2018 Goals

As I’ve begun to think about 2018, I’ve gotten incredibly excited! Last year at this time, I was contemplating a month of house renovations so I didn’t have time to properly plan for the new year and what I’d be doing. I wrestled with it for a couple of months before I finally set out my goal list at the beginning of March. This year, I feel more prepared. I’ve been thinking about it and dreaming about it since Thanksgiving. I’m both optimistic about 2018 and I plan on being actively hopeful this year as well.

My focus word for 2018: Hope

I’ll be honest, I struggled in 2017 with politics and current events. I chose wait as my focus word in 2017 because there were so many things that were in process last year. I needed the reminder to be patient and let things work out and unfold without me rushing in to manage them. It was a good word and helped me focus on not rushing in last year.

But I need a reminder this year that while I am usually an optimistic person, sometimes I forget about how active hope can be. Where can I contribute something? Where can I love people who need it? Where can I shine a light with my art?

So hope. Yeah, we all need a bit of that, I think.

My 2018 Goals

This less is a bit less sharply focused than in years past. Because last year was so intense, I don’t have the heart to set very many hard and fast rules for myself this year. I’m thinking of this list as more of a set of guidelines of where I need to focus and reminders in case I get off track. And I feel like at this point, I am a working artist so I don’t feel as if I have to set a Make Something Every Day goal, it’s just a part of how I do business now.

Art Making

I am not setting up for a show this year. I’m not ruling out talking about it towards the end of this year but I have no plans for it right now. I have no idea of the rhythm of this sort of thing for other artists but the ten months I worked on Conversational Sexism was an enormous mental task. I think after a few months of resting by concentrating on other things I’ll probably start scratching about for my next big project.

I have four commissions in the works so I’ll concentrate of working on those here at the beginning of the year. I also have a couple of potential workshop/class things I’m working on. I’ll share more on that as details get worked out.

Get Messy Art Journal

I’m joining the Get Messy Art Journal Team as the Community Cheerleader and Mess Maker Team Coordinator. I am so completely thrilled that Caylee and Lauren invited me to be a part of the team in this way. This community means so much to me so I can’t wait to get to work.

I spent a lot of time on Get Messy in 2017 on the creative team. I will continue to be an active participant in the group making things.

This Website

I’m going to continue to do weekly recaps of what I’ve made the previous week. It’s such an easy way to keep up with what I’ve made, I just don’t see the point in stopping that.

I’m thinking about trying a longer essay twice a month instead of the once a week blogging goal. Maybe that will take some pressure off. I want to bring thoughtful content and maybe halving the goal will make it possible for me to accomplish.

I’ve wanted to set up a store for this website as for a while. I’ve done ok with the picking by email and the paypal invoice but I want to remove the barriers for people who want to purchase my work. So that’s a technical thing I’m going to poke at this year for the website.

Work/Life Balance

I’m starting the year with a personal trainer! I would love to loose weight but in the absence of that, I’d just like to feel better overall. I spend WAY too much time indoors and need to get better at making active, healthy choices. I can’t make art if I can’t get out of bed so I’ve got to change some things.

What about you? What do you have planned already for 2018? What are you looking forward to? What do you want to accomplish? Where do you want to grow? Who do you want to spend time with?