:

I have suffered 3 major traumas recently, like the 3 electricity charged cylinders in your sketch … On Sunday, I was a few minutes early to my first counselling session at 5pm and I took a few minutes in the plaza, I looked in the tiny library. Finding your sketch, reading the quote and your message. Hit me hard… I have tried in my way to be free - how could this stranger know that? I felt a wink of recognition from a stranger who knows being chained doesn’t stop you being free.

Thank you Nishant. You have helped me more than you could ever know.

Reader, as I am in the habit of asking myself difficult questions, I will often return to this classic: Why do we make art? Who cares? In my low moments, there is no answer. On the good days, I can come up with some good words.

Reading this email, I got another answer -

We make art so that it will be seen, and we will be seen. We make art because in it someone may see themselves too. The making and sharing of art, and these glimpses of self, are reminders of our interconnectedness. What is worth more than that?

Leave a comment

This morning there was another message in my inbox, this time from a reader asking after a post I had written about art in the age of AI. They could not find it, but a quote had stuck with them. I wrote that post in December 2023, at the start of the GenAI hype-cycle, and it closes with three big predictions:

• In two years, AI Art will be as inimitable and useful as stock photos. It will also be just as valuable as a stock photo.

• The value of verifiably human things will skyrocket.

• This is the best time to be an artist.

I am proud to stand behind each of them.

The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. I share thoughts and ideas and sketchbook pages from my journey as an artist and writer. You can support my work simply by sharing it with someone who might like it too.

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🗽 [New York City] I am doing a workshop in NYC on Saturday, May 2. Some seats are still available. Tap to learn more, share with someone you know, or sign up!

💻 [Draw Tiny People] My online course, with over 7 hours of content and a thriving community of 500+ sketchers, is reopening for registrations this week. Grab a special price by signing up to the waiting list!

This Friday, The Beaumont is hosting an exciting night of art, live music, a full bar, and raffle prizes. Art Incognito features 200+ anonymous artworks at a fixed price. You find out who made it only after buying it. Grab a ticket!

My studio doors will also be open from 6pm until 9pm. If you live in the Vancouver area, I hope to see you there.

Art Incognito at the Beaumont

Thank you for reading.

Dear reader,

In his extraordinary book Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, William Dalrymple speaks to a Muslim woman who emigrated from East-Central India to live at a Sufi shrine in Pakistan. She tells him a story of the famous Sufi saint, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar. Once, he was walking through the desert with his friend and needed to camp for the night. But neither of them had wood to build a fire. So Lal Shahbaz turned himself into an eagle and flew to hell to bring back fire to help them pass the cold desert night. But after a long time, he returned empty handed. When his friend asked why, he said - There are no fires in hell. Everyone who goes there, brings their own fire, and pain, from his world.

Reader, having put myself in the business of noticing people, I find that my mind also auto-assigns a simplicity to their lives, an obviousness to how they present themselves. That they are dressed exactly as they want to be. That they do the job that they wanted. That they wear their hair the way they intended. That they are who they are, and as they want to be. It is only me who is still undefined and uncertain, so uncertain.

When Jean-Paul Sartre said that hell is other people, he was speaking of how our awareness of other people makes us conscious of ourselves - our bodies, our peculiarities, and our various insufficiencies. So I wonder if what we see in other people is also a reflection of ourself. I wonder if we build our own versions of heaven and hell on earth every day.

Anyway, here are some complete beings that do not think about any of this stuff.

📚 Open Studio + Sketchbook Showing

On Saturday April 11, I am collaborating with local artist Harvey Chan to show sketchbooks from the last ~9 years of drawing from observation. We will talk about our individual journeys with sketchbook-ing, and how this practice informs our art practice.

I will also be showing latest linocuts, and many original drawings will be for sale.

Learn More

🗓️ Upcoming Events

🇨🇦 [25 April] On Canadian Indie Bookstore Day, I will be at Nooroongji Books on Granville Island (Vancouver) from 1-3pm, signing books and offering new prints for sale.

🗽 [2 May] I will be in New York City, drawing everywhere but also doing a workshop with the NYC Urban Sketchers. Sign up!

✍🏼 [15 & 16 Aug] I am doing two separate workshops at Art Spot in Edmonds (WA). Grab your seats here and/or here.

❤️ And suddenly, a book review

Quite randomly, I visited the Amazon page of Make (Sneaky) Art and found this delightful review:

Officially 6 months post release, it is heartwarming and invigorating to hear from someone in another part of the world that discovers the book, maybe in a bookstore, maybe from a recommendation. It reminds me that even if writing books does not pay very well, it pays to write a good book.

Thank you for reading. I am so glad to have a space in your inbox. If you liked this post, share it with a friend who gets unnecessarily existential over ordinary things. Jeez, what a way to live.

