Between Seasons

Newsletter - 23 May 2026

Hello everyone,

I’ve been loving the golden evening light lately, and the way it touches the autumn trees.

In my previous newsletter, I shared that I had submitted an application to Creative NZ. Recently I received the result, and unfortunately, the application was not successful.

At this stage in my life, even making the application itself felt like a challenge, so honestly, I haven’t experienced a huge emotional shake from the outcome. However, I truly believe it was an application where I gave everything I could at that moment.

The time spent fully engaging my senses and thoughts, the people who kindly wrote support letters for me, and the words they shared -  all of it has remained with me as a profound gift.

I now feel genuinely grateful that I had the courage to try.

As the time for our move to Japan slowly approaches, there are of course many things to prepare and organise.

But among all of that, what feels most important to me is to carefully honour the things I still want to do here in New Zealand, a place I have lived in for over twenty years.

One of those things I would like to do is submit a piece to an art award. This was also one of the pieces of advice given to me by someone I deeply respect.

I hope to share more about that process with you in the near future.

Alongside this, I have also been working on a commissioned painting.

For a long time, I have quietly struggled with the expression of “loosening” in my work, and with my own anxiety around incompleteness.

Even though daily life remains busy, my mind feels quiet at the moment, and I feel it is finally the right time to face those feelings properly through my painting practice.

I also hope to continue sharing parts of the process and progress on Instagram, little by little and at my own pace.

Thank you so much, as always, for reading.

Warmly,

Yae