My Fall 2026 Magnolia Journal Co

I’ve been a long-time fan of all things Magnolia. I watched the first season of Fixer Upper religiously. You can imagine how elated I was when Magnolia Journal reached out this summer asking if I wanted to illustrate a piece for their fall issue. It was a HECK YES.

Once I learned the piece was about Mahjong, I was a bit apprehensive. I had a general idea of what the game was (thanks Crazy Rich Asians), but I had no idea how to play it. I realized I would have to gain a basic understanding in order to create accurate illustrations of the tiles. I soon learned there’s so many different kinds of Mahjong. There’s the traditional way, the American way, and many versions in between. There are even multiple ways to spell Mahjong. Talk about complicated!

I watched hours of Youtube videos on American Mahjong and had AI review my work to make sure nothing looked amiss. I learned the winning hands change every year and are published in a card that comes out annually. That also made it very complex to illustrate.

Below are my illustrations up close.

I absolutely love how the article turned out. If you’ve never seen the magazine in person, it’s so well made. I love when my art is on something so high quality, it makes the work shine. That’s how I felt when I first opened the page to my art.