2026 02 05: Blog/Life Focus

Marc Kelly Smith performs a show in my See You Soon studio space. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2026. © Clayton Hauck

Yesterday, my mother-in-law asked me if the studio has had many bookings lately. Much like the nonstop madness of US and world events, which blurs reality itself, my life has been far too packed with stuff lately. The week-long play I’d hosted in my space, which was directed by Kevin Coval who she also knows, didn’t even come to mind. It both somehow feels like years ago and has already been shoved towards the back of my brain’s usable memory.

This is bad!

I need to slow the fuck down and do some more reflection and documentation (see: promotion) of my own life. When I’m not even remembering the things I’m doing, how can anyone else have a chance of knowing what I’m up to? My challenge is always in figuring out how to best “promote” myself. It never feels right to me (have you subscribed to my new substack?!). We’ll continue to work on it.

Lastly, I aim to tweak the focus of this here blog a bit moving forward. My aim is to keep the images more timely; so either images made within the last month or so, or images made in the same season from previous years. Also, I’d like to bring more humanity to the images. Too much of what I’m posting is stuff. I like the stuff, but I think it’s hard to get anyone’s attention posting only photos of trash on the lawn and cigarettes on the cement.

-Clayton