Limitless Possibilities

Last minute cramming for my art history final; fueled by coffee and Crabtree and Evelyn Christmas Pudding Biscuits

I took my last final of the semester yesterday. I am not going to sugarcoat it...this semester was HARD. Not because of the work. It was the normal amount of challenging yet interesting. I learned so much more about art history, and by extension, world history. Somehow I avoided world history in high school.

I also learned how to draw. Again, I somehow managed to avoid taking art class in high school. Not because I tried to avoid art class, but because my "arts" elective was the high school newspaper. I had every intention of being a newspaper reporter when I grew up. I didn't become a journalist or grow up (probably).

Drawing I did for my final portfolio from a photo I took of my cat in my drawing class. White colored pencil on black matboard

No, this semester was hard because I just didn't want to do the work. I very much enjoy interacting with people and learning new things, but I'm done with homework. DONE. I spent the entire semester dreaming up all the things I could be doing instead of what I was doing. At this point, I know I need to take at least a semester off rather than continuing to pay for something that I don't have the heart to do right now.

As the semester was winding down, I started thinking very seriously about my goals, wants and needs...much more than the normal "end of the calendar year" goal setting we all seem to do in the days immediately surrounding January 1 (which is only TWO WEEKS AWAY, people!). Then some interesting links caught my attention which have sort of affected my goals.

#1 - I accidentally came across a planner on Kickstarter called the Spark Planner, which looks amazing, but they were already sold out on December deliveries, they are more expensive than doing a regular bullet journal, and they had an option of getting a free PDF (see update about the PDF at the bottom of this post!) if sharing the Kickstarter link on social media. So I went that route so I can explore what the Spark Planner is about to possibly order it later down the road. The PDF is pretty amazing and the Spark Planner would make a fantastic planner. But that's not even the best part.

Photo from the Spark Planner order page 

I am now on the email list, which is not usually a great thing, especially this time of year when companies are sending 2 and 3 emails EVERY SINGLE DAY. However, being on Kate Matsudaira's email list has resulted in one email each week; which have been very valuable. The last two emails have included worksheets for planning for the upcoming year. They are not necessarily only business driven, but are broad enough to include anything. Lucky for everyone, the first worksheet is posted on the spark notebook blog. I assume this means the second one will be posted as well, which I hope is the case. This particular worksheet has been extremely thought provoking for me and now that school is done, I look forward to actually making notes on it. It primarily delves into personal relationships and what people will say about you at your funeral and what you want your legacy to be. Like I said, very thought provoking.

In spite of the beauty of the Spark Planner, I am still very dedicated to my bullet journal method of planning my life. But I'm always on the lookout for something better. I will continue the bullet journal, but alter it, and incorporate some of these spark planner goals/journal entries, etc in my bullet journal. My current bullet journal is about half full, but the spine is falling apart (it was a clearanced piccadilly journal from Barnes and Noble) so I ordered a Leuchtturm 1917 medium squared, which reviewers swear is a high quality notebook/journal. Also, quite frankly, I like the idea of starting a new bullet journal for the new year. It's an empty book of possibilities!

My brand new Leuchtturm 1917 medium squared notebook/journal for bullet journaling.

#2 - As I mentioned, I took a drawing class this semester. On the first day of class the teacher made us draw three pictures as a skill baseline. We had to draw our hand (mine looked more alien than human), a full portrait of someone we know from memory (HA! My husband might leave me if he ever saw how I drew him), and we had to do a self portrait while looking in the mirror. He had us write our impressions on the back of these pictures. On my self portrait I said I didn't have a nose because I had erased it so many times because it looked too much like male genitals. Anyway, my new drawing skills were VERY hard won. One of my biggest personal goals is to continue to develop them and delve into more media, trying things out, seeing what speaks to me. I don't remember how or where, but this yearlong online mixed media and art journaling course called Wanderlust came to my attention. After thinking about it for a while, seeing the class schedule, and the very good price, I decided to sign up. 

