Happy New Year Everyone,
It is the beginning of the first full “back to work” week of the year. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been thinking about my studio goal for 2014. Although I am a little nervous about it, I have decided to commit to a total of 750 hours: 500 in the studio and 250 managing marketing and the business side of things. This equals an average of about 15 hours a week-I hope I do it!
I spent the first few days after New Year’s taking stock of 2013 and outlining some preliminary goals for this year. It’s pretty interesting to write out a list of your accomplishments over the year; I recommend you try it.
For me, dedicating 500 hours to art meant that I accomplished the following in 2013:
- Three large scale (5-6 foot) drawings
- Six 22×30″ drawings
- One 30×40 mixed media painting
- A small edition of lithographs based on an older drawing
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| “Picked Clean,” 2013. (48×60) |
I also:
- Submitted work to six shows (Accepted in two)
- Finally had good photos taken of my work
- Resurrected my website, which had been down for TWO years
- Wrote a grant request to the Arts & Science Council of Mecklenburg County and was selected for funding-more on that later.
- Gave a talk with my mother to a group of art history students at Queens University
- And of course, started this blog
It’s difficult for me to trumpet my own accomplishments like that (an issue I will have to get past if I’m going to market my work seriously), but the important point is that I’m sure I would not have gotten this much done if I hadn’t held myself to this 500 hour goal.
I would have liked to have produced a few more completed pieces this year, so that will be a goal for 2014. On the other hand, some of the marketing tasks, like getting portfolio shots and fixing my website, were long overdue and I am glad they are done.
As for 2014, I have some good preliminary plans and am looking forward to seeing how many goals 750 hours will allow me to accomplish.
