Am I Wishing My Life Away..
Or just annoyingly organised?
Is it too soon?
Having spent the last couple of weeks overcoming a flare up of my Rheumatoid Arthritis, followed by a pesky, annoying cough, I have been easing myself gently back into the swing of things…
Still finding myself a tad fatigued after mornings busy with household chores, plus painting, plus organising work for the Art & Yoga Soirée (Friday 1st December), plus other art business admin, I needed a gentle, non-taxing activity for the afternoons. A birthday present of a new Leuchtturm notebook seemed to offer the ideal task. I have been using one of these books as a ‘diary come bullet journal’ for a number of years now, having been introduced to them by the wonderful Alice Sheridan in her ‘Connected Artist Club’; I found that I prefer creating my own journal complete with the systems/trackers that I actually use rather than pre-printed diaries with lots of pages that remain empty…
If you’re looking for some bullet journal inspiration, do check out Anna MacDonald’s Bullet Journal course…
And as I sat, drawing out the grids etc, almost on autopilot, my mind began to wander, to begin to ponder on my goals for next year - as I said at the beginning, ‘Is it too soon?’ I should point out this is normally a job I save for that Twixmas period, where retrospection of past and future goals, seems more appropriate…
Anyhow, I digress, as Ronnie Corbett used to say in one of his monologues. Mulling over possible goals for 2024 prompted me to dig out my spider diagram of 2023 goals and check how I was doing…
Initially, I was a little disappointed; at first glance there didn’t seem to be much that I could cross off with the pink highlighter. BUT, when I really thought about it, I had achieved more than I thought - I just had to re-frame the way I looked at things!
Investigate Substack - tick! Well we’re here aren’t we!
More YouTube videos - tick! I now have over 2k subscribers and have reached the criteria to monetise, so that leads to…
Develop a passive income - tick! OK, so YouTube is not exactly passive; I still have to make videos, but it’s becoming second nature to film as I paint, so I always have something I can add to my channel. And once uploaded, I don’t have to do too much, just give a shout out on social media to promote my offerings, respond to comments…
Renovate/set up a temporary studio in the office - tick! I can’t tell you what a difference having a dedicated space to create makes; no more having to pack everything away at the end of a session, or remembering to put the sheet down over the carpet. And even though it would be great to have even more space, there is something nice and cosy about shutting myself away, switching on the twinkly lights, coffee to hand, and just painting…
Have a place to photograph work - tick, sort of! I am ticking this off the list because, even though I don’t have an actual place at home (too dark, too many shadows etc), I have signed up to Canvy , an online room mock-up site; at the moment I am on the free version.
Collaboration - tick! Now, admittedly, when I wrote this, I envisaged collaborations with other artists, in the form of joint exhibitions, but, I have been recording interviews with other artists ready for the next stage of this Substack offering - so that counts, doesn’t it? And I am also counting the Art & Yoga Soirée as a win here. It is a collaborative event after all! For all things yoga related click here!
Open Studio Event - half a tick! There’s the possibility of participating in a Lincolnshire Open Studio Trail next June - so I am counting this as a partial tick. Look at it this way; at the beginning of the year I knew nothing about this, so the fact that there’s a possibility of such an event is a step forward - right?
Cultivate local outlets - again, half a tick! I have been round other businesses in our village, asking if they would display posters for the upcoming Soirée, the majority of whom said yes. So, I feel as if I am beginning to spread the word that there is an artist in the village, which might lead to other things… And, having approached them all once, I am less hesitant to do so again!
Do residency course - tick, sort of! It’s not actually an artist’s residency, but my wonderful husband bought me a 3 day ‘Abstracting the Wild Coast’ course for my birthday. The course is run by Sam Boughton, an artist whose work I have long admired. To say I am excited is an understatement!!
As for the rest of the goals, well, Rome wasn’t built in a day, was it? Exhibition - no! Participate in 4/5 art fairs - no, only one! Create another book - no! Afford a mentor - no! Upgrade extras, postcards etc, to pop in with sold work - no! Create three bodies of work - no, again, only one! Paid membership - no! Hit my ‘best sales’ targets - well, it’s not actually the end of the year so there’s still time, but I think it unlikely!
Will any of these form part of next year’s goals - probably. But I also know that I want to push my art practice/business to the next level, so am going to have to think carefully about how this looks. For a start, I have to decide what I mean by ‘the next level!’ Definitely, food for thought, but I’m already beginning to feel a sense of excitement, which has helped me to get going again!
So, no, in my case, it’s not too soon to start planning 2024 ‘wishes/goals’!
And if you are wondering about these artists’ interviews, here’s an extremely small snippet of my very first one…!
As with all ‘firsts’, there were one or two hiccups, but we had a lovely chat! And the more I do, the smoother it will all be… With thanks to Ingrid for being my inaugural guinea pig!
“Never go into the creative process thinking that if the end result isn’t perfect, you have failed. By considering your art practice an experiment, and allowing yourself to make mistakes, you are growing as an artist - don’t ever stop. If you ask yourself at the end of the day, “Did I learn something?”, and you can answer, “Yes”, it was a valuable experience.” - www.artworkarchive.com
New work for the upcoming Art & Yoga Soirée is finally framed, with the labels on the back. Photographs have been taken, flyers distributed, goody bags mostly sorted; a last meet up to decide on a date for hanging, and, hopefully, away we go! Fingers crossed for a good turnout!
So, with that pressure mostly gone, I headed to my studio, thoughts of my 2024 wishes swirling around my head. If I’m being honest, I feel that I’m in danger of falling into a rut with my work. That brought me up a bit sharp. I don’t want to become an artist who churns out the same old stuff; that’s where ‘boredom’ sets in, and I think that eventually shows through in your art.
The recent studio tidy up unearthed some forgotten materials; the Wallace Seymour Indigo chunks, some Marble Dust ground, along with a bottle of Gum Arabic. And, following the advice of Janette Phillips, who, (and by the way, if you want to see a real expert with the Indigo chunks, check out her work/courses), recommends playing around with materials, experimenting with them, finding out how they react etc., I decided to do just that. No pressure, not expecting masterpieces; just taking time to experiment, see if I like the materials and what they can do…
“Art is longing. You never arrive, but you keep going in the hope that you will.” - Anselm Kiefer
Do I know where all this is leading: no. But if I’m to move forward, to push my work on, then exploration is vital: eventually, in, one form or another, it will feed into my art. For now, I’m just trying to go with the flow…with an eye to the future!
Until next time…
I think there’s something about writing things down that motivates you forward, so definitely not too early...I can hardly believe we’re hurtling towards December already, so having plans and goals for 2024 seems perfectly reasonable to me! Must make some myself! 🤪
I like this post (do we call them posts on Substack? I'm new to it) and found it both interesting and reassuring. No you're not too soon marking up january's planner! I like the look of it - can you tell me what goes on the left hand side? At the mo I use Alice's A4 weekly planner but really like the look of yours.
You have plenty of ticks so it seems like a good year has been had. I'm creeping up on writing a post here but confidence is low in the word department. dont get me wrong, I have plenty to say for myelf but getting it down in an attractive enough form for people to read… hmmmm. Yours is lovely, very natural.