Wanderlust 2016 online mixed media class

In addition to the above, I'm excited to get back to the studio on a regular basis. When I don't have classes, I'm playing catch-up in all the other areas of my life. My studio desperately needs a purge and reorganization. This is my number one priority once Christmas is over.

My extremely messy studio

Because I love learning and hate homework, one of my big goals is to attend classes of interest when I can get to them. A high priority is to increase my metalworking and beadweaving skills. It's been a long time since I've taken any fun technique based classes. I've kind of become obsessed with beadweaving, even attempting my first glass cabochons. Yes, I will be making lots more. In addition I definitely want to feed my glass skills. I've barely done any lampworking in the last 1.5 years.

A recent bead embroidered piece using one of my glass cabs. 

I want to feed my brain in other ways. More reading, less time plugged in. I finish several audibooks a year with all the time I spend driving, but I need to spend quality time with regular books and magazines and less time with pop culture type junk articles. I also want to bind more books after my one experience with Jenny teaching us how at the lake house bead retreat a few months ago.

I also have big plans to do some home improvement projects and some volunteering, continue with running and maybe setting some new goals with that. I am super excited to get started! With the weight of homework off my shoulders, I feel like the possibilities are endless and I'm ready to start today. However, first I am going to spend some quality time enjoying the Christmas season, watch some Christmas movies, eat cookies, wrap presents and decorate the house.

What types of goals do you have? How do you keep track of these goals and when will you begin to implement them?

Update: I just saw this on the Spark Notebook Facebook page. 

Compulsive organization and preparing for a show...

Organizing is my super power.

Some may say I am a bit compulsive about getting things organized, keeping things organized.... but its just me. Virgo, former teacher me. As many of you know I do maybe a dozen shows a year. Indoors, outdoors, hot and cold, dry and wet... There are a few fantasy/faerie themed shows I do, and love... one of them was last weekend in Baltimore, MD: FaerieCon. In prepping for this show I do get a little compulsive in my planning and organizing...

My FaerieCon display from 2014. Post is here! 

Crowded, isn't it? For the three day show I have a space that measures 6' x 3', and it is a very, very expensive square footage. How to make the most of that and showcase tiles AND jewelry? How to make a visually appealing display that doesn't overwhelm the viewer? I plan it out. Every square inch. I review pictures of last years display ( seen at beginning of post) and do a mock set up in the basement.

2015 FC mock up in the basement. 

There are some years ( especially for Beadfest) that I will use the printed photo like a map. Number the spaces, create a map key... Other times I just refer to the photo and do a layout sketch on my journal/ Could I just skip the pix and sketch in my journal? Yes, but I like to make sure I have the proportion of the boxes/trays/display correct as that will influence what I place there.

Version 1. Jewelry grouped by style, tiles hanging in the back. Large dryad sculpture anchoring table. 

There are a few advantages of this mildly compulsive planning in my opinion. When I am setting up and may be stressed/late/distracted/tired.... I don't have to think. The decision are made. Thats really comfortable to me when there was SO much frantic preparation finishing work and packing for a Con like FaerieCon. So I arrive and I can settle into it. Im less stressed and more ready to enjoy the event when it begins. Its also faster. No try it/ change it/ rearrange issues. 

Thursday night - stage one complete. 

Once the show started Friday, I completely forgot to take pictures. Very happy Jessica snapped this one! My display worked well - and was actually a lot less crowded than other years. Things sold, and I restocked my Mythic Nature Tiles inventory for "Creative Procrastinations and Whimsical Necessities" shop in Shepherdstown WV! Now I need to head back to the studio and make. more. stuff.... 

Friday - all set up... 

We had a wonderful weekend, filled with amazing art, creativity, music, and costumes. The Good Faeries were good, and the Bad were oh so bad! Until next year.... 

A few faces from FaerieCon

What are these "resolutions" of which you speak??

I don't do resolutions. Resolutions make me crazy, mostly because I can never, ever keep them. Ever.

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this, right? Who needs the extra pressure and opportunity to feel worse about oneself??

However...

