2011 was a big year for me, although not so much on the art front. I did have goals for this year, but other things took up my energy. Even though things weren’t as productive as I’d like in terms of my artwork, I did have quite the year personally. I had quite a few deaths in the family and a lot of personal upheavals as well, such as moving.
Of all my goals, I think the only one I was successful with was spending more time in my sketchbooks. Sometimes this was the only thing that I could bring myself to do because I felt so rotten. Now that I don’t have a lot of time on my hands, I expect that this trend will continue into 2012.
Interestingly, I feel that I have been more productive with my time since I had Cate. Perhaps this is because “free time” is so precious to me now that I barely have any.
Since I’ve become a mother I’ve begun to spend more time thinking seriously about my artwork and how I want to spend my time on it. I never really thought about it before, but now I am more serious about creating a legacy for my daughter. I want her to see me as someone who is can work toward a goal and isn’t afraid to take a risk.
This is also the first year that I’ve put my minimalist ideals into practice. I’ve been interested in the minimalist lifestyle for some time now, but moving into a much smaller home really forced me to take some action. Besides getting rid of a ton of personal and household items, I disposed of a large number of art supplies that I was no longer using regularly. I’ve learned that I can truly thrive with much fewer things to manage. In fact, I like the feeling of having a lighter load.
Next time, I’ll explain my goal setting philosophy for 2012.
I am just starting to feel semi-decent again after being sick (read: invalid) for the past week. I haven’t had a bad cold for a few years so I guess I was due for one!
I only had the desire to start drawing again yesterday. I started off only wanting to do a “quick sketch” of a scene I was thinking of for the Virtual Paintout, but then I ended up spending a lot longer on it than I had thought I would. I think it is too depressing with that ominous tree and all, so I will move onto something else that I will spend more time on. The hard thing about this month’s Virtual Paintout (set in County Clare, Ireland) is that the landscape is so beautiful that it is hard to decide what to paint.
I finished my submission for the Virtual Paintout (set in Rio de Janeiro) just in time. I skipped October and I didn’t want to miss this month as well. Instead of doing something really detailed and time consuming, this is more of a sketch made up of lots of lines. I really enjoy participating in the VPO, partly because I would never be able to actually visit some of these places in real life and this gives me a chance to get a taste of what it would be like. Rio de Janeiro, for example, is a beautiful city but a very dangerous place right now. It’s really a shame.
I also used this drawing to form a part of this handmade calendar. Although I already bought a 2011 desk calendar that I will use for my appointments and such, I wanted a “year at a glance” type of calendar as well. I also thought it would be perfect for my new (freecycled) bulletin board that I got last week. When I get sick of the picture, I figure I can just change it out for a new one.
I’ve only been to New York City a handful of times, and only once in the past ten years, despite living only a few hours away. I guess I’m just more of a country person. I’ve never been to Central Park as far as I remember, but I think I would like to visit if I had the chance. In this piece, I tried not to get too detailed and I wanted it to have a soft feeling. I also worked a little bit larger than I normally do. I meant it as more of a sketch, really. Because it wouldn’t fit on my scanner, I had to take a picture of it. I tried to correct the contrast a bit, but I wasn’t able to get it to match the original fully.
Unfortunately, I do not have reliable internet access at the moment and have to use wifi hotspots to do my blogging. Luckily I saved a screenshot of Google street view so I was able to work on this drawing offline. If you leave me a comment it may take me some time to approve it as I have comment moderation turned on.
Keep your old work. You did it. There are virtues and there are faults in it for your to study. You can learn more from yourself than you can from anyone else. -Robert Henri in The Art Spirit
I found my old, old sketchbook the other day when I was cleaning out through boxes of stuff. This is the sketchbook that I had from 1997 through 1999. It is really shocking to me how I thought that certain things were good when I made them, but now when I look at them I am more embarrassed than anything else! Even my handwriting is so different. I remember drawing this picture from a little resin charm that was attached to a pair of pants from American Eagle Outfitters. I was really pleased with it at the time and even now I like the drawing because it is so bold and colorful. Do you ever go back and review your older work? Do you show it to other people?
