Gratitude, Grit, and GUT: 2025 Wrap-Up
Picks from the whole GUT Team, and what's coming in 2026
Hellooooo my fine GUT friends!
Well, that was a hard week. I don’t know about you, but judging by the chat this past week and my own inside weather, I think most of us are ready to wave a big fat goodbye to 2025. We need a fresh start. It might not solve everything, but at least we can turn a page. I look forward to starting the year off right with all of you, together.
Anticipation for 2026’s 30 Days of Drawing
January 1 is right around the corner — along with our 30 Days of Drawing!! Next week I’ll send you a big old download on The Plan, but just know that if you are member/paying subscriber, you are IN.
If there is someone you think would benefit from 30 Days of Drawing and weekly lessons to keep their creative practice and community going and growing through the year, you can GIVE THEM THE GIFT OF THE GUT for the holidays.
I made a downloadable gift certificate so you can copy/paste or print out and gift to someone looking to start or deepen their creative life and community. That includes YOU. But it is a cute last-minute gift, right?
Click here to purchase a gift membership for an art-curious/creative-oriented special someone in your life:
Now let’s get back to reflection.
Reflecting on 2025
Last week we featured the most popular GUT lessons of 2025, and I loved seeing all the ways you revisited those lessons in the chat. Some of you shared new connections you made to an assignment, and others challenged themselves to take on ones they had missed or avoided. I continue to be so grateful for this community and how you support and cheer on each other.
This week we’re continuing to look back at the year. I’ve asked the members of the GUT team (aka the world’s best humans) what their favorite lessons were from this year. Bonus. I also thought it would be nice for you all to get to know them a little better as they do so much to keep this thing going!
The GUT Team’s Favorite Posts of 2025
Anne’s Pick
Anne Mercogliano is the GUT’s strategic superhero. She helps set up and manage the team and systems and structures so I can keep doing this with you all for the long haul, and still keep up my own art practice. Anne is also planning some awesome, bold, audacious future goals with DrawTogether. Stay tuned! Her 2025 pick is:
Anne says, “‘What Can We Do’, is special to me because the community sharing their photos actually made me tear up. Labor day is one of those holidays that I feel like gets run over with the wheel of year turning us back to a more frantic schedule and pumpkin spice lattes coming even earlier every year. It is a day to celebrate all our labor and work and this assignment made me consider making this a personal holiday tradition.”
Art Auntie Kathleen’s Pick:
Art Auntie Kathleen is both a member of the community and a leader - she encourages, applauds, entertains, helps, and keeps this amazing group of artists connected in the chat, welcomes people in the intro section, and helps answer questions in the comments. We love you AAK! Her pick is:
She says, “I had coincidentally taken an online workshop on woven drawings earlier in the year and loved it. That was around the time of the tondo assignment (another favorite), so I posted a couple of woven tondos in that chat. I really like using my hands in a different way, yet with paintings, and creating something entirely surprising.”
Kyle’s Pick:
Kyle Ranson-Walsh works behind the scenes of DrawTogether answering everyone’s tech questions at the commmunity@ email, and he has been curating the GUT Gallery every week for two years, making sure an inspiring diversity of people and artwork is always featured. Kyle loves getting to know all of you from your drawings. Outside of DT, Kyle is a designer, writer, and dad to a DT daughter. His pick:
Kyle says, “One of the many reasons I love the GUT is that Wendy introduces us to so many new, incredible artists. I loved learning about Edie Fake’s approach to large scale works that transform physical architecture into spaces of imagination and possibility. I’m a former wannabe architect who can lean a little too into clean lines and neutral palettes. Edie’s work challenges my sense of color and shapes in the best way. Wendy’s included prompt is an invitation for each of us to dream up places for our own communities to safely gather—and to do it beautifully.”
Candace’s Pick:
Candace Chen joined the team earlier this year as the GUT’s awesome editor. She helps me transform my thoughts and ideas into the posts you read by compiling research, formatting and labeling images, and adding her own voice. With her history background, she has also become the unofficial archivist, helping keep track of the HUNDREDS of GUT lessons. Her pick is:
Candace says, “This lesson contains so much of what I love about the GUT all in one place. There’s curiosity, there’s storytelling, and there’s reflection. As a historian and educator, I am also deeply inspired by how artists interpret and comment on the past — they open up vital and profound ways to understand and connect to history. What Wendy Red Star says about collaborating with her ancestors is so powerful.”
Thank you GUT team! LOVE YOU GUYS TO THE MOON. Truly, I could not keep this going without you.
Alright, now that the team has shared theirs, will you share yours?!
What was your favorite lesson and assignment from 2025?
I’m curious to hear what YOUR favorite was from the year? Leave a comment below and let me know which you vote for. It’s all fascinating to hear, and helpful for us to learn from. What landed, what didn’t. What you want more of, etc. Let us know your faves!
And now, time for our weekly drawing assignment….