If 2014 was any indication, I definitely need to slow down and take some time to not only do a better job of planning but also do a better job of working my plan, whether that's at home or in the studio. If that's a resolution, then I guess I'm making one... and the more I thought about it, the more I decided I was going to need some help.

First up: planning for my income in 2015.

Maybe this seems like a no-brainer to some of you, but I didn't sit down last year and really examine my goals for each income stream I'm working. So I put together a spreadsheet that breaks down where my income came from last year and where I want it to come from this year. That's helping prioritize where I spend my time and focus.

This was super simple to set up in Excel, and for every line item in this summary I have a planning tab that lets me work through the details. For the 2015 columns, I set it up so I can plug in a bottom-line income number on the total line, and then shuffle the numbers around in the goals section to play with percentages. This particular exercise has been really eye-opening - as it turns out, some of the things that take up the most amount of time haven't been the most lucrative. Being more efficient with my time and energy seems like a logical thing to move to the top of my priorities list.

So: creating efficiencies comes next.

Again, this may seem like a no-brainer, and having spent so many years (decades) in the business world, I was honestly surprised that I was struggling so much with this. In fact, it wasn't until I had a conversation recently with my friend (and business partner) Gail Stouffer that the light-bulb went on. I kept referring to all of this in the context of my "creative life." She said, "It may be your creative life, but it's also your job."

source

Oh. Right.

So I'm implementing a few new "rules" to help me think of my creative life as a job. First, I'm only going to take my laptop into the Roadhouse Studio one day a week. I can pick an hour to handle emails and stuff from home either before or after studio time each day, so one day a week should be PLENTY to do the necessary admin stuff. If my laptop is in the studio with me, I tend to get distracted from the work of "making" that I really need to be doing in that space. 

Second, I'm going to try out some new tools to help me manage my blogging and website tasks more proactively.

Do a Pinterest search for planner printables and you'll get a ka-billion pins to wade through. I found two that looked interesting to me (here and here) and printed out only those pages I thought I'd really use. Mondays are usually the day I update my to-do lists, and since I tend to be more analog than digital about my planning, these printables will give me a place to do my jotting. With three websites to keep updated (mine, Roadhouse Arts' and - soon - my husband's) and three blogs to write for (mine, Roadhouse Arts' and here at AJE), I really need to do a better job of planning and researching updates and contributions.

(As an aside, I do use Asana for my to-do lists and I highly recommend it. Once my plans are finalized, I update my projects online. This is especially helpful for long-term projects and it's essential for teamwork. Gail and Lisa, my Roadhouse partners, can see all my Roadhouse-related tasks, comment on them or ask questions, and see when I've completed or updated things - and I can do the same for theirs. It's been a huge help in reducing emails, confusion, and duplication of effort.)

Finally, keep learning.

Barbara Minor at Roadhouse Arts, December 2014

I am so very, very fortunate in that I get to participate in deciding which guest instructors get invited to Roadhouse - and who I personally would like to learn from often pays a huge part in the suggestions I make to my business partners. I love learning from other artists, don't you?? Last November, I spent a week in the home studio of metalsmith Melissa Muir and in December, master enamelist Barbara Minor spent three days at Roadhouse. I came away from both experiences completely fired up and creatively refreshed, and December was maybe my most productive time all year. I didn't do enough of that throughout the year.

In 2015, I'm going to have the great pleasure of working with and learning from Melissa Muir and Connie Fox at the Roadhouse Retreat, followed closely by two Roadhouse workshops with Robert Dancik. I'm such huge fans of all three of them that I'm a little giddy at the prospect! (Want to join me? Head over to the Roadhouse Arts workshops page for more info!) And I'm teaching at three national venues this year - teaching is always a learning experience for me, as I work to create projects and an experience that is positive for my students, so I'm counting all three in the "learning" category. (More info about those opportunities will be posted over on my personal blog soon!)

So that's where my reflections on 2014 have brought me. What about you? It's hard to believe January is nearly half over already - where are you focusing your energies? What are your plans for 2015?

