And suddenly, as Eric Meyer eloquently put it on New Years Eve, we have passed yet another arbitrary gregorian boundary condition. Out with 2010, in with 2011. While Im glad its over, 2010 was a revolutionary year; marriage, career independence, all in the span of two months and continuing now and into the future. God Almighty, Im free at last.
And since 2011 is here, I shall declare that this year will not be about improvement, yearning, or gaining freedom as last year and years past have been. This year is about engagement. Its about full-throttling on connecting with people, an audience, and introducing the world to my bodies of work on its terms. What do I do? How is it contributing anything to anyones life? There is very specific language being used for artwork and web development; I have learned it for web development but not yet for art. Its a new palate of research- one that has to be approached by appropriating the use of descriptions from several existing working examples, then absorbing its ingenuity and faults, and lastly creating an independently formulated use of these rules that is the best description for the work possible. Seems like a lot for an artist statement, but then there are shows, gallery proposals, and of course my blogs, by which I have the chance to grab fans and collectors out of thin air.
So the efforts that shall come from this will be: more reaching out to juried exhibits, more newsletter blasts, more on-site projects (I hope) and more blog posts, social media communications, and more organization around all of these. If I have it my way, Ill even revamp this site to organize everything a little bit more effectively.
This year is also about commemoration and celebration of being healthy for five years; the (again, arbitrary) time period formerly known as remission ; I will have a lot of anniversaries this year, from diagnosis, to cure, to end-of-treatment - all this year, beginning in 9 days (1/12/11)- which will be five years from cancer diagnosis. Come to think of it, I found my lump 5 years ago tomorrow!
Its cold in New Mexico. Yesterday the thermometer read 2 when I went for my jog. Today, it thankfully skyrocketed to 26. At Petroglyph, where the building leaks heat, Im sitting in front of a new heat dish I picked up at Costco.
Gratefully, I am bundling up, stoking the fire (or turning the heater on HI), and getting ready to work through this long, cold month or two. In Albuquerque, thats the length of the winter we have. Two months is all you get. By the end of January, the jackets start to come off and the warm afternoons are spent with the windows open. But hey, look - this year has actually passed. I almost missed it - I was too busy living life to its fullest.
