Some weeks the studio is quiet. This wasn’t one of them. Between putting my work in front of jurors and building new ways for you to explore it, this one was full. Here’s what happened.
Putting the work out there
This week I applied to two juried shows.
The first is the Peninsula Art League’s 24th National Fine Art Show in Gig Harbor, which runs Nov 14 through Dec 2 at the Vintage Aero Museum. This year’s jurors come from the Tacoma Art Museum and the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, so it means a lot to have my work in front of them. I entered three pieces from my Strawberry Point series, #11, #12 and #13: a band of dusk over still water, a lone hiker framed through a hole worn in a driftwood trunk, and a bleached whale skull on the sand. Results come out Oct 29, and I’ll let you know.
I also joined the Woodinville Arts Alliance as an Artist Member and entered Strawberry Point #1–3 in their 2026 Sip & Stroll Artists’ Exhibition. Joining a local arts community feels like a good step, and I’m looking forward to meeting the artists around me.
Strawberry Point
Most of this week’s energy went into one series. Strawberry Point Backpacking Trip comes from three days on the wild Pacific coast of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. I painted it in watercolor pastel, working small and quickly from my own photos, trying to catch what a camera only half catches: the scale of the place, the quiet, and how free you feel carrying everything you need on your back.
The full series now has its own gallery on tjm.art, with prints and most of the originals available. It’s also first in Featured on the homepage and in the hero carousel.
A gallery you can walk through
This is the one I’m most excited about. At tjm.art/play you can walk through my work in a Quake-style 3D dungeon, right in your browser, on your phone or your computer.
Every painting hangs at its true size in themed rooms. In each room there’s a video hologram of me playing guitar. You can read my three art books page by page on lecterns, splat the walls with a paint gun, and find the portal to the Hyperspace Realm, where the machine elves live. If you see a piece you love, you can walk right up to it and take it home through the real checkout.
I’ve always wanted people to feel like they’re standing in a room with my paintings. This is the closest I’ve come online.
More of the archive, out in the open
I also opened up more of my history:
- Archived Paintings, with 54 painting pages.
- Older Work, with 65 paintings, and the originals are now available.
- A new Exhibitions page.
- A homepage that previews the Painting Wall and crossfades through the hero images.
- A sharper, zoomable Painting Wall that shows all my work in one place.
In the store, unframed prints now come with a half-inch border, and I’ve refreshed every framed print option.
Come take a look
If you only have a minute, start with the Strawberry Point series. If you have ten, step into the dungeon at tjm.art/play, find the hologram, and see what’s behind the slipgate. I’d love to hear which room you liked best.
Thanks for following along. See you next week.
— TJ