Tag Archives: goals

EBSQ and my Artsy Year in Review

In December 2007, I made the goal to: create at least one NEW artwork (in any medium of my choice as is fitting for the theme) per month to enter into EBSQ Shows.

The shows that I planned to enter vs the art that I actually completed: 

sheba three

  • March: I did not end up creating for the Childhood Show instead put in a couple of OLD pieces in Vice. Drama Queen and Foot Fetish. In fact, it appears that I did a whole bunch of nothing during March. But in reality, I had some major family issues happening, I attended and presented at a professional conference and I was participating actively in Flickr Photo Scavenger Hunts.

Floor Cloth

  • May: The Unmentionables Show was in the plan, but still recuperating from the intensity of Artfest, I wasn’t making very much art. However, I did find the energy to participate in another of Jen’s Challenges. I also started getting heavily into my triathlon training, so days of swimming, running and cycling took a bit out of art time.

 Experiment #2 fabric weaving

  • June: I did not enter the Creation Myths, but instead entered a photograph in Art of the Fan. It was a great month for experimenting in fabric  for a return to Jen’s Challenges.
  • August:  My Triathlon was this month, so all my focus was on fitness, but I did start thinking about the Beaded Journal Project. All plans of participating in shows were put on hold.

BJP_prototype with pages side by side and open

  • October: Why did I plan to enter the Bat Show? I guess because I do like Halloween. Although I did not manage that, I did make a lot of new art for ArtSoMoFo. I also worked on the next month of BJP.
  • November: Another show planned and another show missed… although the election was a top priority on my mind, it did not inspire any art for On the Trail. I celebrated my doggie’s birthday and created my BJP in his honor. The school year is in full swing and the rainy season has begun, so art and fitness seems to have fallen a bit by the wayside. I will need to think of how I can improve being creative during these busy months.

blue fairy

  • December: I made tons of ornaments in past years so it made sense to enter Ornamental. But nothing new was made to enter the show, so I entered a couple of my old cute doggie ornaments. The year ended with a lot of SNOW and fun. I spent most of my creative energy making fun doll clothes for my nieces.

 I love looking back to see what I planned and what I accomplished. It does help me see the cycles and patterns to my creative life. Now on to better planning my 2009 show entries.

What’s in a Word?

As I reflect over the past year and make my goals for the next year, I have discovered a few people summing up their year in a single word. This seems like such a great way to focus on my goals, to have one over-arching word of significance to guide my actions. I always include text into my artwork already, but to have a given word to almost become a signature for the year sounds so freeing and exciting.

“A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything.”

Many of my online artist friends have been declaring their words. Dale Anne selected Explore for her word, so I decided to explore  more about choosing a word for myself. Christine Kane describes the process in “Resolution Revolution“. In fact, I remember reading this post last year, and I looked into some words, but for whatever reason I didn’t pick a word. (Although I did set some art goals.) Now she has a month of posts about people that selected a word and had a year of success focused on that word. It is exciting to read about people that picked their words from deep emotional places like transition, or ones that pick their word with humor, like chicken. Courageseems to be a popular word, and in this world, it seems we all need a little courage just to get through the day. Another blogger, Ali, not only has a list of word suggestions, she also has a little contest/giveaway for those setting words as a focus.

So far I am looking at the following words:

  • Action: the process or state of acting or of being active
  • Immersion: concentrating on one course of instruction, subject, or project to the exclusion of all others for several days or weeks; intensive, state of being deeply engaged or involved; absorption
  • Journey: a traveling from one place to another, passage or progress from one stage to another
  • Vibrancy: pulsating with life, vigor, or activity; exciting; stimulating; lively

The words on the longer list included challenge, energy, achieve, active, accomplish, strive, release, discipline, but most of them felt to final or had a negative feeling to me. I know that this year will not be the end of my projects and goals, nor are they the beginning. It is important that my word encompasses my fitness goals as well as my art, relationship and professional goals.

 

I am leaning towards Vibrancy… but I am going to let it sit today and see how it looks in the morning. Then I will print out the one I will focus on and put it in my studio and my home gym so I won’t forget!

 

what word do you think I should pick?

Jen’s Challenge Week 4: Citrus Collage

Citrus Fabric Mandala collage

So I too was feeling the COLD weather this week with every morning starting at 25 degrees F. For mild little Seattle that is pretty cold. The air is so dry that it crackles. I jumped at the IDEA Of Jen’s Challenge #4 this week… because I too wished I was somewhere warmer.

Right away I knew I wanted to make a mandala. I haven’t made any in awhile and they often look like flowers (another spring and summer icon) So I collected some citrus type images and started digitally slicing them. But then I looked at the challenge again and realized I wasn’t really PUSHING myself with this. SO I thought, “I haven’t even doing a fabric mandala.” although I have thought of it many times and dismissed it for the sake of difficulty. So I went half-way and decided to transfer my digital collage to fabric and then embellish it. But even after ironing it onto some fabric, I realized I still had not really PUSHED.

So I went ahead and dug out some citrus colored fabrics. (If I wasn’t on a supply diet I would have run to the store and bought some delicious citrus fabric prints.) Cut out many triangles, positioned them into a radial pattern then sewed away with many of the different cool stitches on my new(ish) machine. I had some tension issues so I am not totally happy with the results. But I am SO glad I finally did a fabric mandala! (the image is sliced off on the sides due to scanner limitations, when it is light again I will try some photos)

Check out what other artists have made for this challenge:

This is Stacy’s Citrus Entry for Jen’s Challenge #4

and here is Eliza’s Painting of fruit-goodness.

