Happy New Year!

Okay, today is not January 1st. I spent most of yesterday relaxing and reading.  I know the new year is a good time to reflect on both the past year and the upcoming one. But this time of year, I am always dragging my feet. I hate the short days and the cold weather.  I am going to give myself a kick in the pants and be motivated. An object in motion stays in motion, so all I have to do is start moving.
 
This past year has been a great start. With the support of my loving husband, I quit my job in August to concentrate on my passion for making art.  I will leave the discussion of the line between art and craft to another time. I do both. Can craft be art? Yes, although some of my craft is just craft (pillows, scarves, etc). I do plan on working on art that incorporates knitting and embroidery in a way that I consider art, not craft. I don't see why I can't do both. I know that some people would say that serious artists don't craft. I think that creative people just want to be creative, regardless of how they express themselves.

Since August, I have been doing what I want to do without any firm direction. I did pay attention to calls for entry in local galleries and I have had good success getting into shows. In addition, this year I plan on working on being more focused.  I have such a broad range of things I enjoy making (mainly assemblage and fiber art), but would like to work in a series and have pieces that have a connection. If you put my current art in a room, I am not sure anyone would be able to tell they were all made by the same person.

I work better with a schedule so I will be planning my projects monthly. In January, I plan to work on some larger painted fabric pieces and smaller felted pieces. In February, I plan to work on assemblages, each of which will incorporate a small shovel (I've been collecting these at flea markets for about a year).  I have them hanging from the ceiling in my basement studio. As the next month approaches, I will be planning what the focus will be for that month.

For January, this is a large piece I started the other day at Susan's studio.  I still have a lot of painting and stitching to do before this is complete. I just threw the circles down on the fabric to include them in the picture, this isn't where they will actually go.

February I plan on working with these shovels. I have five of them. My plan is to attach a shadow box with an assemblage in it on the flat paddle part of each.

My goals for January:
Read the book I got for Christmas on Blogger, and put a banner and more info into my blog page.
Work on large fabric pieces and small felted pieces.
Try to finish one large piece and two small pieces a week. I plan to do an art festival in June, if not one before that, and need to build my body of work for these shows.

I really don't want to set up lofty goals for the year. I don't want to disappoint myself. I am going to set up smaller goals through the year and raise the bar as I go. 

I like the idea of picking a word to think about for the year. As weird as it is, my word is "push". I need to push myself to be more productive, I want to push the boundaries of my art concepts, and push myself to do more marketing/promotion to get into more gallery shows/competitions/art festivals.

I hope you all are looking forward to 2013. I know I am.