Dear reader,

After my most recent book event, I received a handful of emails asking about Imposter Syndrome and how to cure it. I refer them to my post titled, You were not supposed to cure your imposter syndrome -

I no longer believe in the idea that we can (or must) solve ourselves in order to achieve the highest rewards of our lives. We are in an age of self-optimization-even-at-the-cost-of-self-obliteration. I do not think art comes from such sanitized environments…

~ Continue reading

The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. Help it grow by sharing it with someone who may enjoy it too.

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🇨🇦 Readers in Vancouver, next open studio is April 11. More news soon.

❤️ Spotted, in places

This week, readers have shared their copies of Make (Sneaky) Art from Ottawa and Paris and Perth, and I am delighted that my words can find a home in bookstores and museums all over the world.

If you pick up my book in your part of the world, or find it somewhere at a bookstore or museum gift shop, do me the favour of sharing a pic. It really makes my day.

✍🏼 A Reason to Draw

A fair number of questions and emails I receive are about how someone can motivate themselves to draw when they are not very good at it. My frank answer is that you should not draw simply because you are good at it. In fact, skill level has nothing to do with this. At a recent book event, I spoke about reasons to draw that have nothing to do with making a good drawing.

Here is the first one. Drawing what you see is a way to pay attention and, as poet Maggie Smith wrote, attention is a form of love. In divisive and dangerous times such as these, our love needs to flow from us towards this world we share with others. We cannot restrict it to our private spaces, to the things we possess, and our close friends and family. Attention, which derives from the Latin attendre, which means “to stretch towards”, is the human superpower by which we touch and understand the richness of the spaces we inhabit with others.

The forces of this world dehumanize other people in other parts of the world. Their dead do not count. Their lives are lesser than ours. But … there are no others. No man is an island, we are a piece of the continent. To be fully human is to understand that dehumanizing others leads to our own degradation.

I do not know how to save you from your phone. But if it can begin in some little way in your little world, perhaps a little sketchbook can be the spark. Do not draw because you are good. Do not not-draw because you are bad. Drawing your neighbourhood, street corners, cafes, parks, and the people in them, is a way to notice, be curious, and creative, and to make something. I think this is how we replenish our humanity.

In this month’s Insider Hangout, we talked about sketchbook-craft and my plans for the next couple of sketchbooks I will make. I also shared updates from the current Special Project - teaching myself block-printing.

Here is a quick timelapse of the session:

Become a paying subscriber of this newsletter to get access to -

💻 Live sessions where I work on my linocut pieces

🎟️ Monthly hangouts where we share our creative journeys

📫 Special art giveaways in your mail

This year, in my journey to be more human, I am making more things by hand. If this is your goal too, join me:

Get 50% off forever

Thank you for reading.

Dear reader,

I do my best to live inside my little world. There is more than enough here to occupy my time and energy, with Rohan taking up most of the latter. For instance, I cannot recall the last time I slept past 6 am. By 7, we are a couple of tantrums in already. Still, when we go to daycare soon after, it hurts to see him run off to play with frien…

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Dear reader,

Creativity is regenerative. The more you use it, the more you have. Creativity does not sit quietly inside its own box. It insists upon spilling onto everything else. Every day, as I chip away at my creative block, I cannot help the existential questions. Why, my mind asks, why are we doing this? I try not to answer because answers are only word-games. And I want to stay away from words right then. But when I allow myself to lean back and run my eyes over the table-top, the words come charging back. The questions, always, and different kinds of answers.

The shapes fit inside one-inch squares. It takes me almost half an hour to draw, transfer, carve, test, clean, test again, before cutting away the negative spaces.

What I am left with is a kind of icon. When I hold it in my palm and consider an empty sheet of paper, it is not so different from holding a pen. But this pen can only make one kind of shape, in one kind of way, at one size, again and again.

What can an icon say by itself? What can it say in repetition? What can it say via patterns? Do neat rows say anything? Does a sudden deviation suggest? What does colour do?

I am suddenly conversing with myself in a different language. Words do not work here either. There is shape and form, but also abstraction. Sharp definition multiplies into hazy shapes. How do I feel about this shape or that? I try a dozen ideas on my cheapest paper. I try another half-dozen on my good paper.

I remind myself that I deserve to use the good paper.

Inking is an art too. You can smudge the page if you are not careful. The inch-long icon can slip between inky fingers. You can over-ink the block and flood the finer cuts. There are many human errors to think about.

I let some words in. I recall that not all mistakes are bad. We need more humanity in art and sometimes a mistake is just humanity leaving its mark. Since I do not know what I am doing, a mistake is as good a way to find out as any other.

I let the words in again when I am done for the day. I let them tell me what each piece should be called. I try to rationalize the titles. Do they fit? Do they have to? Do they describe? Do they invoke an effect?

