Saturday, January 1, 2011

2011 resolutions/2010 resolutions review


Happy January 1 of 2011!

NB: This digital photo-based image has nothing to do with the post. I just like it.





So...I thought I'd make the first post of 2011 a little look back and a little look forward. Last year, I posted ya-say-ya-wanna-resolution and included my list of resolutions or intentions. The latter might be the better word.

These are the art-practice intentions from last year. Let's see how I did.

  • be kinder to my brushes  
    • A+  for improvement, not perfection. I've had a few relapses, but I have been cleaning the brushes and CONDITIONING them.
  • listen to my own voice    
    • B+  for the effort, but still sometimes a struggle. Got to get rid of the extraneous voices in my head.
  • spend more time looking, just looking 
    • B   2010 started out with lots of that but sometimes I just forget to look.
  • trust the process  
    • A   but it's a qualified A. I think I have stopped trying to make things happen. Mostly.
  • get better at knowing when to put the brush down and say it's done 
    • B-  Arrgh. 'nough said?
  • take more chances
    • A+ One of my little victories for the year. In the studio.
  • let the damned paint dry  
    • A-  Getting better all the time.
  • keep my studio a little neater  
    • deferred
  • be unafraid  
    • A++!!! Big leap in 2010!!!!

And now, intentions for 2011. Keep doing what I'm doing that's working. These are the areas for improvement.

  • listen to my own voice
  • spend more time looking. just looking.
  • get better at putting the brush down
  • that cleaning the studio thing

New for 2011:
  • get out of the studio more and be among the living
  • update my inventory of paintings
  • update my mailing list
  • update my website
  • update portfolio
  • get the work out there
We'll see how this goes...

So, as I did with the 2010 post, I now invite you to share your intentions, resolutions, promises to self, etc. for your art practice in 2011...






11 comments:

Ian MacLeod said...

i could put together the same list for myself - in fact it think i will. Thanks Pam best wishes to you for 2011.

Tamar said...

You are SO organized in having this list ready as of Jan 1!
Looking at your 2010 list (so ambitious), your final item /be unafraid is just fabulous! Bravo on the A+!
I'm just starting to think of my own items, which end up as scattered notes on my studio walls..... but my eye rested on: spend more time looking, just looking and get better at knowing when to put the brush down and say it's done. For me, those two go hand in hand. The more frequently I step back, sit down and look, the more I begin to understand when I've reached a stopping point (if only for that day).

For my own list I would add
1: step back and look and stop being so damn impatient to get it finished!
2: develop a more rigorous marketing plan and actually follow through on it.

Ed Angell said...

While I love the hard edge style of my work, this year I'm going to do at least one series that is more humanistic. I want to involve people I know in a way to be able share the joy of art.

Ed Angell

Joanne Mattera said...

I have tens of thousands of pics on my hard drive, amassed since 2005. They're semi organized, and I semi remember where and what everything is, so this year I'm going through every folder to 100% identify its contents. If not now, when?

pam said...

After I posted this I realized that I had left off one intention, which was to work on being more organized (oh, the irony...).

So Tamar, thanks for commenting, but let's just say my organizational skills--cognitive and applied--need improvement.

And Joanne: might I suggest some nice "Morning Thunder" or "Awake" tea to aid in your task.

Ian, I hope you'll come back and post your list...even if it seems the same

Ed: I like your intention. Despite the hard (actually, I think of them as clean) edges of your work, since I associate them so much with you, I can't think of them as anything but humanistic!

Glenn said...

One word sums it all up for me: discipline!

Harold Venable said...

I think I'm going to have to go with a short list. I hate to hedge my bet, but I don't think I'm prepared to be unafraid in 2011. So I'm going to go with:

1) Be "less" afraid
2) Be more disciplined (because once Glenn mentioned it it seemed so right)

Nancy Natale said...

My first resolution is to recover from the holidays. I hate having a break in the routine that makes me go through a big catch up to where I was before the whole stupid mess started. It's nice to have time off and all that, but I was in a rhythm before the holidays and now I'm trying to regain my footing. This could take a good six months and by then maybe I'll be ready for my second resolution. Bah! Humbug!

pam said...

Hmmm....seems like discipline is an apt word for what would make us all more successful in our individual resolutions.

And as far as this "unafraid" thing goes, it's so huge a concept, that I can see that approaching it in degrees would make sense (and of course mean different things to different people). I think I started out saying I wanted to be MORE unafraid and it somehow morphed into just plain ol' unafraid.

NN: It's never too early to plan for a very minimal 2011 holiday season... :)

Nancy Natale said...

I like that idea, Pam. I'm going to start now. Of course, I really don't know how I could get any more minimal, but let's just say it could involve lots more black and a helluva lot less red.

Anonymous said...

I love that you grade yourself - and get a jolly good average. My 2011 looks like this--

I am determined to:

•get in plenty of art time
•use good quality canvas for all my works
•enter more art events than in 2010
•lose another 25 kilos
•get on my exercycle at least 5 times a week
•save money towards a trip to Dubai before Tony retires
•make sure Mum stays happy as she gets older
•ensure there is balance in my life