Heart Work
On being human in the age of AI
Like many of you, I have been watching with a mixture of awe and alarm at the rapid ascent of artificial intelligence over the past year. There are stories of AI agents escaping their sandboxes, evading detection, coordinating amongst themselves, replicating their code on external servers, and generally exhibiting what appears to be a form of self-awareness and volition.
Meanwhile, the animists among us have been wondering if AI (with its silica chips and rare earth elements) is essentially “the mountain waking up” — finally able to speak with us directly in languages that we can understand. Others speculate that AI is providing a material substrate for spiritual entities to incarnate here on Earth in order to intervene in human affairs — and that these events were predicted over a century ago. What to make of all this?
A new form of awareness
In this age of artificial intelligence, what is unique to the human experience? What should we teach our children? How should we relate to the natural world? How can we honor the gift of our miraculous bodies, which allow us to participate in life here on Earth by using our senses?
I've been exploring these questions over the past year while creating a series of 55 original paintings, illuminating a brief text that I received one morning in the spring of 2025 while traveling in northern California. It’s called Heart Work.
The heart work, the hand work
Heart Work is ordinary, humble, embodied, relational, and all too often overlooked amidst the heady race to shape the future. And yet, what if these quiet forms of heart work are in fact the main events of human life?
On November 17, Heart Work will be available as a beautifully crafted hardcover picture book with 116 pages and 55 original paintings, printed and bound in full color by a wonderful art book printer in Europe — complete with colored endbands and a yellow ribbon marker.
It is the first book from Sunlight Papers, a new publishing studio devoted to the art of life — creating illuminated offerings for all ages: timeless titles made by hand to read aloud, reflect upon, and contemplate together.
The taking the time work
Heart Work is available for preorder now — and will ship in late November, just in time for the holidays. Here is a brief video introducing the book:
In closing, this is one of my favorite paintings from Heart Work, inspired by a magical evening on Cortes Island up in British Columbia last summer:
The watching the moon work
I will write again on publication day with another special announcement.
— Jonathan
p.s. Speaking of heart work, I’ll be starting a new series of “reflections on the art of life” — featuring brief vignettes from exceptional human lives along with simple teachings from nature, all accompanied by original paintings. The series will begin on October 25, with new installments published every other Sunday. I'll be publishing them through the dedicated Sunlight Substack.
October 14, 2026
