Now
What's on
June 2026
In practice
Shooting
Candid life moments
Kodak Charmera — ongoing
Making
Junk journaling
Every other night, on a tiny desk
Learning
Piano — month 4
Erik Satie — Gymnopédie No. 1
Printing
Instax Wide Link
The real estate is real
Writing
Morning pages
Midori MD A5 · Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai · Lamy Safari
Noticing
The small and the tactile and the close
On my mind
Film
Raglan roll scans arrived. Third frame. Amber light shift from expired stock.
Olympus Trip 35 · Kodak Gold exp. 2005
Clay
Three unfinished pieces on the living room floor. I've stopped trying to decide what they mean.
Ongoing since 2024
Piano
Alice Sara Ott's NPR Tiny Desk. The kind of performance that makes you want to stop wanting and just begin.
Incense
Shōyeidō neriko
Kneaded, hand-rolled. Burning in my pottery.
Reading
Stack & shelf
2026
Current & recent
A Thousand Blues
Overdue
Making Art and Making a Living
In progress
The 1980s: Image of a Decade
Finished
Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day
Finished May
Mary's Book
Finished April
Also on the shelf
Steidl: How We Make Books
Paused
Minor White: The Eye That Shapes
Reference
Ways of Seeing
Re-read
Fragments
Daily notes
May 2026
May
2026
29
Writing
Morning pages, mostly weekdays. By hand on my Midori MD A5. Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai on Lamy Safari.
18
Piano
Alice Sara Ott's NPR Tiny Desk. The kind of performance that makes you want to stop wanting and just begin.
12
Film
Scans arrived from Raglan roll. Third frame. Amber light shift from expired stock. One has a light bleed I caused by scraping the seal — accidentally made it better.
09
Making
Cut up three old magazines for the junk journal. The physical act of choosing what to keep. Every page a small decision about what feels worth saving.
04
Incense
Burned neriko in the unfinished amphora for the first time. The smoke moved slowly. Something about the incompleteness made it better for holding things.
April
2026
24
Note
I've been paying attention to the wrong things. Not badly — just at the wrong scale. I kept waiting to feel ready, feel inspired, feel like myself again. What I didn't notice was that myself was already here, in the small and the tactile and the close.
11
Piano
Month three. Satie is harder than it sounds — which is the point. The simplicity is earned.
03
Clay
Looked at the three pieces on the floor for a long time. Didn't touch them. Sometimes the practice is just being near the thing.
Lines
Collected words
Things I keep returning to
I don't know what I think until I write it down.
— My own
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
— Dorothea Lange
Making something well is a form of prayer.
— Tom Cheetham
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
— Frédéric Chopin
I am not interested in perfection. I am interested in aliveness.
— Paul Caponigro
The practice of art isn't to make a living. It's to make your soul grow.
— Kurt Vonnegut
Elsewhere
Where to find the work
Online
Writing
Still Processing — Substack
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Photos
@hello.jaya — Instagram
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Contact
hello@jayagascon.com
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Tools I use
Camera
Olympus Trip 35
Repaired on my bedroom floor, 2026
Film
Kodak Gold 200, expired stocks
Notebook
Midori MD A5
Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-kai · Lamy Safari
Piano
Roland FP-10
Printer
Instax Wide Link + Canon Selphy CP1500
108 4×6 prints per pack
Incense
Shōyeidō neriko
Burning in unfinished pottery