I never bought an NFT before this project, and I haven't bought one since.

But any chance you have to create something — whether it's a skyscraper or a set of pixelated cat NFTs — is a platform to bring a dose of love and truth into the world, knowing that it will ripple out in ways you may never fully comprehend. I try to do that with everything I do, because otherwise I feel like I'm wasting my life.

These were 60 small wooden panels that I painted together as one piece, then broke apart and sent individually to family, friends, and acquaintances for the holidays.

Expressing love like this was not all that comfortable for me. It was a personal challenge but I knew it was the right thing. Life is series of moments where we can either give in to our fears, or do something great despite them. I don't always take the better path, but I try. And the small wins, like this, add up.

When something is bothering me there's usually an underlying shift in thinking that can clear it up. It takes time to go down and find it, but it's always worth it. Because next time I have that feeling, I can remember that I dove into the heart of it, and found the shift that shattered the illusion.

I think all the world's wisdom has been discovered through a similar process. It's the same process as design and creativity in general. Diving down to understand your own emotions until you get to an insight is the same skill of mindful focus that is required to dive into a design problem until you make a breakthrough.

Sometimes I memorialize these insights so I don't forget them. These are a series of small paintings that I made when I was using my desk as an art studio during COVID.

In my high school art class, I remember a teacher telling me that the purpose of art is to make us think. She had good intentions, but I think she was wrong.

Because the greatest art ever made actually has the rare ability of stopping our thoughts dead in their tracks. The Pietà, like a spectacular sunset, stuns your mind still with its beauty.

Since I can't paint like Van Gogh or Monet, I took the easy way out with this one. It remains only aspirational.

One day, in search of an insight to quiet my anxiety, I decided to dive deeper and deeper until I found the deepest insight I could possibly find: the one that would quiet every form of my anxiety, forever. My brain almost broke. But to my surprise, I actually found it. In that moment I felt more alive and at peace than I ever had before.

Now, it's just a matter of remembering it, and returning to the place that insight took me to. That part, no doubt, takes a lifetime.