2024 End of Year Review
I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season with friends, family, and loved ones. Since the end of the year is in a few days, I wanted to share a review of my year and follow up with how I did with the goals I had set in January. I think that it’s important to reflect back on how the year went because it provides a greater time scale that allows me to fully realize what I’ve been able to accomplish. Even the (mostly) biweekly schedule of checking in helps reveal what I’m putting my time towards, but the shorter time scales make it hard to see progress. I often find myself feeling that I’m accomplishing very little day by day, but once I change my perspective, it’s easier to see how the work accumulates. So to start out, I’ll take a look at my 2024 goals.
Goals
Paint 60 paintings. I ended up completing 47 paintings this year (not including the 100 daily watercolor paintings I made as part of the #100daychallenge). I’m quite proud of myself for being able to complete so many paintings in the year, and I think 60 paintings a year is a good number to strive for each year.
Release 3 collections. I only officially released one collection this year, during the first half of the year. I’ve moved away from releasing a number of thematically similar paintings at a time because I’ve learned that I like to bounce around from different concepts for my paintings. When I move around from different types of paintings, it ends up taking a while to build a cohesive collection. The “Ocean Arrangements” series is a perfect example of this because it’s taken me a whole year to finish the six paintings that make up the series. By letting go of releasing collections, I’ve alleviated the stress I was putting on myself to work in a way that wasn’t natural for me. But it was initially a good way of thinking for me to be inspired and work on my painting skills.
Apply to 10 art calls/opportunities. I overachieved on this goal and applied to 44 art calls this year, varying from museum and gallery group shows, grants, residencies, fellowships, public art projects, commissions, and other art related opportunities. I was accepted by 9 of them, and I’m so grateful for the opportunities applying to these art calls has opened up.
Participate in 3-5 in person events. I ended up showing my artwork in person over five distinct type of events across multiple weekends:
* Two weekends of Silicon Valley Open Studios
* Live painting demonstration at Filoli Historic Gardens
* Live mural painting demonstration
* San Francisco Open Studios
* I opened up my studio at Alameda Artworks for four “Second Saturdays” events.
I’ve really enjoyed participating in various events because it’s the best way for me to meet other artists and art enthusiasts to talk about what inspires them. It’s been a great way to build community and it helps motivate me to keep creating in times where I feel stuck or directionless. Creating artwork is a solitary endeavor, and I think that being able to work in solitude is a key factor in being an artist, but it’s always helpful to have a creative community around you to introduce you to new ideas that continue to fuel the creativity.Post 2 YouTube videos a month. I was very consistent with creating YouTube videos for the first half of the year and then I completely fell off the wagon. I ended up with 13 videos, exactly one more than half of my goal, but stopped creating videos starting the second half of July. Part of my failure stemmed from missing the second video in July, and once July passed, my summer became busy with commissions and travel that I let go of the goal. I think I’m going to take a pause on YouTube for now because I want to focus on other things, but it doesn’t mean that I won’t go back to it in the future!
When setting my goals at the beginning of the year, I clearly had intention for where I wanted my art career to go, but I think I did a decent job of giving myself space for other things to happen naturally because I couldn’t predict all of the things that would happen this year. So here are some specific, non-goal related accomplishments that I wanted to share and celebrate:
I found a studio space outside of my home at Alameda Artworks. This really enabled me to create a dedicated space for my work and has given me a really supportive creative network.
I painted my first public artwork of a utility box mural as a commission for the City of San Jose.
I co-curated my first museum show.
I painted a commission for my alma mater, Swarthmore College, for their 2025 Calendar.
I attended my first artist residency at the Cuttyhunk Island Residency
I painted another piece of public art on a heart sculpture for the annual San Francisco General Hospital Foundation Heart in San Francisco fundraiser.
I’m having some beginning thoughts on goals for next year. One of them includes doing less things for the first time. This year has been a year of many firsts: first mural, first time showing my artwork in Silicon Valley Open Studios, first live painting demonstrations, and more. It’s been a great way to learn, but I’ve felt exhausted figuring out how to do things for the first time. By definition, I probably won’t be doing many things for the first time next year, since I’ll be trying to do a lot of the things I did this year again next year, but I’ll also probably try fewer new things. I have a better sense of what I enjoy doing, so I think I can be better focused. I also will hold onto the value of leaving space for serendipitous opportunities.
So I think it’s a wrap on 2024! I look forward to continuing to share my goals and updates in the new year. Thanks for being with me on my journey!
