Leah Tynan | Lunar New Year

2026: Year of the Fire Horse

This piece marks the start of the second cycle in this series and is the second horse artwork (scroll all the way to the bottom to see the first one).

The horse in the foreground has a fiery mane, representing the element of fire for 2026. The horse's blue-to-yellow body is a sunrise. For a few weeks now, I've been waking up early for stretching, reading, and prayer before our children wake up. I've never been a morning person, but this is something I've wanted to do for some time. Typically, I have stayed up late but now I go to bed a little earlier so I can wake up earlier. In these darker winter months, I've enjoyed seeing the sky brighten from total darkness as I'm reading with my morning espresso. This new block of morning time fills my cup spiritually and provides some much-needed stillness — with this in place, many areas of life have been smoother and I'm excited for what the year holds.

The background of the piece was created by one of my children as I worked on the horse. I gave the prompt of "fire" though what was drawn here is "fire and water". The combination of this and the horse captures the denseness of my current season of life. It also expresses a goal of mine which is to do creative work alongside my children — this has been a bit difficult so far with very young children (currently, ages 2 and 4), but I'd like to get more comfortable with the messiness and distractions and have my children see me creating things more often.

Both layers of the piece were created using paint sticks. The horse cutout has some additional colored pencil and ink.

2025: Year of the Wood Snake

This artwork took its time. I created it in December 2025, several months after Lunar New Year. Life with two toddlers (ages 1 and 3) was so active, it was hard to think clearly and conceptualize a work of art.

It occurred to me that after 10 years, maybe this meant I should stop working on this series. Instead, I trusted that I'd create something before the next Lunar New Year starts in February 2026. Even though I wasn't actively sketching, I thought about this work of art for months. The result is very rich in storytelling and the piece showcases some really bright spots in my life.

There are two aspects to this artwork:

Bright Colors: 2025 marked the start of our journey in our lovely preschool community. Preschool is colorful and fun! Vibrant colors and gentle shapes also felt like something to disarm possible fearfulness around snake imagery. While serving in our church's preK classroom this fall (another new community we joined this year), I was given a sun catcher craft activity to do with the children. This involved tearing tissue paper and then sticking the pieces to a sticky clear sheet. This process was great fun — and it was a refreshing shift from drawing — so I decided to use the same technique here. I created a frame with cardboard then made a see-through canvas with packing tape.

Snake of Light: I've found myself moving fluidly through the city (almost like a snake!) despite juggling multiple small children and a lot of stuff. Many times, I've accepted help from strangers with getting the stroller onto/through the bus. People also run over to me with things my children dropped. I've truly seen the best in people this year. I've also been more open to chatting with people I don't know, and seem to bump into people we do know more than ever these days. It occurred to me, why not knock out the snake and have it be entirely see through, letting the light come through? This represents the goodness of people and also my own increased openness to connection and receiving help. I carved out the snake using an Olfa blade — not the easiest tool for tracing a snake's curves but fortunately I have some experience under my belt from architecture classes. The carving process is a subtle reference to the wood element of 2025. The final artwork is photographed up against the backdrop of a cloudy yet bright December sky.

2024: Year of the Wood Dragon

This piece was created in July, months after the Lunar New Year holiday (February 10, 2024). Our second baby was due shortly before the holiday — rather than push myself to meet a deadline, I wanted to honor the preciousness of this season and let the artwork come in its own time.

There are two aspects to this artwork:

Orchids: A few days before our son was born, our orchid plant started blooming! It was dormant for a few months. I knew it was not dead because its leaves were alive, but I had no idea when it would bloom again. I believe the blooming was triggered by a cold snap the week before. The magical blooming felt like a symbol of our baby boy who would join the world soon. The plant also fits in with the element of 2024, wood.

Resting Dragon: For years, I was looking forward to drawing a dragon for Lunar New Year 2024. My favorite color is red and I love the intensity of dragons. However, that aesthetic and energy did not feel inviting for what has so far been a rather unsettled year for our family. In the Year of the Dragon 2024, it is not intensity that I crave but tranquility. So, here a dragon rests peacefully and is illustrated in soft colors and textures.

2023: Year of the Water Rabbit

This piece is themed around my father, who was born in a Rabbit year. The artwork shows an elder gray rabbit representing him and a young gold rabbit representing my blond 1 year old daughter (who was actually born in the Year of the Ox 2021, so not a Rabbit).

I captured their handprints to cement in time how small my daughter is right now, and I love seeing their handprints side by side. Naturally, the toddler handprint has some motion, which I didn't try to control or fix, because it's perfect the way it is.

2023 is a water year so I used blue for the background color with wavy brush strokes.

2022: Year of the Water Tiger

Illustrated here are two of our cats in tiger form. When they sat side-by-side like this (looking me right in the eye) I knew instantly it was the starting point for this year's artwork. 2022 marks 10 years since graduating from MIT. For the water theme, I revisited a technique I used in my undergraduate thesis project senior year, where I used watercolor on trace paper and let the water create ripples in the paper as it dried.

2021: Year of the Earth Ox

This is the first animated, musical Lunar New Year greeting I've created. I've been playing with sound and animation for various projects recently (at work and at home), and am also learning to play the xylophone, so it was a fun opportunity to integrate those areas of my life into the annual artwork. To go with the earth theme, the photo in the background shows the ground in my backyard, which was partially covered with snow and ice in the days leading up to Lunar New Year 2021.

2020: Year of the Gold Rat

This is a twist on the story of how the Rat became the first in the zodiac.

According to Wikipedia: "An ancient folk story tells that the Jade Emperor decreed that the years on the calendar would be named for each animal in the order they reached him. To get there, the animals would have to cross a river." The story follows that the Rat jumped on the Ox for a ride across, then jumped off to land in first place.

In this artwork, the Rat is still clever, but also incredibly strong and fearless when it comes to swimming. The Rat is one with the waves and dives underwater to collect golden treasure (the element for the year 2020 is metal/gold). This reflects the rigor and momentum I had in 2020, which translated into the launch of several successful personal and professional projects.

2019: Year of the Earth Pig

I got married in 2019...What could make sense with a pig and a wedding? A piggy bank.

2018: Year of the Earth Dog

This illustration was themed around our engagement. The terriers in the picture are my in-laws' pets. In addition to the soil and grass, the element of earth is represented by diamonds spelling out the year.

2017: Year of the Fire Rooster

The setting for this year's artwork is based on Southern California. At the time I was creating the artwork, the only event I have on my calendar for the year 2017 was my cousin's wedding there, so that became my inspiration. It turned out that wedding would be postponed to another year.

2016: Year of the Fire Monkey

This fire-themed year's art references the wood element of the previous year by depicting wood burning in a campfire, representing a transformation of the old into the new. This monkey looks a little like a cat. At the time I was working on this illustration, I was babysitting my now-husband's cat who I think inspired me.

2015: Year of the Wood Goat

This was the first time I used the element of the year as inspiration for the artistic concept. I think of goats as typically being white, so I picked a white tree, birch, as the goat's environment. The knobs on the birch trunks look a bit like goat's eyes, too.

2014: Year of the Wood Horse

This was my first Lunar New Year illustration, largely inspired by artwork on lucky red envelopes (gold illustrations on red paper). The horse is the animal of the year I was born in (1990).