A list! Seeds that I’ve planted. Shit that I’ve done! Moves that have been made…

My new year officially starts this week.  

Cause I’ve made some important choices.  I’ve listed my “wants” in clear and plain English.  Not the wants for my art career, cause those have been the easier ones to state, but the wants for everything that surrounds and supports my art career. 

Which, my friends, is a revolutionary act for me.  I’m pausing for a moment of celebration and relief.  (and my god, to think, where might all this energy go now?!)

It’s part of my effort around Re-member-ing (putting the pieces of me back together) cause I can be such a skilled forgetter. 

And if I spend some time in Re-membrance it helps shore up a more realistic view of what’s gone down and stave off some of the not-true-fear-monger-ers within…

So this is:  Pulling-from-the-past-to-remember-what-might-shoot-up-from-the-soil-in-the-near-future so I can continue watering and shining light on it. 

Some are actualities that have already manifested, some haven’t.  The point is that I’m focusing on the energy and the intentions, and the re-member-ing...

Feel free to reflect on your own seeds in the comments below. 

THE LIST

1.  Was accepted for the residency that I applied for at meetfactory in Prague. 

2.  Applied for funding for said residency. 

3.  Showed work at the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago – yayy women’s art!

4.  Dug my fingers into my Identity project, all in a city where I didn’t know anyone three months prior to last year’s beginning.  This included:  cold emailing a whole bunch of people; talking endlessly, with confidence about the project; getting funding from the Arts Institute here in Prague; figuring out what the project really wanted to be; opened up to being wonderfully supported – both conceptually and logistically with it; send out oodles of exhibition apps; found a great publisher to work with; worked out a space to have the book launch; interviewed eight participants; completed four paintings and learned a whole bunch about this place, it’s people and the culture -- which also happens to be the land of my ancestors. 

5.  Applied for teaching positions in Rhode Island and Detroit.  (until now I had totally forgotten about this. )

6.  Started, and kept up weekly Czech lessons.  Pleased my brain, and my ancestral soul in the process. 

 

7.  Not really an accomplishment, or a seed, but I saw the most amazing art by a man with schizophrenia.  Totally moving, powerful and what an amazing visual description of the psyche.

8.  Entered a bunch of art competitions, applied for a total of I think, eight grants…

9.  Participated in open studios here in Prague. 

10. Helped empower young girls in Prague through Debbie Gordon’s wonderful Rock Camp for Girls. 

11.  Sent drawings and paintings to the beautiful, new, Portland-based Beam and Anchor. 

12.  Said yes to actually getting help with my website and realized that I don’t need to spend endless hours working on something I’m not an expert in…  phew…

13.  Said yes to being helped, in general.

14.  Featured in a photo project about the studio complex where I work in Prague and a similar space in Bratislava.

15.  Did Havi, of the Fluent Self’s amazing course on gathering testimonials and then…  gathered my testimonials.

16.  Did the SoundBite Shaman’s incredible course:  How to Describe What You Do, When What You Do is Deep, Powerful, and Hard to Describe.  Oh my god – I highly recommend this to anyone struggling to find the right words to articulate your glorious gift.

17.  Realized what a wealth of goodness was in the pages of pages of sketchbooks and that it was time to release them to the world!  They’re all over this blog or available on my website for your purchasing, wall-adorning pleasure.

18.  Did a home-décor, text-based mural here in Prague.

19.  Started dabbling in editing art-related texts. 

20.  Contacted an artist I really admire and started a lovely, productive conversation, which led to participation in the amazing new tumblecloud.  

21.  Wrote a crazy amount of copy for my new website.

22.  Dove in, and have fallen in love with twitter.

23.  Realized that I had been a total facebook voyeur and not the active participant that it feels so much better to be.    

24.  Fell in love with the most perfect little being in my whole world – my niece!

25.  Applied with confidence and conviction for another emerging artist award.

26.  Re-wrote the description for my beloved drawing project, now titled:  Drawing the in/Between.  

27.  Talked art in my favorite gallery space in Detroit. 

28.  Realized that gift certificates are a fantastic idea for what I do. 

29.  Was interviewed by the amazing Jason Lahman for Art 21’s blog. 

30.  And a whole bunch of miscellaneous internal, soul-strengthening stuff: stabilized through therapy;       

made friends in Prague; cold emailed oodles; figured out how to walk through the city without consulting a map every time; let anger towards one very particular anger-receptacle go; handled logistic life here; drew; painted; figured out how to use images from others as source material; created books of sequential images interspersed with text; figured out what my “tendonitis”, then neck pain, then the hives really meant; went to Canada, met my niece, saw my brother start the next beautiful phase of his life; decided that saying No is my personal obligation for the good of all and my soul; learned how to rest, sleep in and really care for myself; decided that I’m very wary of spiritual ideas that are passive and disempowering; bought a mooncup and totally love it!; realized for the first time ever that I might actually want children of my own; realized how fiercely I’ve pushed away notions of true partnership; learned how to really talk, with an open chest about my work and about what I do; pursued a lot of art avenues -- met curators, proposed shows, got clarity on what the project actually is and wants to be, wrote introductions; got back on the blog wagon; naturally started to slow down in the kitchen and enjoy the process of making nourishing, sustainable food; took care of a bunch of necessary paperwork in a foreign country; gave myself the chance to experience something I’ve always wanted – a quiet, hustle-free holiday; and finally, wrote this post and hit send! 

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