New Year's Resolutions

Normally I never get introspective at this time of year. I usually just somehow 'program' my mind with the new year's number and go forth. It's in July, on the date of my birth, that I tend to lean heavily on personal assessments, goals, etc. But today I completed my visual journal, and also my combination written/visual journal, leaving only my work in the altered Highballs High Heels journal (which is about halfway done).

I'm fragmented, if you want to know the truth. I have far too many irons in my artistic fire and suddenly the turning of the annual tide seems a necessary nudge in my side to pull in the irons and assess the art.

What I love: words. Paint. Paper. Images. Pens of all sorts. Communicating with family and friends via letters contained in homemade cards. Shooting pictures.

I've distracted myself with other modes of art to the point that I haven't created a card in eons, let alone written anyone a letter. My journals merely confuse and chokechain me -- they're all visuals & pretties & experiments & embellishments, but no room for writing. I write teensy condensed thoughts in teensy downsized handwriting that, later, I can't even read for the underlying layers of paint, pictures and STUFF.

Then there is my blog. I love it. I love it because it's words, ideas, pictures and sharing all at once. It's got me writing again, even if just small focused vignettes (i.e. Reflection). It's got me out off my lethargic butt taking walks in order to shoot pictures.

So here are my resolutions, which feel more concrete, like actual DECISIONS and not just 'things to attempt':

1. One journal, a written journal, in a lined spiral notebook like in days of old, using either my Staedtler extra fine point colored markers, or my plain old Bic ballpoint pens.

2. Revitalize my old list of friends and family for whom I want to make cards and to whom I want to write letters, and start again.

3. Finish the Piccaso-Esque cat canvas, and then no more commissions for 3 months while I get my priorities realigned and they can become HABIT again.

4. Studio purge in a cold-blooded, ruthless manner, to clear out the incredible accumulation of stuff which I love for loving it's sake but not because I'm ever going to use it. Sentiment has to be secondary. For example: a cigar box full of old watch parts gives me shivers of delight to look at, but there are those out there who would actually put them to use. The art I most love and want to do centers on paint, paper, poetry and photos, NOT embellishments. It will feel like amputations, to let some of these things go. I'm preparing myself for that.

5. Continue to 'organize' my blog. I want more purpose to be evident in what I post. The "Reflection" and "From the 'Hood" features are the start of that.

That's quite a lot, I think. I want to talk to myself more about getting back to reading books and enjoying movies, cooking special family meals, that sort of thing, the not-related-to-the-studio refreshers that boost me so much but which I have let go because of the art demands I've placed, self on self.

If I chose one word to sum up the impact I want 2008 to make on my world, it would be this:

BALANCE.