Something to check out:
I really liked this “mini podcast” from Michael Nobbs about how to avoid “ideas exhaustion,” or rather, when you can’t get anything done because of all the ideas floating into your head. I can really relate to this! Also he has a new microMagazine Getting Your Important Work Done, which is a email newsletter you can sign up for that goes out every two weeks. It is very interesting, and has helpful tips and links.
This month I’m posting my Virtual Paintout submission a bit later than I normally do. In fact, I almost skipped participating altogether because of a lot of other things I had going on this particular month with various classes and commitments. I’m glad I did it though, and I had fun making this drawing.
It was pouring rain last weekend and I made this drawing while listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio. I missed doing something in colored pencil, so I decided to change it up a bit this time around. My elbow was killing me the next day though. Next time I decide to do anything in colored pencil, I am going to pace myself and spend a few days working on it.
I have this little bowl, a cheap Christmas Tree Shops special, gifted to me by one of my sisters. It’s has a misshapen appearance with the oddest curves and bumps and uneven glazing. I have had numerous opportunities to get rid of this bowl (and I almost did a few months ago when cleaning out my room) but I always keep it around because I love to make sketches of it. I also have an unfinished wooden egg that I first put in the bowl because I didn’t know what to do with it. After a number of years however, the bowl has become its permanent home. Does anybody else have any objects like this, that you are attached to but probably should throw out?
It makes me a little sad that most of my glimpses of nature are marred by things like bridges.
I haven’t gotten out(side) much for the past couple of months and I’m really craving it. This winter actually wasn’t that bad for New England compared to the snow that the Mid Atlantic states got, but I still hated it just as much. I sense that spring is coming though. Today it was in the 40′s and this weekend is supposed to be nice too. If it is decent out tomorrow I am going to get outside and do some nature sketching.
I made this picture using Google Street View. It is the bridge that connects Hinsdale, NH to Brattleboro, VT. I made it a little more colorful than it actually is.
I’ve been making New Year’s resolutions for a long time now and never really lived up to them. This year I feel that for the first time I might actually be able to accomplish some of my goals. I’ve arranged to be home on Fridays now, so that I can spend more time on art. My idea is not to use it as an extra day off, but a working day, so to speak. Most often, my excuse has been that I was too tired when I got home to take up a big project, and I ended up not making much progress. I’m thinking that I will take myself more seriously in any case, which will be a positive thing.
I’ve also been thinking about my system of working, which is to start something and then finish it completely before beginning something else. It’s odd because I really don’t do much else in life this way. Even when I was in school, I used to skip around to random questions when taking exams for instance. I think that a better way to work might be to have different projects going on at once, all at different stages of completion, so that I can skip around a little more. I remember Robert Genn wrote about this at one point in one of his twice weekly letters. He said that at the end of the day, you should stop at an easy point in the work, so that you can begin the next day with a sense of momentum from the onset. I’m thinking of trying something like this and I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’ve been working on my submission for the January Virtual Paintout, which is a challenge where there is a certain location declared every month and then everyone makes artworks based on a scene that they find in Google Street View. This month’s location is Corsica and I’m having fun with it. I might actually go back and do the other month’s challenges even though they have ended.
This is the Connecticut River as seen from the French King Bridge, in Franklin County Massachusetts.
Of all the goals I set for myself in 2009, I can honestly say that I only met one of them, which was to work in a series. For me, 2009 was all about getting back on my feet and reclaiming my life after 2008, which I officially labeled The Worst Year of My Life. That said, I think 2009 was one of my most successful years EVER because I grew a lot as a person. I feel like such a completely different girl than I was just one year ago and I think my family or anyone else who really knows me well would say the same.
There are tons of things that I want to get done in 2010 and I have a mental as well as physical list of all of them. However, I know that I tend to be too ambitious when setting my goals so I am going to make things very simple for 2010. My first art goal is to Put in More Hours and my second goal is to Get Rid of Stuff (or Purge and Purify). The first goal is obvious, but the reason why I am designating Get Rid of Stuff as an art goal is because I have noticed that the clutter in my physical environment is severely hampering my art making activities. Besides the extra work of having to clear out all the junk before I even start on a project, all the clutter around me is causing an anxious emotional state in me which is mentally exhausting. If I am even moderately successful with these two goals (which I know I will be), I will be very happy come this time next year.
I hope everybody has as good of a year as I’m going to have!
