So a new year has begun.
I have spoken in the past about the whole end of year and inevitable over-thinking syndrome I suffer from. However my self criticism and navel gazing session this year has been much more gentle than normal.
This has a lot to do with the fact that 2013 was pretty awesome to me in the “art” facet of my life.
I won a 2nd place award for my pointillism piece in the 2013 QT Ipswich Art Awards.
I sold work.
I exhibited in a number of group exhibitions.
I got the opportunity to share my passion for art with some very enthusiastic and clever 4 and 5 year old kids.
One of my pieces was used as part of the promotion for the 2013 Home Grown Exhibition.
That’s my “Plight of the Bumble Bee” right there on the left… I was a tiny bit excited about that one.
And then of course there was “The Image Makers” exhibition….
It was a 2 week group exhibition shared with three lovely and talented artists, Tom Mason, Lyn Mason, and Glen Smith. The four of us hung some of our best work and put on an amazing show.
I exhibited 23 pieces of art. 12 nude line drawings and 11 pointillism drawings.
I was absolutely floored by the amount of support we got. The four of us are from Ipswich and we exhibited in Brisbane. The number of wonderful people who made the journey for the opening night amazed me.
I am enormously proud to say that I sold 8 pieces on the night.
The whole experience was a huge learning curve.
I discovered that I work well under pressure (well, I am a mum so I guess that is a trained response).
I enjoyed producing a body of work – more than a one off piece – the “sets” look wonderful together.
And I loved how seeing that many of my pieces all hung in one gallery made me feel. I loved seeing a large number of people looking at my work, lingering in front of my work, discussing my art with their friends.
I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. It was like a “coming out” as an artist. The “recognition” as an artist. Having people wanting to talk to me about my art and ultimately having people love my stuff enough to want to take a piece home and hang it on their walls.
I floated on air for a long time after that! And I still feel humbled that my work meant something to somebody other than myself.
I have had a quiet few weeks since then, with Christmas and school holidays to contend with. The sketch book is getting a bit of a work out – so is my idea’s book (yup, got me one of those now).
And now another year has begun – more potential waiting to be unleashed.
I have lots of things I want to accomplish – I set myself some goals and resolutions last year that didn’t get realised for a number of different reasons.
As this year is still in it’s infancy I again sit and contemplate my resolutions and goals.
A trend which I have only recently become aware of was the “one word” idea… it’s an idea that has apparently been around for a while… (bit slow on the uptake me…)
Anyway, the idea (just in case you are not familiar with it) is that you chose one word that will act like a mantra or focus for the year. Lets face it, a list of resolutions usually never gets anyone too far – well, me anyway – and a single word to concentrate energy into manifesting seems like a good way to go.
This year will be a year of “change” and “purpose”.
My youngest is off to school full time. We will be putting our house on the market again. I want to make my health and fitness more of a priority. I intend to enter more competitions and exhibit more outside of Ipswich. I am going to try my hand at sculpture. I have ideas, and germs of ideas, for large bodies of work. I want to do something about issues that bug me and I am passionate about.
I resolve to embrace the change and live and create with purpose.
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