I’ve never been one to set resolutions upon a New Year. The older I get, the sillier it seems; also—with age—I’m finding a mantra within me saying, “Accomplish what you can, when you can, because you can…before you can’t.”
I don’t set resolutions at one point in time per year. Instead, I set one resolution throughout a given year, typically around the change of seasons.
My mantra is this: periodically pause and reflect on how I can evolve or expand as a person, an artist, a musician, a father, a lover, and a friend.
Creativity and expression (internal and external) have been common themes. Health has become a reasonably recent theme too. After almost a year of being inactive or limited by two knee replacements, I understand the order of operations in life: health, creativity, relationships, and fun. I’ve found that if my creativity is fed and kept alive, I’m healthy and able to collaborate with others; at the same time, this creativity keeps my body, mind, and soul sound.
That’s a long-winded way of saying I’ve always included my creative side as part of my physical and mental health goals. However, since we’re here, let’s kick around a few artist-related areas in which I wish to experience growth or understanding for 2023:
- Maintain a journal and write every day. This activity alone will free oneself from the nasty self-critic inside and allow ideas to flow uninhibited. As an artist, I can expand on myself by attempting to keep an art journal. I can capture ideas, blog topics, notes on my pours, etc. This could also offer helpful insights to go back and review at later times.
- Allow myself the time for reflection. So many times in life we stack events, meetings, and other things on top of each other, leaving no space for reflection. Soon the week has finished, yet you can’t recall or revisit the things you did that week because they’re all a blur or blend into one another. Even if it’s fifteen minutes, take the time to pause and reflect. It also could be a valuable time to journal.
- Emphasize more with less. From an artist’s perspective, I mean to use as few materials or mediums as possible to make my point. It’s more than making things work with what you have, or less is more; rather, it’s an attempt to establish emphasis or boldness in a piece as soon as possible with minimal manipulation. I’ve accomplished this probably twelve times out of the six hundred or more pours I’ve done. Every time, these pieces end up near and dear to me.
- Expand focus on my custom clothing, shoes, and houseware pieces. This is self-explanatory. I’ll probably use a few select art shows this summer to show these custom items with little to no pours.
- Spend time understanding social media and stats. I want to understand the data behind my social media activity and engagement. Because my day job is highly technical, I usually don’t want to dive into data or social media platforms in my free time. Unfortunately, this can significantly hurt any attempts to promote your art if that’s important to you. If not, then unplug and relax.
With that said, stay safe, well, and creative in 2023.
Peace,
Jelly