💡 Read: Five reasons why in last week’s post.

💻 Another sketchbook is about to finish. I will flip through its pages at this month’s Insider Hangout. Become a SneakyArt Insider to get the invite in your inbox. If you are already a paying subscriber, catch the link in last week’s post.

💌 February’s Insider Giveaways went in the mail this week. 18 envelopes are headed to different parts of the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and Germany, with signed bookplates, tiny-people stickers, and a couple of linocut prints inserted randomly. The next giveaway is at the end of this month.

🙌🏽 [Watch] this short retrospective on the work of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiorastomi. And, [listen] to this beautiful song by a favourite musician, Ibrahim Maalouf.

Thank you for reading. I hope this post did good things for your inbox. This newsletter is an independent publication of secretly drawn art of the world. Help it grow by sharing it with someone who might enjoy it too.

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I was asked recently why I am doing linocut. What do I want from it? How will it aid my creative practice? I came up with five reasons.

❤️ I want to make more things by hand

In this time of cultural colonization by billionaires who produce nothing but plunder everything, working by hand is a way to hold on to my humanity.

❤️ I am challenging myself to think differently

At recent book events, I have been speaking about the neuromuscular processes, the mind-body connections, involved in drawing from observation. To rework a drawing as a linocut carving is a call to initiate new neural signals and thought processes, a chance to work different muscles (creative and literal).

❤️ I am taking time

To double down on process over results, to reset my brain to journey over destination, I must cherish the time spent. If I give it more time, is there more joy to be found?

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Dear reader,

This week, someone shared a passage from Make (Sneaky) Art on Instagram, and I was left faintly embarrassed, as I always am when reading my own words. Sometimes it feels like all good advice is the same. All good words are the same words, across decades, centuries, even millennia. Only arranged in different combinations for different audiences. Is every book, then, just every other book?

Chapter 1 of Make (Sneaky) Art ends with -

If there is a single lesson I can give you now, let it be this: do things without knowing what they will become, without expectations, and without over-planning. Just get into them. Life is more fun when it is led by curiosity.

~ What and Why: Being Sneaky in the Pursuit of Art

🎙️ On the Say Again Podcast

I met Amrita Tripathi at Jaipur Literature Festival last month, and we immediately got into a fascinating conversation about creative practices and the importance of paying attention to our world. This podcast episode is us recreating that magic.

Please tell me if it is any good. As with every interview I give, I find myself unable to listen afterward without cringing.

💌 Special Project 2026: Linocut

This year’s first Special Project with SneakyArt Insiders is to teach myself linocut block-printing. We did our second live session (of four) last week.

To be part of this creative journey, have a seat in all my live sessions, and get free art in your mail, become a SneakyArt Insider.

📚 Do you have the book yet?

If you are on the fence, consider these latest reviews from people I admire very much.

Buy the book

And if you are still unconvinced, grab this FREE excerpt to get into it without getting into it.

A session I moderated at Jaipur Literature Festival is now up on YouTube for the whole world to see. 🙈

☕️☕️ Coffee Coffee Sounds Sounds

I went to the local JJ Bean for a coffee coffee on a cold cold day. I heard some sounds and saw some things.

The SneakyArt Post is a monthly (plus one) newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. This was your February Plus One. Share it with anyone else who may enjoy it too.

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Thank you for reading. I am glad to have a space in your inbox this week.

Dear reader,

In today’s sneaky art drop, links to upcoming events, scenes from a quick trip to Mexico, and the importance of being earnest.

The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. If you like having it in your inbox, share this post with someone who might enjoy it too.

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🗓️ Thu Feb 19 | Speaking and drawing at the Michael Wright Art Gallery in Port Coquitlam. My book, Make (Sneaky) Art, will be available to buy via Western Sky Books. Join me.

🗓️ Wed Feb 25 | Drawing live and talking about sketchbook habits with the Art Focus Artists’ Association in Port Coquitlam. I will bring copies of my book for anyone interested. Sign up.

💻 Thu Mar 5 | A 90-minute online session about how to build a 5-min drawing habit with Gwartzman’s Art Supplies. This event is open to all. Grab a seat.

This week was our first time at an all-inclusive resort. With the sketchbook, I tried to make sense of this familiar-but-strange experience of being neither here nor there, an experience that was nevertheless refreshing and exactly what we needed.

We went to Mexico to get off our Vitamin D tablets and grab some actual sunshine, and to celebrate Rohan turning two.

Not only is Rohan two years old, in a lot of ways his parents are too. Becoming a parent is like being reborn because you lose all memory of the life you had before, because your plans, schedules, goals, and ideas, are completely transformed, and because you learn new things about life. I look at my son every day, and draw him, and listen to him, and think about him. I realize there are ways to live that I would forget if not for him.

