We went on the boat last weekend. A small family of dolphins moved through the glitter that morning. Unhurried and full of bliss. There is something about watching them that resets something in my chest—the way they move with such effortless intention, neither performing nor hiding. Just entirely present in the element they belong to.

I sat there and stared, lost in their path longer than I meant to.

This is the first letter from the studio, a new chapter for the Pili Journal, and I wanted to start off honest with you about where I’m beginning, yet again!

I am a mother of two small children, a full-time employee Monday through Friday, and an artist who tries my hardest to devote to my craft in the margins of a very full life. I have been learning this year what it means to find and feel content in my own flow—not the world’s. I’ve been honing my own rhythm. Slow, lunar, rooted in what actually calls to me rather than what the world thinks it should see in this moment. Because beauty is often found in the overlooked.

What calls to me is this coast. Old Florida—the version that is quietly disappearing beneath condos and concrete. Tide lines. Small things the sea has left behind. The handmade objects in a world that is too quickly forgetting why handmade matters.

I think about this often and many times it brings me to tears—the pure magic that can lie in human hands. I have no other word to better describe the awe I feel when watching talented people do amazing things, with their craft, their voice, their bodies—whatever God given talent they were blessed with, there is no comparison to that magic. No digital automation can ever carry the weight of a mark made by someone who stood somewhere specific and felt something true and found some special way to communicate those raw emotions with our world. This cannot be forgotten. I cannot let my children live a life without the joy and beauty of the simple and human made. I don’t think you can either, or you wouldn’t be here.

For the year ahead, I am reaching toward balance and toward the work that feels most alive in me. A new floral poster series is forming, slow and intentional, starting with my fave, birds of paradise. The tiny print library is expanding, with something extra special planned that I’ll share with you first when the time comes. And I’m finding myself being pulled back to painting too.

These letters will arrive once a month. They will be about what I’m noticing, how it makes me feel and how small, overlooked things are often the most beautiful if you just stop to stare a little longer. I will touch on what I’m making, and the stories behind the work. I’ll do my best to keep them short enough to read over coffee, and I promise they will be honest enough to be worth your time.

Thank you for being here at this new beginning.

---

If something in the studio is calling to you, the current collection—originals and limited edition prints—lives at pilistudio.com. If it’s meant to find you, it will.

With honor & intention, xoxo,

Kaila 🌺

Pili Studio