This year has been full of travel and art making. I wanted to reflect on the progress I've made as an artist and share with you some of what I consider the highlights.

January

Traveled to Indonesia . An important and emotional trip since I had not been back to my childhood country since graduating high school in 2006.

February

Tokyo had an epic snowfall of 22 centimeters (8.6 inches), a record for Japan, and myself, as I can't recall living in a place that's had as much snow.

March - April

I began completing several memorable paintings, most notably these in order of when I painted them, along with "Ramen", the latest addition to my Siamese illustrations.

And we enjoy our first cherry blossom season in the land of the rising sun. So many beautiful blossoms on every street!

May - June - July

Anson leaves for his third deployment and I slip into painting and pole dance to cope. The longer we do this Navy thing, the longer we're parted, the more difficult it becomes to say goodbye each time.

In June I begin my second 12-week session of Noah's Art Camp. In late 2013, when this whole painting "thing" started I began with Noah's Art Camp. It set me in a direction that allowed me to study on my own and fostered a creative environment, one that led to all the paintings you've seen this year.

August - September

Anson returns home from his deployment for a short while. On September 9th we climb Mt Fuji. I am so proud of this man for being my climbing buddy, encouraging me all the way and even carrying my light load of water and snacks. The challenge of climbing 5,000ft of rough volcanic terrain in 3 hours time is an accomplishment I'm proud to claim! While it may be late this is a blog post I intend to publish!

I complete my first Indiegogo campaign in August, a cat calendar of 12 new siamese illustrations. Being my first crowd-funded project it was a challenge and I learned so much from it!

October

This month was full of preparations for two art shows, the NEX Fall Bazaar and an upcoming Design Festa. I also complete "Wise One" and "Pool of Stars".

November

Design Festa is the first weekend in November and my mother flies here to visit. She gets some wonderful shots at the show and we spend lots of time sewing here at home. To end the month I fly to Bali for my first Bali Illustration Workshop. It's hard to summarize all that I learned there but to be sure it was a huge step for me in improving as an artist.

December

Since returning I finish a little sketch "Bamboo & Tea". Anson returns from deployment, we get a GoPro and all is well in the world!

Till next year! Here's to more painting and shared explorations of the world!