Consider this: Rohan does not know cynicism yet. He does not know he should play it cool. He wears all his emotions on his face, in his being, in his attitude to the world and us. He does not know that this makes him vulnerable. As he grows, he will learn. Shame will come into being. An image of self, and a sense of its inadequacy, will manifest within him. It will bring self-doubt, confusion, and pain. But it is not here yet. Maybe not for many years. If he holds it off for long enough, is he better positioned to fight it off for life? I think it is my biggest responsibility as a parent to help preserve his naivete. To not let artifice and cool and disaffected disenchantment take over.

“Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.” - Bruce Mau, An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

Maybe that’s why we need to be around children?

So that I can learn it too, from watching him. That I must shed my own ideas of shame and self-loathing. That if I did, I could also let go of the various weapons of self destruction I have gathered to protect me from the world - jadedness, echo chambers, and the been-there-seen-that. I learned sometime ago that to be the artist that I wanted to become, I had to tear down my walls. But this lesson needs constant reminding and frequent resets.

Reader, this is my year of all going with my human-ness. It means not pretending to be a brand. It means not mistaking myself for a finished product. It means leaning on mistakes and weakness. It means strength through vulnerability. And it means leaving room to feel and express simple joys. These are, I believe, essential human things.

The Journey with SneakyArt Insiders

This year’s Special Project with paying subscribers is linocut block-printing. I am doing live work-sessions with Insiders over Zoom, where I draw, carve, and make prints, while chatting and answering questions. Our next session is this Tuesday.

To join, become a SneakyArt Insider and get the invite in your welcome email!

Also, this month’s Insider Giveaway is a signed bookplate in the mail to any paying subscriber who has an unsigned copy of my book, Make (Sneaky) Art. If that describes you, respond to this email with your mailing address!

Dear reader, thank you for your time and attention. It is a delight to speak with you in your inbox. Leave a comment, or hit reply to this email, to get in touch with me. I love to hear from you!

Dear Insider,

This year’s first Special Project - to learn linocut block printing - got off to a wonderful start. Many of you joined the impromptu Zoom session where I made a quick drawing followed by a not-too-bad carving. Apologies again for the short notice on the call. For the next session, find below a p…

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Dear reader,

This is your monthly Plus One from the SneakyArt Post. As of this year, I have switched from a weekly to a twice-monthly cadence. (For good reasons, I promise.)

The SneakyArt Post is a newsletter of secretly drawn art of the world. If you like having it in your inbox, share it with someone else who might enjoy it too.

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🎙️ Straight Lines are Overrated

I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with on the Creative Pep Talk podcast, one of my favourite shows about art and creativity. We spoke about the importance of embracing imperfection in your lines, your practice, and how a creative practice, done right, can bleed right into your life and make you a better human. I offered reasons why this is the best time in human history to be an artist.

Or, listen on your choice of podcast platform.

🇪🇸 Come to Spain with me?

I am leading a sketchbook-ing retreat in the south of Spain this September. It will include bookmaking, journaling, urban sketching, and expansive in-studio painting. This is your invitation to gift yourself a week full of art and creative expression among like-minded peers. Watch the video or tap the button below to learn more and grab your seat.

Learn More!

💻 Insider Hangout

Tomorrow (Friday, Jan 30) is the first Insider Hangout of this year. This is the exclusive Zoom meeting with paying subscribers of this newsletter. I will flip through my latest vacation sketchbooks, talk about the fun I had binding them myself, and discuss my next Special Project (learning linocut block printing).

To be part of Special Projects, and join tomorrow’s Hangout, become a SneakyArt Insider. Insiders, scroll to the bottom of this email for your link!

According to the proudly Cretan tour guide at the Palace of Knossos, the ruins of the palace (which dates from ~1700BC) came to be seen as a labyrinth by the Greeks more than 1000 years later. The myth of the Minotaur was always just a myth, as ruins tend to have. And there was no King Minos, because the Cretans did not have kings. Minos was, in fact, not even a name, just an honorary title. Even the palace may have actually been a temple, or town-hall, or something like a mall - with different rooms for different communal, civic purposes.

History becomes legend. And legends are embedded into storytelling by successive generations for their own purposes. To create their own myths that endure far beyond the reality of what was. So, what is truth? And does it matter? The only truth she insisted upon was that the Cretans had been making big buildings and big art and big culture for longer than those mainland Greeks. But an island can only go so far by itself…

Thank you for reading. How amazing is it to have a space in your inbox, and share my creative journey with you.

(Full sketchbook video coming soon…)

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To begin, thank you. You have stuck around while I was too busy to offer anything in return for your support. Meanwhile, your generosity has kept me going as an independent artist and writer, as a person dedicated to curiosity and creative self-expression. This will be a pivotal year, full of Special Projects shared exclusively with you and…

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