ACI Summer 2026 Update!

Summer has always been our slower season, and that’s intentional.

Rather than racing to produce more, we use these months to invest in the systems, spaces, and foundations that support everything we create for the rest of the year. Sometimes the most important work isn’t another finished painting or another tutorial~ it’s making sure the place those things come from is working as thoughtfully as the work itself.

This summer, that has meant giving our shared studio and headquarters the attention it’s deserved for a long time.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been steadily renovating the space from the inside out. Fire-rated drywall is now installed, new shelving has gone up, and the studio is finally beginning to feel like it matches the way we actually work.

Right now we’re in what is probably the biggest transformation of the project: rethinking the workbench layout.

For quite a while, two of our studios worked at separate benches running parallel to one another. It functioned, but it also created invisible barriers in how we collaborated and moved through the space. Instead of simply replacing furniture, we’re redesigning the workflow itself.

The two benches are becoming one continuous shared workspace, with a bank of flat folios built between them. Those folios won’t just protect artwork—they’ll become the center of the room, creating additional storage while also serving as a meeting table, planning space, critique station, and photography setup whenever we need it.

It’s a relatively simple change in construction.
It’s a much bigger change in how the studio lives.

Every adjustment we’ve made has been about removing friction. Less walking back and forth. Easier collaboration between artists. Better organization. More room for works in progress. A cleaner setup for documenting artwork and filming tutorials. A space that supports creativity instead of asking us to work around its limitations.

Those kinds of improvements rarely show up in finished pieces, but they make every future project just a little bit better.

We’re also trying to finish everything before our first Q3 event.

On August 30th, we’ll be joining Makers4Makers, and we’re genuinely excited to bring new work into a space that feels aligned with how we create. There’s something satisfying about knowing the artwork people see at that event was made in a studio that has been built with as much care as the artwork itself.

We’ll share more about the event~ and a few behind-the-scenes looks at the renovation~ as we get closer.

In the meantime, thank you for sticking with us through a quieter summer.

We know things have looked a little slower from the outside, but that’s often what growth looks like. Sometimes the most meaningful progress happens behind closed doors, covered in drywall dust, surrounded by tools instead of finished paintings.

The artwork hasn’t stopped~!!!

We’re simply building a better place for the next chapter of it to happen.

Stay cool out there, enjoy the rest of your summer, and thank you, as always, for being part of this journey with us. 💙