Time + Space

Portals, Time, Space

I was having a conversation with a friend about the conflicting pressure to hit the ground running in early January due to it being a new year (new year new you!) and the fact that here in Woodstock most days it doesn’t get above freezing. All of the nature surrounding us is deep in hibernation and will be for at least another month. Activating in a major way seems slightly, very, unnatural.

…We then got to talking about how much more sense everything would make if we followed the lunar calendar instead of the Gregorian one… And how even though it apparently isn’t consensus history that this is directly and purely due to the Patriarchy/Christianity/imperialism fearing the divine feminine, that would definitely track. (This excerpt from a great book is definitely worth a listen. Any way you look at it, 13 is a pretty natural and reoccurring cycle in every way but the calendar.)

But alas, here we are — kicking off the new year in the heart of winter. It’s a good time for contemplation, though, and the creativity that comes from that.

Good ideas are a lot quieter than we sometimes think. The quiet that comes along with the snow makes the really good ideas easier to hear. Walking in nature has always seemed to open up the creative well for both us — it’s as if, at times, portals open up in the woods or in the ocean or at the bottom of a spring or on top of a mountain that lead somewhere separate from this timeline. Or maybe deeper into it? They allow you to walk through them to a space free from the pressures of now — free from cellphones and computers and war and to a world where there is space.

Last winter, right after the new year, we hiked the trail by our house in the snow, me 7 months pregnant — and one of those portals opened up — and then came the idea to begin collaborating with other artists after talking to them about their dreams — "Woodstock is a dream…" — which led to this first collaboration with MQuan on the Space Hoodie.

This collab has been an absolute blast and working with Michele has been enlightening and has undoubtedly sharpened us as artists — and honestly, has also just been a lot of FUN. If this is the first you’re hearing about the Space Hoodie you can read more about it here or in Michele’s words here.

• If you’re thinking about ordering a hoodie, the discounted pre-order window ends Sunday 1/11/2026
• The last date to order for the first production run is 1/25/2026

It’s wild that Michele’s dream featured a gateway, the abyss, the unseen… a portal. But then again not so wild, given the deep history of triangles and gateways in her work.

Over the years, those same portals — that have allowed us to keep going, keep being artists in the dead of winter, keep finding the big ideas — have worked their way into our world too.

Elliott thinks it’s because we’ve collectively passed through a kind of metaphysical portal, and we can all feel it. We can all feel that we aren’t going back. Whatever comes next, one way or another, is going to look and feel and be very different. Here’s a link to his favorite book about change.

There’s something powerful about acknowledging that we can’t see everything. Or rather, there are worlds around us just on the other side of the veil, waiting for us to slow down enough, to ask the right questions, to get out of our heads and free ourselves from fear induced by this timeline long enough to stop and see them. These portals can give us space to create, and transform, and embrace the uncertain — if we can pause long enough to find them.

Here’s to finding portals to worlds that only you know exist in 2026! 

With all my gratitude,

McKenzie