Spring(ish) 2025 Update

Look, there are crocuses blooming in some places right now

Mar 07, 2025

Reading time: about 7 minutes

A cluster of purple and white striped crocuses in rich green grass with a little bee polinating one of them.

Hullo hullo hullo lovely people!
There are a fair few number of ya’ll who are new subscribers in the last couple of weeks. I am due for an update blog post, and figured I could use the opportunity to introduce myself to those who have just started following my blog.

I do have a sassy, fun long bio on my website, written by my friend and fellow writer, Ronan, so I’ll keep this short. I am a mixed-media artist, multi-genre writer and Buddhist chaplain who has also been a podcast producer and host, graphic designer, fundraiser, brand manager, project manager, animator, and youth worker.

Through this here lovely blog I share some of my writing—mostly essays, creative non-fiction and poetry,1 although I am also a fiction writer. I have completed six manuscripts in my life2, but they are largely unrevised and have only been read by a small handful of folks.

My current artistic practice is focused on a mixed-media embroidery series called Sacred Love/Sacred Lives, as well as several thangka pieces, including an as of yet top secret commission I just got.

I also produce a ‘zine called From the QILT2BAG+ as a way to uplift and celebrate other 2SLGBTQIA+ creative folks. More about that in the update below.

Up until last year I had an income of about $3000 to $6000 a year as a writer and an artist, but this past year has seen a definite shift in my career. I feel like I am finally truly doing what I love mostly full-time. While I have yet to make enough to hit the threshold of “reportable for taxes” income, I genuinely think I am on my way there.

For all those who have been supporting me for some time, this is an exciting year of my career truly taking off and I owe so much to all of ya’ll for that. For those just joining, what you’ll see below is a years-long effort of building community and connections to a place where maybe…maybe I’ll actually start “making a living” from my art and writing. I use a significant portion of my income to support other folks in their creative works, and to help grow and strengthen the communities I call kin, and this year I’m going to be able to fund so many things.

And now, without further ado, an update on All The Things for ya’ll!

From the QILT2BAG+:

While I’ve had to do some timeline adjustments for contributors getting their work in, this project is continuing along as scheduled. The plan is to print the next four issues come April so I can distribute them to everyone who helped with the crowdfunding campaign and all contributors in May. The ‘zine will then be available for the rest of the public in June.

There is also a possibility of an official launch party for the ‘zine, which I’ll keep ya’ll updated on.

For now, here is the cover art for issues 5 and 6, by artists Michaela (Queer Crips) and Ris (Liberation):

Thangkas!:

As mentioned above, I have a new thangka commission! For now I’m keeping it secret as it’s still very early days and I want to make sure my patron is comfortable as and when I share about it. For my inner-circle folks3 there will likely be more information about this project in the next month or two.

But the big news, I have recently finished a thangka! I completed a colourful version of the Green Tara I originally drew back in 2017. I’ve been working on this piece since early 2024, when I was learning about the relationship between Green Tara and Avalokiteshvara.

As of this writing, Green Tara is with a professional photographer for digital capture so I can get prints made. Once she’s done there, I’ll be taking her in for framing. I am hoping to do a print pre-sale come April, but I’m not working on too tight of a timeline for this. It’s more of a nice to have done project.

Four progress photos of Green Tara showing detail and shading over time, to the almost finished image. The final piece has a washi and Tibetan paper background and will be unveiled at a later date.

Sacred Love/Sacred Lives:

Thanks to the artist residency I did in January (more on that coming in a not-too-future post!) I was able to make significant progress on this series. I’ve completed four pieces so far this year! I’ve got three more nearing completion, one I just started recently, and another collaboration lined up to get started soon.

In extra exciting news, Calgary Arts Development reached out to do a feature on me and this series! It was a fun interview to do as the author really did their research. It’s lovely to talk about this project and share it more broadly, and the article is beautifully written.

The four pieces I’ve completed so far in 2025: Disabled Love is Sacred, two straws in a glass of water, Intersex Lives are Sacred cross stitch, Disabled Lives are Sacred pastel stitched mask, and Indigenous Lives are Sacred Cross stitch.

That Top Secret Thing I mentioned back in my end-of-year wrap-up post…

So my inner-circle already knows about this and got a sneak peak at some of it, but I figure it’s cool to share more widely now. First, some context! Waaaaaay back in 2005 I did drag for the first time and loved it so much that I started producing a regular drag show so I could do it every month, thus Fake Mustache was born.

If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that I said I started it in 2005, and I am happy to say Fake Mustache continues to this day, which means…drumroll: 2025 is the TWENTIETH anniversary of Fake Mustache!

There are gonna be many a celebration for and about it throughout the year, and thanks to some funding from Calgary Arts Development, we are also making a graphic novel about the troupe! Specifically, I am writing and Kat Simmers is drawing a graphic memoir to capture the twenty-year history of Canada’s longest running drag king4 show.

This is one of my big projects for all of 2025, as I take the interviews and stories of various troupe members over the years and turn them into scripts for Kat to illustrate. There will be more coming out about the project in coming months, definitely by the late summer and into autumn. I just wanted to share how cool and fun and important it is to be writing down a small slice of local queer history and doing so that puts it into the wider context of trans and queer liberation.

*Phew* That was a big update, I know. It helps me to write all this stuff out because it helps remind me why my schedule is full right now (in a really good way) and all the ways in which I’m building and strengthening community through my writing and art.

May it all be of benefit!

The Blog of KSCHatch

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