2026 Goal Reevaluation

In my Summer of loss post a few weeks ago I mentioned I wanted to do a goal review. And I recognize how extremely weird it is to say that I’ve been thinking about that ever since. I keep looking at my page of goals and thinking about how far I’ve come with many of the things on my list. There’s also a couple that have taken a bit of a beating this year.

What if?…

So much has changed for me this year. The first half of the year, I made a bunch of new work and had a bunch of work in shows. I wrote a lot of material for grants. I dug into my practice in a way I never have before. It was good. But it was also exhausting. Then I had a rough summer and I’m still feeling tender over it. So I’ve been asking some “What if?” questions the last few days.

• What if I had time for in-person community?
• What if I had time for more art play?
• What if I had time to do some classes and sit with that work?
• What if I opted out of making content for content’s sake?
• What if I offered you a break from keeping up with one more thing?

It is a time for remaking

I have to remind myself periodically that I am a grownup and I get to decide what to do with my one wild and precious life. I’ve been slowly unlearning a lot of internet grind culture over the past year and setting up deadlines for content delivery is a big one for me. I made a rule several years ago that I would post once a week on this blog. At the time, it was a good idea. I needed a place to put a lot of ideas and think through art topics. This blog has been superb for that purpose. It has served me well and I appreciate it for what it’s provided and I appreciate you for reading it.

Recently though, I’m spending a lot of time producing for the schedule and NOT playing/working in the studio. I’d like to change that. There are sixteen more Tuesdays this year. I’m going to be traveling five of those. That takes the total to eleven. If I write my monthly “what I’m working” on post, there’s three of those. Eight Tuesdays remain after that. I’m thinking I’m only going to write about three to four essays/posts for the rest of this year and leave some space for me to breathe.

Since so many things have been in flux this year, why not my blog too?

Self tending

A few weeks ago I was listening to Mel-Mitchell-Jackson’s podcast and they said:

I wrote it in the front of my studio notebook where I can see it when I flip it open to see my 2026 goals. It’s been haunting me a little bit but you know, in a good way. A calling back to purpose. A few years ago my word of the year was “tend” so it strikes a cord here with me especially since tending for me is so often external focused and not internally focused.

What does self tending look like? you ask. Well, I don’t know exactly. I’d like to start with/return to my twenty minutes a day play time. This has served me well in the past and so I want to see if it still has the magic. I think I might spend some time on the various classes I’ve bought. And actually do them. Not just have them playing while I do twelve other things.

I think I’ll start with those two things and see what develops.

So I’ll be around here, just not as often as you are maybe used to. Drop me a note if you are working on something you are loving so I can see and ooh and ahh over it as well. And once again, thanks for hanging with me. I appreciate you walking this road with me more than you can ever know.

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