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Friday 2 January 2015

New Year's Resolutions

I am not normally one who makes New Year's Resolutions. It's not because I don't think I can keep them but more the fact that I just let life happen and go for the ride. Lately, however, I have come to see the benefit of setting goals and formulating plans to get me to those goals. When I was a young mom and wife, I didn't have the time to set goals and try to meet them. I was busy working at our business, raising 3 children and caring for my home. Now that I am an empty nester, I have some extra time on my hands which allows me to pursue my art and improve my skills at it.

A few years ago, I set the very achievable goal of making more art and was successful in doing so. The next goal was to try to get my art into some shows. I also achieved that this past year. So as this new year begins, I'm thinking of what the next goals would be. Where do I want to go with my art? Do I want to try to enter shows in other countries? Do I want to pursue gallery representation? Do I want to work at fabric art predominantly or continue to hone my painting skills as well? Should I enroll in more courses? Or do I just want to make art for the sake of making art or to give away? Do I want to teach art to others? Should I volunteer somewhere sharing my art with others? So many questions and possibilities!

It is rather exciting but also a bit scary to put yourself "out there". What if I get rejected? What if my art is not as good as I think it is? What if I give a piece of art to someone and they really don't like it?
Our inner critic starts to "nadder" in our heads. We artists have been calling this our monkey on our back and we all have had to contend with it. I answer my "monkey" by telling him, it doesn't matter what others think of my art. It's how it makes me feel and what I think that is important. It is the joy I get from creating and giving. When I make art for others, it is not so much the art but the heart that I put into it that means the most to me and hopefully the recipient sees it this way too. I also find when I am making art for someone else, I strive to do the best I can.

I have decided that one goal for this year will be that I will do more drawing and sketching. I started that this past year with my enrollment in Sketchbook Skool. I've seen that it is possible to do a drawing every day. I will draw what is in front of me, whatever that will be; the beautiful, the ordinary, the mundane, the funny.....whatever I find. I'm not sure how successful I will be at this, but I'm going to try.

Sketchbook Skool also gave me the idea of putting together a book with just drawings I've done of our business. I was hoping I'd have the book before Christmas to present to my husband but it didn't arrive until a few days after Christmas. I am really pleased with it and I think my husband is too.



Do you make New Year's Resolutions or Goals for the coming year?  What types of things do you resolve to do or what are your goals?

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