Daily Art Habit

2019: The year in review

2019: The year in review

Not long ago, I noticed that I tend to focus on the present and future much more than I look to the past.

I’m not sure why this is… it could be my aversion to redoing things, my need for forward momentum, a result of living in a need-for-speed culture, or a generally optimistic personality,

No matter the reason, there are some drawbacks to never looking back.

  1. It’s hard to learn from mistakes if I don’t reflect on them.
  2. It’s hard to celebrate accomplishments if I barely notice them.

So this new year, I’m starting a new-to-me tradition: the year in review.

What happened in 2019 anyway?

It was a pretty big year for me… It was the year I declared “I am an artist” and launched this Web site. It was a year full of firsts: I had my first exhibition, made my first art sales, completed my first commission and gave my first artist talk.

2019 was also the first full year of the Daily Art Habit. I made 362 digital paintings. (And broke my continuous daily streak three times… I was angry with myself the first time, but it got easier!)

As part of this reflection, I picked a favorite daily painting from each month of 2019, and soon realized what I was experiencing and feeling at the time I made the painting influenced the selection more than anything else.

Here are my selections; each is linked to more info.

Now, onward to the rest of 2020!

 

“Courage is only the accumulation of small steps.”

- György Konrad