Last year was an epic year of milestones for me. I sold several large paintings to new collectors (waves), juried into several new shows and art fairs and experimented with applying paint and media to surfaces in ways I had not before and at sizes I had not since I was in college. A big year for exploring my local community and getting to know other creatives, including joining an artist book club. This usually involved me scan / speed reading the book or DNF throwing it against the wall, or becoming deeply affected, inspired to create art and bore innocent bystanders with my thoughts on the book. In 2024 I released my first every look book for my subscribers and had an (almost) monthly newsletter. I really loved having a dedicated studio space away from my house surrounded by other creatives. This was a huge factor in motivating my growth this past year. Making a monetary commitment pushed me to set goals to show up and create consistently.
Creatives need to experience the world to create. Sometimes, the source is personal demons or conflicts like many of the songs written by Axel Rose. Speaking only for myself, I’m inspired by many things depending on the day, or even the moment. What is going on in the world. My own past experiences. What people I love are dealing with. An experience I just had. Looking back, much of my work is symbolic, which is what I’ve told myself in the past when I looked around at the world and longed to do more. That’s not enough for me anymore. I’m not going to be satisfied with what I create being considered “beautiful”. I’ve been playing it safe.
I created a visual “yearbook” as part of a past / future focus and vision planning workshop to prepare for 2025. The process follows a general retrospective format: Loved, Lacked, Learned, Longed For, with a twist. Using four archetypes of Lover, Warrior, Queen and Mystic with two stances each. The rough process you will see in the panels I’m sharing in this post (be nice they are drafts not fully finished 😉 ) Is to start with 2024, go through each archetype and their first stance, asking a question, journal about the question, then create a panel. This can be done with collage, whatever. Ideally on paper so you can accordion fold it together at the end. Then, you repeat the process for 2025, starting with Queen, then Lover to energize the actions you want to take in 2025, the Warrior to visualize practices you will implement, ending with the Mystic to create on paper what you feel guided to do and what you believe.
2024 – Lover: What were the highlights? What things were you proud of?
In this panel I have a bright sun with a heart at the center, symbolizing putting myself out in the community. There are three big rectangles with hearts in the foreground symbolizing big works that sold and small sprouts or leaves representing new growth for me in different ways. There are simplified symbols of people to stand for new connections I made in 2024. The mountain and trees and little ram in the background represent challenges overcome.
2024 – Warrior: Analyzing what didn’t go according to plan
A field of flowers and lush growth is being overgrown and choked by kudzu and rocks. The ground is misty and there is not enough light. I took on too many things in 2024. Too many events, too many commitments, and did not make the space I needed to for myself. I avoided or put things off then they became fires.
2024 – Mystic: What wisdom did you receive this year?
I can do amazing things when I set excising goals. This is symbolized by the woman with arms reaching up to the sky, large and centered on the page like a goddess figure. I need a creative space that supports and nurtures my growth. I represented this with the spirals surrounding the figure with knit stitch patterns on them. Connecting with other Artists and creatives fuels me. (I don’t have any special symbols here beyond the green plus signs right now) I over commit. I need space to and give myself permission for time to create.(Symbolized by the little airline breathing tube- put your air supply on first) I worry too much. I yearn to create from my heart work that inspires others (symbolized by the hearts surrounding the figure)
2024 – Queen: Knowing what you now know, what are you going to do now?
Create from the heart with joy and courage. Set healthy boundaries. I symbolized this with sacred fire.
2025 – Queen: What is most important?
Thinking about this question, I broke out the glue and scraps of old paintings on paper and used them to created a big central heart with lines to people shapes to represent my connection to people being core to my art practice and my values and the three flowers exploding with blooms and color to represent courage. Little sprouts to represent growth. If I can create art from my soul then maybe it will impact people in a meaningful way. I need to take risks and push out of my comfort zone this year.
2025 – Lover: How will you cultivate your energy to create this?
I will commit to giving myself time and space to nurture my mind, body and spirit. Symbolized here by the collaged cloud, woman (me) in a yoga pose comfy in a pair of sweat pants with bright flowing hair. Three stars connected with a purple line represent the universe, the known and unknown.
2025 – Warrior: What practices will you put in place for it to happen?
There is a lot going on in this panel. The drawing table on the upper left corner represents the daily creative practice of having a space ready to create at. The people and books in the upper right represent my artist book club. I want to keep attending and growing with them. They push me and help me grow in unexpected ways. Just below them is a series of frames and a beret, martini glass, hummingbird and a road. These represent artist dates. This is a practice I have only kinda done this past year. I want to make it a regular habit. I need to set up a specific day and time. At the bottom of the page are a large group of hands (they look like mittens right now) symbolizing me leaning into community support more this year and getting to know others and being involved in a healthy, balanced way. Finally, The middle left has several pages, representing artist pages. This is another practice I started from the artist way and I find it very helpful. I want to be consistent with it in 2025.
2025 – Mystic: What does your intuition need to create this? What do you need to believe?
Oh this was a tough one. Even with all the planning, and I did do some more traditional “figure out the deadlines of events and shows and my budget blah blah blah” type of stuff earlier on, this was hard. There are times when maybe I do have a moment and I’m all “Yeah! me and Picasso! Whatever!” My experience has been that for visual artists, for me, we have such a high bar of those who have gone before to compare ourselves to let alone those who exist right now. I can only work on being the best ME I can be. That’s it. The final panel has symbols of empowerment: rainbows, three of them, represent luck and belief. She is flying on the winds of her own voice as she sings her song loudly, the notes clear and bright.
Wrap up and what’s next
Whew that was a lot! It was cool. I had never done anything like this before. I’ve led a lot of similar workshops but not one that uses archetypes and uses them to frame the past year and upcoming / new year. It did help me look at 2025 in a different way, a right brained way instead of getting stuck in my left brain which wants to look at calendars and deadlines and money. Do I have a fully detailed plan for 2025? No, and that was not my goal. I wanted a high level “flyover” of where to focus my intent.
- I’ll be doing fewer art fairs in 2025.
- West Main Art Festival: March (Canton, Ga)
- Chain of Parks: April (Tallahassee, Fl)
- Notatypical: June (pending jury, etc)
- Dahlonega Art & Wine Festival: May (pending jury)
- Marietta Art in the Park: September (pending jury)
- Woodstock Art on the Green: October (pending jury)
- I’m volunteering less and being more focused where I do volunteer
- Creatively I’m recommitting to following my values and my heart. My work will be even more creative and original.
- Simplifying how I sell and what services I offer ( rolling out in phases, I’m one person)
- Teach more in 2025, in person or online
I’ve been thinking about relaunching my YouTube channel. if I do, I want to do it well. Anything I do outside of creating is time I’m not creating. Happy 2025!