I wrapped up last year in Joshua Tree and New Mexico. After looking back on that post, I thought about the listed goals for 2014. To my surprise, only one had not been completed (not finishing my children's book). That's alright, there's always this year. It made me think that it works to type it up like this so here it goes again.
View from our Airbnb spot in Frigiliana, Spain. A very magical place.
There were many new things this year and I felt I really broadened my horizons, especially in the last few months of the year. I'm a perfectionist and have high expectations of myself, so it's easy to forget the things I've done and spend more time focusing on what I need to fix. When I took the time to think about it I found these highlights for 2014:
- Won 2nd place for Best Local Handmade Goods in Metro's Best of Silicon Valley 2014 in San Jose, CA.
- Opened my own web shop outside of Etsy.
- I'm selling my art on juried sites as well.
- I learned to sail, something that has been on my list since childhood.
- Participated in the SubZERO Festival and it was a huge success!
- Sold art at West Elm in Emeryville
- Found the best camping spot in Northern California with river swimming (not telling where!).
- Taught an Craft Entrepreneurship class for Etsy in Santa Cruz.
- I attempted to climb Half Dome. I actually won the lottery to hike it, but some backpackers didn't put their fire out properly and left us in the valley of Yosemite. Still, a real good time hiking to the top of Glacier Point.
- Designed a coffee bag for the Chromatic Coffee Artist Series.
- I did my first daily art project in October. Although it only lasted a little over 3 weeks, I really got a lot out of it.
- Spent a month in Spain for an art residency. Stay tuned for more blog posts about that trip.
- First international exhibit! Showed my art at ECCO, a gorgeous marble-filled museum, where my residency was located.
- Spent another couple of weeks traveling in Spain and Morocco. That means I went to Africa! A whole new continent for me.
- Held a studio sale before leaving for Spain. It went great! I'm low on inventory now.
- Cooked A LOT. I was way more experimental and enthusiastic about cooking this year.
- Donated or sold clothes, housewares, art supplies and more throughout the year. I finally feel like I only have things I love.
- Read three whole books in the month of December! Sure, they were pretty short, but pretty good nonetheless.
- Sold art online ON Christmas day. Wow, thank you sweet customer, that was unexpected.
- Redesigned my website (HA! Just did this on 12/28!).
- Started editing images of custom portraits I have done to add to my portfolio (again, did this in the last few days of the year).
- Sold out of art prints on Scoutmob (Just did this on 12/31/14!).
- Sold art online on New Year's Day. What a way to start the year.
After getting back from being away all of November and half of December, I fell right into holiday chaos. I had a few portraits to finish with Christmas deadlines. Then there were the holiday themselves. Still, I managed to stay super productive in the last few weeks of 2014 by painting, photo editing, planning, reorganizing and all around completing things I had been meaning to do.
As for 2015, I will list out some things I would like to do, since writing them down seems to help make them happen. Here we go:
- Get my finances in order.
- Make more art than I did last year. Experiment, take risks, try new things.
- Spend more time with friends and family, since I tend to isolate myself and work.
- Start working on the final draft of my children's book.
- Work on developing surface pattern design skills.
- Do things besides art: more sailing lessons, hiking, reading, survivalist backpacking (doesn't that sound fun?!).
- Be fluent in Spanish (I speak it but want to improve on it) and French (know a handful of phrases).
- Grow more food than last year.
- Do another art residency. There are two I am especially interested in applying for.
- Apply for the Half Dome permits again (fingers crossed).
- Visit Joshua Tree at the end of the year... or maybe NY?
- Camp more, maybe even monthly (wishful thinking).
Keeping the list not all art-related this year. If you made it this far in this long and self-involved post, well, thanks for reading it. I recommend writing down what you want to get done this year. It's pretty amazing to see what you did when you look back on it.
Happy New Year.
