Last Week of 2022
I hope everyone is having a restful and safe holiday and end of year season! I’ve spent the last week resting, spending time with friends and family, and creating things that make me happy. It’s been nice to slow down and spend time recharging.
This year, like previous years, I am not making big resolutions for 2023. I find resolutions hard to follow through on and I usually forget them. Instead, I have some smaller specific goals for myself for 2023, and I set quarterly projects or goals at the beginning of each quarter. My specific goals related to my art are:
Post on social media four times a week
Paint or draw every day
The goals/projects I’ve set for the first four months of 2023 are:
Finish painting a collection of paintings (seven to ten paintings in a cohesive theme)
Finish painting one commissioned painting
Create a photobook of my trip to Joshua Tree and learn how to use Adobe Photoshop
Finish painting the watercolor of the botanical illustration of the Northern California Tidal Pool creatures
I’m trying to stick to the concept of no more than five projects at a time and I have smaller breakdowns for when the work for these projects are going to happen. Recently, I haven’t been very intentional about when I’ll be working on or doing something, which has been giving me a sense that nothing is really getting done each day. I’m working on finding the balance between making sure I make consistent progress on my projects while having time to create and do things just for fun. And thankfully, I still find painting fun and rewarding in itself. I just want to be a little bit more intentional with how I plan and use my time.
I’m curious to hear how others are thinking about the new year in terms of resolutions or goals or if you’re simply not. I always think the new year is weird because I don’t like waiting for a specific time to make changes or doing something new.
And finally, here’s my little check-in/update:
What I’m working on
I am working on my 5” embroidery hoop without beads because I felt like I was starting too many projects at once and I should finish what I’ve already started. This one is almost there and I think it’ll be done soon and will be up on my pegboard with my other embroidery projects.
Something unrelated to painting, but a project nonetheless, is a sweater that I’ve been knitting over the course of the year. I have maybe 2 inches of the sleeve and a 4 inch cuff to knit and then it’ll be done. So I’m hoping to finish that soon.
I finished painting the first painting of my Highway One collection! I started two other paintings from that collection that I’ll move onto next. Again, I want to be careful of starting too many things at once, because I get overwhelmed when there are many choices of what to work on.
Inputs
I’m still reading Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker and listening to Upstream by Dan Heath on audiobook.
Outputs
I spent time with family for the holidays. I’m going to be spending New Years with friends and I’m looking forward to it!