The Art Quilts of Margot Lovinger

So I am looking into art groups to be a part of, especially fabric oriented ones. I want to do more with my art quilting and take it to the next level. So I was (once again) exploring the Contemporary QuiltArt Association website. I ran across Margot’s website a few years back when I was exploring the same site for the same reasons. Her work is similar to what I envision mine to be (but with my own slant.) I am sure her technique is similar to what I am doing too… except she seems to use a lot of sheer layers. I would really love to see one of them in person. For fabric the flat images on the internet rarely do them justice.

So I have printed the application to the CQA and plan to get it sent in as I continue work on my latest art quilt.

Explore some yourself and see what strikes your fancy!

http://www.contemporaryquiltart.com

http://www.margotlovinger.com

Purple Paper Quilt

purplepaperquilt01, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy.

Possibly for the True Colors in a Mixed-media Paper Quilt Challenge. 

This is still a work in progress. It is actually 12×12, but I scanned it and my scanner only does 10×12 so a few inches are missing. It is several layers of torn paper, many left over from my ArtErratica color tag swap including some dyed paper towels ala Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista.

I am noticing several of my common themes in personal imagery (which I will post more on later)

What do you notice?

Jen’s Challenge Week 3

monoprint1, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy.

This is one of the monoprints I made last night as part of Jen’s Weekly Challenge. I used the stencil resist method and went with a heart theme for upcoming V-Day. The extra heart on the left side is the cut-out that was used as the resist for the print. Basically I had some pieces of plexi-glass in my collage bin, I smeared some blue and red acrylic paint on it and moved it around with my brushes. Then I placed a cut out heart on the paint and then printed with some pieces of paper that already had images or background printing on them. I wanted a very layered look. Finally, scanned this after over 30 mins of downloading new drivers and restarting numerous times to get my old scanner to work with the new vista computer… ahhhh technology!

Collage Unleashed

So yesterday Shawn wanted to trade in his car for a new sporty one… (perhaps a mid-life crisis thing?) Anyhow, I had to go along since my name is on the loans, but I knew it would be HOURS of boring sitting and number crunching. So I brought a stack of books to read and view to entertain myself. I actually READ through the entire Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista. I have been planning to do some projects out of this book for a while, perhaps even ALL of them like Eliza is doing, and I already did do one for Jen’s challenge last week. Lots of great ideas in there. BUT I really need to organize my studio so that I can get going on some of them. Luckily the two go hand in hand as Jen’s Challenge this week is Mono-printing and that is also in Traci’s book. So if I could only convince myself to clean off my desk!

While reading and waiting I also made it mostly through The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery by Karen Michel and Free-Style Quilts by Susan Carlson.

I think I was MOST inspired by the Free-Style Quilts since fabric is really what I want to be doing… part of me wants to just purge ALL my paper stuff… and make more room for fabric stuff. But I still do like to create with paper sometimes and it hurts to thinking of getting rid of so much stuff. I know I could just take it all to school and therefore still have access to it, while letting the kids use it. But even that sounds like a huge chore.

I am working on a “hand” series right now… though it is mostly in development phase right now. While looking through Free-Style Quilts, I realized this picture would make a great fabric or paper collage…. so next will be sketchs and patterns to turn this into some arty goodness…

stay tuned!

Guiding Word

4422Still on my hunt for tips and tricks for setting SMART Goals I ran across Christine’s Blog. There are SO many wonderful and creative people out there, it is hard not to spend the whole day on the computer exploring… So anyway, she suggests a GUIDING WORD to be an alternative to resolutions. She has done this and blogged about it for a few years and I really like the idea. Here are a few of the words from her list that are grabbing me… but I will need to ponder and settle on one for the year that fits my other goals and plans as well as my overall direction.

Growth: this can cover a lot of areas… and I strive to always grow and be open to growth… but this word really was a great focus for me a few years ago when I returned to school for my masters and did a lot of mental health healing. Not that I can’t use a word just because it was a past focus, but I think I am not in this part of my life cycle right now.  

Health: This one fits my fitness goals but doesn’t really cover any of my other ones.

Action: This one could address my fitness goals and my art ones as well… so I am leaning towards it.

Adventure: My life has become so settled and kinda in a rut…so I feel like I want some adventure but I think I am too comfortable to really use it as a focus word.

Discipline: This word is a tough one for me… something I really need more of but something I hate! It has a real negative connotation in my mind, so I hesitate to use it, but If I could wrap my mind around the positive aspects and really focus on it in every area of my life it could be a good thing.

Artfulness or Creativity: I think these are such a part of my life and person that I don’t need the word to drive my actions anymore.

One word that she didn’t list that popped into my head right away is Interact. I really want to participate in art groups (both live and online) as well as my teacher community more. Plus join some fitness events, and generally get-out-more! not be such a homebody… I think this word might be in the top three of possibilities.

Actionable Items

With my desire to make SMART goals this year, I have been hunting the net for tips and tools for setting goals that fit these parameters. In January’s EBSQ Zine, Amie discusses the topic of resolutions, goals and plans for the new year and she shares a list of questions to ask yourself that she found on ArtBiz Coach. Here are a few that I feel I can tackle.

What will you do to amplify your online presence? I have had an online presence since 1999, but I can’t say that I have much of a following… So my Actional Items to improve my online presence include:

  • Updating my art blog (with images) at least twice a week. Including articles that cross reference othe blogs and artists that I admire.
  • Participate in my online groups and forums more often by making weekly posts that are interactive with the members.
  • Visiting and commenting on other art blogs that I find inspiring.

What seminars/workshops/lectures will you attend?

What galleries, exhibits, or other venues will you submit your art to?

Questions I still want to consider…

  • What is the single thing you can do in 2008 that will move your career ahead the fastest?
  • How will you improve your studio habits?

(more at ArtBizCoach.com)