First of all...

on the last day of the year, Happy birthday to me! Thank  you God for another year of living behind me, and by your Grace, ahead of me.

After much pondering and pontificating, and to make the most of this propitious moment, I'm ready to proceed and pen my artistic goals as I stand at the precipice of 2013. (This post brought to you by the letter p).

My overriding business goal: Complete Access to Market.  As a result of this this, these things will happen:

• complete business plan
• a website
• professional images of my art

Business Goal #2

• Submit to a minimum of 5 exhibits

Business Goal #3

• Track expenses
• Track time in the studio

My overriding creative goal: To create more quilts

• Start the series that is a tribute to the novels of Toni Morrison          Bluest Eye (1970) and Sula (1974)
• 2 more boat quilts
• 2 more Crowbonics quilts
• 2 more portrait quilts or narrative (jockey, mid-wife)
• 20 small quilts wrapped around frame, 12" x 12" or less

Educational goals:

• bear with me on this one, it is only about the 4 time I'm giving this a try...but follow a regiment of working through at least 3 technique books this year.  (It feels so wasteful to have books I already own at my  disposal and not use them)
• take pictures everyday weekly*
• zentangle daily on paper and on cloth*

* ammended on 01/04/2013

Community/Social goals:

• Goodfolk Festival, I pondered if this was a business goal, but I had so damn much fun that I would do it again and this is also why the concentration on 20 smaller pieces, for the booth there and hopefully sharing it with the same 2 friends since we proved to co-mingle well together already.
• 2 Teaching gigs
• 1 artist's date each month

And my word for the coming year is DISCERNMENT, (I know, not a P-word), to catch sight of, recognize, and understand.  Since I'll be receiving loads of business information, I want to make sure my grasp and focus is good and that I'm able to determine what is specifically right for me given my own heart, mind, and circumstances.

I bid you, as always, Peace...


     

What's ahead for 2013?

In November I was notified of acceptance into a pilot program with the Small Business Association.  A statewide program for 50 artists called Access to Market.  The 4 goals of the program for each artist is 1. Professional images of art, 2. A website, 3. A personalized business plan, 4. education on moving our art or craft into a wider market. 

The first class was held earlier this month and covered product development and placement.  Although there was a mix of artists/crafts people who produce for wholesale markets, there were also artists/crafts people who create one of a kind pieces.  The bulk of the presentation focused on creating for the wholesale market with adapting those ideas where applicable for artists, like myself, who create solely one of a kind pieces.  When I posed the question to the organizer, it was her belief that artists should have a foot in both worlds but ultimately each of us would decide our market.

I left there questioning if I should aim for a foot in both worlds and if so, what would be my wholesale items.  I've pondered this for weeks now, but keep coming back to not wanting to wholesale.  It would not be remotely appealing for me to embrace a "production" mindset.  Creating 500 artsy pot holders, or 500 scarfs, 500 textile bracelets, etc.  is not enough honey for a dime is what I repeatedly return to after pondering the questions.  

I create one of a kind pieces.  This is how I want to spend my time.  I explore new ways to work with cloth in creating my quilts.  This is what is important to me from the bottom to the top and back down and up again.  Time is what I have in abundance, but what I do not have in abundance is physical capacities even though I push as much as I can.  Do I want to sell my quilts, yes!, yes, I do.  Exhibiting is vital to me and ultimately, I want 2-3 galleries around the country to carry my work.  I want to have 1-2 interior designers to consider my work annually for their residential and corporate clients.  And lastly, I want to be involved with teaching or demoing with outreach groups via non-profit organizations.  End of story.

So what will my goals be for 2013?  Give me a few more days and I'll let you know...

Peace,

Negotiating Study (c), 2007, 125.

Having a party...

I lack the discipline to not share my quilts in progress.  I get so excited that I want to have a party and just hang out and drink wine...sharing here is the closest thing to doing just that in a way that provides immediate gratification among community.  Thus, my chances of creating something to submit to exhibits that prevent any form of public photo sharing seem low unless I change my ways. Something I'll ponder in the distant future...but for now...lets get down and party...

I had no intent of going in today, but my son called and needed a ride home from work after pulling a double shift, so to make the most of bathing and dressing and going out, I headed to the studio after dropping him off here at home.  The day went lovely, after an hour or so spent socializing, I finally mosied back to my sanctuary.  The front windows and glass doors needed washing, so I piddled with that until I was as close to streak free to make it worth my time...turned on public radio, rearranged some boxes that really didn't need rearranging, picked up scraps from the floor, put some fabric away, and then finally I was ready to pick up The Mid-Wife and resume quilting.  Her body is quilted and I think her face is finished or very close to being finished and then I was ready for the background...fruit, hanging fruit came to mind since she delivers babies...so I doodled a bit, see above.

Still not ready to commit to stitch, I recalled a method to audition quilt lines that Juanita had shared with me...cover up the piece with clear acetate and use a dry erase marker to sketch the thread lines.

It is generic fruit, buds that haven't come to fruition yet.  I also have to decide how and where I want to sew on the 40+ teeny tiny baby dolls that will embellish this quilt.  If I go with this hanging fruit, I'm thinking the babies will fill the empty spaces from top to bottom.  She will also get a necklace of pinkish/purplish pearls.  Oh, and I also came up with a full title, She Who Sees and Touches the Future.  By the time I got this far, the synapses was firing off and that led me to pulling out the praying crows and thinking about a background and story for them, (see them in the botton right corner on the photo on the left side?).

All this will stew for a few days and hopefully I can return over the weekend.  Now pass the wine and turn up the music!

Studio View

photo credit: Linda Ospital