“Expect the Unexpected” ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

View in Browser

Artwork by Kevin Tseng

July 2025 / No.24

Notes on my art and creative process

 

I considered starting a newsletter three years ago, spent some time figuring out what format felt natural, and sent out the first “Much Snow, Much Hay” in August 2023. In that issue, I wrote about hollyhocks — a flower unfamiliar to me before moving to Montana — yet they evoked something I could not pinpoint. While doing a painting of my mother’s childhood home, I learned my grandmother had a large hollyhock garden. I appreciate those full-circle moments that add layers of meaning to life.

I did not expect this newsletter to become so meaningful to me. I simply gathered various life-threads and wove them into a cohesive show-and-tell. Yet I was delighted by hidden gems that would emerge from the weaving. I had always thought my creative interests and life’s events were separate entities, but connections were revealed as each draft progressed to the final version. It was both an exciting process and also a bit stressful: would a gem appear every time?

 

From the start, I did not want “Much Snow, Much Hay” to feel like a burden; I wanted it to be casual and easy-breezy. I hoped to maintain a good rhythm of writing it early in the month so I would not panic as the last-week deadline approached. This past year, I rarely followed that “comfortable” timeline and the Neurotic College Student within me frets about this newsletter more than I’d like.

So after two years, I am going to take a break and reset. I am quite sure I will return at some point with one condition: that it be wholly fun again.

 

At the end of that first issue, I mentioned my amusement (and vexation) with the 100% dark-purple wall of hollyhocks that annually grew in the garden despite the variety of seeds planted. Well, this year my dream finally came true with a mixed bloom of light pinks, medium pinks, whites, and — yes — still some dark purples (which were never unwelcome, I just hoped for an array of colors). As for the future of this newsletter, my plan is to not have a plan and use the row of hollyhocks as inspiration: what shows up is what shows up.

(Although, is it too much to wish for a few yellow hollyhocks in 2026…???)

 

If you are a new-ish subscriber, here are links to the previous issues:

2 0 2 3
No.1 “The Hollyhock Hunter”
No.2 “To and Fro”
No.3 “Mr. Green In the Library With the Wallpaper”
No.4 “In Which I Learn a Lesson From Gwyneth Paltrow”
No.5 – “Lion, Witch, Triangulation”

2 0 2 4
No.6 “What. A. Racket.”
No.7 “A Change of Pace #1”
No.8 “Cattail Corner”
No.9 “Paintings of Paintings of Paintings”
No.10 “Fancy Seeing YOU Here”
No.11 “Put a Bird On It!”
No.12 “The Young and the Flightless”
No.13 “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”
No.14 “Miss Scarlet In the Shed With the Knife”
No.15 “The Fleeting Factor”
No.16 “Look Up”
No.17 “Interesting Places”

2 0 2 5
No.18 “Little Pink Houses”
No.19 “A Change of Pace #2”
No.20 “Glimmerings”
No.21 “The Next Hour”
No.22 “Tree Talk”
No.23 “51 Forks”
No.24 “Expect the Unexpected” (this one!)

 

Website: KevinTseng.com
Instagram: @DrawKevinDraw
Subscribe to Newsletter

 

Thank you for reading — no really, thank you :^)

All content ©KevinTseng (unless otherwise stated)

8900 U.S. Hwy 2 #190791, Hungry Horse, MT 59919, USA

Powered by Squarespace

Unsubscribe