A gift materially for sure, but also a gift to my heart and soul 🤍

Unlike other posts, this one is going to feel a bit more like a journal entry! I don’t blame you if you don’t read 😅 but that’s it — life.

Sunday 24 May 2026 ✨

We are getting close to the end of the school year in Miami (they start in August) and I have been missing my 1st daughter too long. Also longing to go to Paris to see my parents — too long as well. Been on my mind since April.

I did travel a lot to Europe this past year, but always in a flash. Not complaining, just a fact. I realize my chance. It is a chance and it also has its trials as you are away from the people you love and in need of travel to see them.

A way of life somehow I guess.

So the saying: “the last good thing pushes away the rest.”

Last week I got a call from an amazing artist who is retiring from her studio and she offered parts of her paints to me, with the idea that I would myself be able to share later on. Of course I said yes.

And Friday I received them. Two big boxes.

What a treasure. Amazing paint tones and colors.

A gift materially for sure, but also a gift to my heart and soul. A feeling of being hugged in a journey that proves itself hard, trying, and sometimes lonely. Very unconventional being an artist.

Yet so me.

And actually this week really started on Sunday with already way too much going on 😅

The cool part first: seeing my sis and her sons for a family morning 🙂 Then the last meeting of the Juniorette from 2–5 pm. Proud of these teens and what we accomplished this year together.

Then heading directly to a security training from 5 pm to 8:45 pm. Then still one more thing to do before finally getting home around 9:30 pm exhausted.

Monday I worked until noon, then cooked for my sis and nephews and spent the first half of the afternoon with them. They live so far that every minute together is really a gift.

Then worked again.

Tuesday… overworked again — interrupted by son pick up, a dermatologist appointment for him, but at least we enjoyed a Thai lunch break together 🙂

Wednesday was completely insane until 11 pm. Geraldine came to work with me between 5–7 pm and honestly by the end I was falling on my head from exhaustion.

Thursday I completely décompensated. With guilt mixed into it.

And Friday… cooking 😅

In the middle of all this it was Chavouot. I should probably have prepared more on Thursday, but timing did not happen.

So Friday I cooked for our guests almost all day. We ended up being 14 🙂

I’m always worried there won’t be enough food. Ironically there was too much of everything except the meatballs 😂 Those disappeared in a flash.

I made:
— lamb & beef
— beef with coriander and onion
— turkey

Plus a vegetarian couscous and a gigantic chicken dish inspired by Yaniv Cohen / The Spice Detective with potatoes, cardamom, kalamata olives and lemon.

The deal — as we went from 4 adults and 4 kids to 8 adults and 6 young adults — was that my husband handled table setting and cleanup 😅 Perfect.

Anyway I love cooking and I was very happy our kids each brought 2 friends 🤍

Watched this week: episodes of Glow! A lot in it talks to me — womanhood, mothering, ambition, artist life, sisterhood, working mothers, single mothers… and some other important topics admirably incorporated into the series as well.

And funny enough the director/filmmaker was himself at a 10-year mark in his artistic journey while making it. Yes… 10 years for me too.

Also reading J. Michael Orenduff which brings me back to New Mexico. Love that state, it’s quite unique. Now reading The Pot Thief Who Studied Georgia O’Keeffe (my favorite so far remains The Pot Thief Who Studied D.H. Lawrence).

And the competition — The People’s Artist presented by Johnny Depp — I made the Top 15.

Thank you to all who voted for me 🤍

It’s a long journey and I did not want to overwhelm my supporters, so I stayed relatively quiet this week.

Now I’m #2/15 and heading toward the Top 10.

If you need a reminder to vote:
https://peoplesartist.org/2026/jessica-de-vreeze

Voilà. 4 more days.

My mood right now: thorn between wanting to be with my family, needing to finish a whole list of written things, and wanting to create art.

None of which is fully realistic when you also try to keep time aside for basic things like sleeping 😅 so again something will have to be sacrificed.

And truth be told, I would much rather create art than spend hours glued to my computer doing admin and writing documents.

But deadlines are real and this to-do list unfortunately cannot fully be pushed back.

Oh and also — last few days to see “If You Would See,” the AR self-guided exhibition at Peacock Park… before it puffs away 🌬️ Maybe this week with me as a guide.

Wishing you a beautiful long weekend 💕

Jessica aka Hopeje