A Creative New Year to you!

Happy New Year to you from me!

My new year has been a bit late starting.

I was fortunate enough to be away on the Big Island with family and friends over the holidays. While my intentions for goal setting and lots of productive time, writing, soul-searching and creating art were a top priority, reality got in the way and it was replaced with lots of meal making and carting kids around to hot surf spots.

Oh woe is me:)

So here I am starting the New Year with no set plan in motion, but instead a feeling of gratitude and contentment. I would say that is a good start to any year!

I spent my spare time painting and cutting paper into shapes inspired by all the crazy, tropical foliage surrounding me. I played with some different textures and colours and I experimented with their placement.

I will admit to running out of medium to glue it all down, but  soon discovered that I loved the freedom of being able to move it all around.

I had more than one moment of frustration as the wind blew it all away..

I think I could be very happy playing with bright colors and designing this way everyday. I love that feeling of excitement that comes with the discovery of something new, a new idea, new colours…anything new.

These will all be made into prints for art licensing soon.

I am excited about the new year, but here I sit, almost 2 weeks in to the new year, with no set plan of action written down. I have lots of ideas and goals for this year, but right now they are flying around with no accountability whatsoever.

My plan for this week is to take a half hour out daily to reflect and get these intentions in action. There is no time like the present. Just start!

A little pep talk from me to you.

Sharing with you a few resources that I always find helpful to help start me on my way:

Word of the Year – created by Christine Kane

New Years Revolution  – created by Do What You Love

Wishing you health, happiness and lots of creativity in 2016!

xoxo

Advertisement

Lessons Learned in my Creative Life ~ 2014

Sitting here surrounded by paper.Step by step instructions on how to improve Me. Things I have accomplished.Things I want to accomplish, Things I need to change. Things I need to do..

I love this process of delving deep into my life and assessing what needs to change in order to move forward. I am very good at assessing, not so good at doing. I cannot lie..change is exhausting.

When I look back at 2014 in all its glory..and failures, I can’t help but notice that a lot of my behaviour is still the same. I still need to change my daily habits in order to move forward.

In a nutshell – I think I need to get out of my comfort zone.

Oh, how I love my comfort zone…Nothing that a few glasses of wine can’t tell you.

It will take more than one sitting to figure out my plan of action. I have been jotting things down over the past months, but a plan needs to be formulated in order to execute.

Today, instead of sharing my deepest, darkest fears, I will share some lessons learned in 2014.

Lessons learned..

1. Learning – I love learning, I love new things and I love starting. Unfortunately, while these are all positive, they sometimes lead me astray. I need to focus on one thing at a time. I have too many ideas and I want to get them all down at once. I end up doing a lot of everything. I am good at lots of things, I am not great at one thing. I need to be great at one thing.

2. Focus – explore a theme in its entirety. Make a game plan and follow it through. In art and In life.No more willy nilly half efforts trying to learn handlettering or skate skiing. A commitment is in order.

3. Art – Motifs need to be clean and concise. They need to be read well. All of your art needs to come across loud and clear. Your style, your colours and your brand. In the world of art licensing this art also needs to be commercial. So while I have my style and some quirkiness mixed in, I still need it to be sellable.

4. Opportunity – Sitting here and waiting for people to knock on my door will not have people knocking down my door. I need to be proactive, show my work and actually do some of my own door knocking.

5. Show up everyday – show up, start, create. It may not be great, but all work leads to something. No art is ever wasted. Practice makes better. recognize when rest is needed, but otherwise forge onwards.

6. Time – there is enough time in the day to do it all, it just takes some planning. Map out your day and divide your work into do-able time slots. Concentrate on one task. Prioritize what is most important – do it. Then move onto the next task with a feeling of accomplishment.

7. Uninterrupted workflow – My best work comes with no distractions. Blocks of time creating with no pings, tweets or wandering thoughts. I have tried the Pomodoro technique, tweaking it to be my own. I find these small segments of time useful for starting projects that I am feeling a bit stuck in.

8.  Personal projects – A fun, personal project, be it a daily sketch or a painting a day, with the right hash tag, can get you lots of leverage.Share your work!

9. Agent – I think this was the best decision for me this year. I love the challenge of working to a brief. I love the feedback and  love  the variety of creating from home decor down to digital greetings. They also introduced my work to a whole cast of others that I wouldn’t have had the time to search out. Art licensing is a slow process, but I have faith that it works for those who persevere.

10. Website/blog – keep it updated. I cringe when I look up and know that mine is so out of date. It is YOU! It is your story. Keep it current. (sorry…promise to prioritize this one..)

So, here I sit mapping out my game plan. I have my fingers crossed that I am working in the right direction and doing the right thing. Feeling a wee bit nervous, but knowing in my heart that it is time to move up and onwards.

I have included a few online resources which I pop in to help me on my way. I take what works for me from both and combine them to make it my own.

Christine Kane   Word Of The Year

Do What You Love  New Years Revolution

Write everything down. Share it with your friends and creative partners. Shout it out loud!

Nothing like the world holding you accountable for it all.

Be honest. Have fun.

Say YES to 2014!

Happy New Year to all my friends near and far!

I have a few minutes peace here. An hour, maybe two if I am lucky, to just sit, sip tea and think about the holidays.This is a rare moment right now. Our home and life here in Whistler is alive with the hustle and bustle of happy times. Amidst it all, I am finding a spare moment to reflect and set a few goals for the upcoming year. The chaos will continue for weeks to come, but if I can find a small sliver of quiet time daily all will be good.

At this time of year I can’t help but feel melancholic. I am so grateful for the health and happiness that we are  surrounded by right now. I am grateful to have my friends and family together.I am grateful for the supportive and positive community that I have surrounded myself with this past year.

My creative journey has been such a large part of my life these past two years. This blog and everything within – stories and work from fellow creatives, the trials and tribulations of creating,accomplishments (and a fair share of rejection too). All of these stories help make help make up the fabric of my life right now and it all makes me smile. It’s just awesome!

Thank you to each and every one of you!

Sharing my intentions for 2014! I am hoping you will all hold me accountable. I am a bit of a dreamer as you can probably tell as I doodle my way off into 2014.

Thinking of lots great things…for me and you!

If you are interested in creating your very own intentions for 2014 I really enjoyed Do What You Love’s   New Years Revolution. It is very well thought out and a great planner for the year. (it’s free!) I am a believer in pen to paper for all intentions. It has a bit of sticking power and great to review monthly. Have a go!

Wishing you all the best throughout the holidays and into 2014!