.... lola's gallery in roswell sold two of my paintings in the last week or two ..... this one ... and this one ... both very recent paintings ... and both ones that were new stretches for me in 2009.... so that's kind of exciting and reaffirming coming off a year when i didn't paint as much as the year before ...
in 2009, i painted 23 canvases ... (yikes, that's even fewer than i thought it was!) .... in 2008, i painted more than 140 canvases .... that speaks to the power of the economy in 2008 .... and the loss of a strong art economy in 2009 .... PLUS ... most importantly ... the power of the new year's resolution .... in 2008 i resolved to paint 100 paintings ... and exceeded that by loads ...
let's do a review .....
in recent memory ....
2005 resolution: clean a closet a month ... easy ... boring .... done successfully ....
2006 resolution: read and journal 100 books ... not easy ... very fun and busy ..... done successfully .... i still love the fact that i read 100 books in a year .... i should do this one again sometime!
2007 resolution: play 500 games and journal them for the year ... great one for my family .... fun ... put some happy perspective on what's important (kids, family time, saying yes when they want me to be with them)
2008 resolution: paint 100 canvases .... great for my art life .... painted more than 140 ... sales were great and it was easy to donate to all the causes that asked for art to be auctioned ....
2009 resolutionS (bold move, more than one): 1. home, stay calm and happy and on budget for my house reno.... done.... successful, happy, easy to live through, on budget ..... 2. art, explore houses, go for ten paintings .... done, small since i was living away from my art studio for six months and then had a house to move into .... did more than ten house-ish paintings .... 3. life, be a better cook and make my family eat more vegetables ..... done .... not too hard ....
this last one was actually a great one for us .... serve them spinach ten times and they don't like it much, then serve some weird squash chutney thing alongside the spinach, and they gobble that spinach right up ..... so, we eat way more vegetables ....we eat more fish ... i'm doing better menu planning .... i don't have many evenings of not knowing what we're going to have for dinner ...
do you make resolutions? most people don't ... cause they think resolutions are hard or futile .... or they make them and break them ... or they make them and they are so hard that they don't tell anyone .... but here i am to tell you, make a resolution that you KNOW you can do ... that is good for you or fun for you .... that is NOT hard .... make it a priority and a resolution and keep track of what you do ..... that keeping track bit is important .... you don't want to forget that it was your resolution .... go ahead .. make a FUN resolution .... tell me what it is ...
so ... here's my resolution .....
in 2010 i am going to edit that book i wrote in 2009 .... and i am going to send it to 5 agents before year's end .... ok? i was planning on editing it anyway ... but now i have a deadline ... and one more step .... that agent bit .... no guarantee of publishing, but at least i'm heading in the right direction ....
i don't have a definitive art resolution .... but i need to get my studio back in shape after the holiday chaos that has made a mess .... i need to work towards a show or a festival, and don't have one on my calendar .... but, that should all happen without a resolution ....
so that's my photo free first blog post of the year ... i resolve to go back to photoful blog posts soon!!
let me know what your resolutions are ... make them fun and easy!
3 comments:
glad you are back to the blog and resolutions. I have none - other than to get the studio in shape..organize, tidy, sraighten, pitch all the useless stuff, and then paint! Oh, and paint something different! Maybe more challenging? Once I thought I would resolve to draw everyday, but that did not work as I am a direct painter and do not like the idea of having to draw before painting.....throwing the paint at the paper or canvas is my idea of the way to go.....then it tells me what to do.
i wrote mine down the other day here:
http://musingsinmayhem.blogspot.com/2009/12/promises-promises.html
for once i thought ahead.
We share a 2010 resolution in common: Edit the novel written in 2009 and submit to agents.
I totally agree with your advice that resolutions should be achievable and a center of focus for the year. Setting goals really just helps us define our priorities, and I believe it helps us get it done. Resolving to publish that novel would leave so much out of your control, but resolving to edit it and submit to agents prioritizes steps that you can reasonably achieve.
Best of luck! I love it that you keep track going back several years at a time too.
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