A Belated Happy New Year to all!
How did you do on your New Year’s Resolutions last year? My goal was to spend at least 500 hours making art. Despite a slightly rocky start and a fairly unproductive patch in the early summer, I did pretty well!
I made up a lot of time in the fall, passed the 500 hour mark on November 29 and went on to complete a total of 532 hours for the year. It was really nice to be able to let go a little during the holidays, knowing I had achieved this goal. My marketing and business goal fell a little short at 238/250 hours. I had an additional 137 hours of “supporting tasks” like research, prepping materials, framing etc., for a total of 907 hours of art related activity.
So what were the fruits of my labor? I actually had a pretty good year. Here are the highlights:
- Seven 22X30″ drawings
- Two 48X60″ drawings
- Four videos
My favorite drawing from 2014
In addition, I:
- applied to eight shows and was accepted to four
- won first place in one of them
- made some sales, including one major piece
- got a nice spotlight in the Wilmington Star-News
- completed my grant project, learning a TON about video editing software and making time lapse videos
- redesigned my website and made some headway using various social media platforms
What could I have done better? I had hoped to produce more drawings than I did. The video project took up a lot more time than I had anticipated. Still, I am really glad I did it and plan to continue with time lapse and maybe even branch into some animation. However, in 2015 I am upping the ante once again. I have decided that 500 hour goal will apply to tangible studio work only. Any video work will be in addition to that. Once again I will set my marketing goal at 250 hours. This goal includes tasks such as managing my website and social media and identifying and applying to galleries and shows.
So that is my overview for 2015. I am still cleaning up some teensy leftover details from last year and developing some specific work goals, but setting this hourly goal each year has helped me immensely! In the next few posts I will share some of the tools I use to stay on track. I am looking forward to seeing what the new year will bring.
Happy 2015!
PS: To see some of my drawings from this year,visit laurasussmanrandall.com
