Blog / 2026 / 2026 New Jersey Individual Artist Fellowship

I was just awarded an artist fellowship by the State of New Jersey!

I applied a couple years ago and didn’t get it, so, in the hopes of helping other artists in their journey, I’m sharing my successful application and talking a bit about the one that didn’t make the cut as well.

The NJ Individual Artist Fellowship applications are reviewed by panels of peer evaluators, who are shown only images of the work and a brief statement, if the applicant chooses to write one.

Since no names or biographical details are revealed to panelists, that means the award I was given was based on the portraits shown above—of authors Carmen Machado and James Baldwin, activist Rümeysa Öztürk, baby Violet, and artists Hope Gaburo and Shimoda—along with the statement pasted below:

I know I’m creating still portraits, not videos of people. But always in my work, there’s a sense of the breath of the people I’m painting, because a portrait is incomplete without it. We’re always moving and breathing, so a likeness of a person is a likeness of the space they take up and the breath that moves through them.

Those likenesses can be three feet tall or smaller than a standard sheet of paper, but all are made with acrylic paint, applied in dynamic brushstrokes to remind us that, at an atomic level, matter is energy. Movement is built into every particle—to the point that, if we pay attention, it becomes clear that the only solid thing in this world is change.

These portraits are my petition to a world gone greedy and small-minded: please look at each other and tune into the breath we all share.

Meanwhile, when I applied for the 2024 fellowship, these seven images above plus the portrait below are what I submitted. At the time, applicants were allowed to provide the panelists with eight examples of their work, and I decided to try to share images of all the different kinds of art I make, including my queer pride duck and tiger, a corgi portrait, and four paintings from my series about mental health along with the commissioned portrait of a child below.

When this work was rejected, I thought again about the panelists and how the NJ Individual Artist Fellowship review process would require them to look at hundreds of applications. I resolved that the next time I submitted art I’d present a more focused sample. Happily, that worked!

Applying for stuff is hard. Sometimes I feel like I know what I’m doing, like my twenty-plus years as a full-time artist add up to me being an expert. In some ways, I am, but, even with all my experience, I still end up misunderstanding the assignment now and again. It’s why persistence is just as important as courage and passion if you want to be an artist.