Until next time -

What Neil Gaiman, Studying for Finals, Art, and the New Year have in Common

Have you started looking forward to 2015 yet? 

Photo by Volkova Irina

My Facebook feed is filled with so many wonderful and varied artists and I've noticed some of them making statements about things they will do in the new year. 

After all, 2015 is only a little over 3 weeks away....

Personally, I'm having a bit of a self-induced crisis. 

Because I decided to go back to school this fall and finally complete a Bachelors degree. I mean, I have enough credits to be considered a senior with all the starts and stops and transfers and changes over the years. 

What to study? I chose what made the most logical sense.

I freaking hate it. 

So today, as I'm studying for finals in classes I'm getting nearly perfect scores, but are crushing my soul (sorry for the dramatic flair...), 

I thought about Neil Gaiman. 

Weird, right? 

He did a speech a couple years ago that I refer to when I'm feeling lost or confused or like I'm trying to make things more difficult than they need to be. And I thought I would share it will all of you. I own the speech in a little book. But you can watch it below. 

"Life is sometimes hard. 

Things go wrong, in life and in love 

and business and in friendship

and in health and in all the other ways

that life can go wrong.

And when things get tough,

this is what you should do. 

Make Good Art.

Husband runs off with a politician?

Make Good Art

Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor?

Make Good Art

IRS on your trail?

Make Good Art

Cat exploded?

Make Good Art

Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it's all been done before?

Make Good Art..."

                -Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012 

from The University of the Arts (Phl) 

Mr. Gaiman is full of words of wisdom. He tells the audience to make mistakes. To write and draw and dance and live and play as only you can. 

But the thing that stands out for me, on this particular day, is this: 

"Something that worked for me 

was imagining where I wanted to be-

(an author, primarily of fiction, making good books, 

making good comics, and supporting myself though  my words)

-was a mountain

A distant mountain.

My goal. 

And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain, I would be alright. 

And when I truly was not sure what to do, I could stop, and think about whether it was taking me towards or away from the mountain...."

    -Neil Gaiman

I think I have strayed far from my mountain in the last several months and it's time to get turned back in the correct direction. 

What, if anything, are you planning for 2015? What kinds of goals and dreams have you come up with? How will you stay on track? Please share in the comments below!

Looking Ahead

I really hate New Year's resolutions. For me, they just amount to one more reason to feel like a loser in February, when I've only made it to the gym twice instead of daily. (I know you know what I'm talking about!)

Photo from the I Hate Cigarettes page on Facebook - but I don't recommend the page. Gross, crude humor. This was funny, though.

Instead, I choose a single word every year that represents some aspect of my character I want to develop, and then I make plans and decisions based on how each applies to my one word. I'm still praying about what my word should be for 2014, but I think a similar approach to my creative work makes sense. There are a lot of skills I need to keep current, but what is the one technique I want to focus on developing and improving in the next year?

Easy.

I have fallen hard for enamels. And I mean hard. Last Christmas, my best friend gave me Linda Darty's book on enamels and I never looked back. Torch-fired enamels have been my primary focus this year (my Component of the Month contribution this year were enameled pieces) but I have been itching to do more with kiln-firing and some of the more advanced techniques.

I've written before about artists who are inspiring to me, but I recently discovered another artist whose work with liquid enamels is mind-blowing.

Ken Bova has been experimenting with liquid enamels for several years now - and he has limited himself to using primarily white liquid enamel. Yet he gets an amazing range of colors out of that single element, by overfiring, direct firing, and scratching back to bare metal so he can use its oxidation as a design element. It's an intriguing approach: pick one color and test that color to its limits.

I'm also really interested in what happens with the addition of foils under transparent colors. Barbara Minor is an artist and teacher who's doing a lot of work with foils and decorative elements - I'd like to find a way to take a workshop with her this year!

So in addition to keeping my foundational metal skills current, I'm going to be doing a lot more with enamels this year. What's your focus going to be? What technique are you dying to explore or expand?

On behalf of the entire AJE team, I wish you all a very safe and happy new year's celebration. We'll see you in 2014!

Until next time -