Making and Keeping New Year's Resolutions
9 of the 22 finished paintings I completed in 2019.
Like many of you, I started on my New Year’s resolutions yesterday. So far, so good!
I’m kidding of course, but I do think it is possible to keep your New Year’s resolutions, the key is just to make them simple from the get go. Its even better if it is a small daily habit that when compounded over time makes a big difference in your life.
Mine are the following:
1) Do not go more than 24 hours without doing studio work
2) Sketch everyday
3) Work out 5xs a week
I started out with a much longer list initially, but when I really dug down deep to the “why” behind most of my resolutions, it became obvious to me that what was driving them was one main idea: that I want to live a long, healthy and prolific life. So I cut out anything that did not directly support that goal. These 3 resolutions made the cut because they all support my why and they are simple enough to do.
Do you have any resolutions or strategies that you would like to share? I would love to hear them!
One last thing, I have to share this funny poll I took on Instagram on the topic. Not sure what this says about the ambition of my followers on IG, but it certainly gave me a laugh!
Have a great 2020 everyone!
Finding Purpose in the Darkness
Recently my family and I marked a very special moment in our lives. August 16th, 2019 was the 1 year anniversary of my craniotomy to remove a 5 cm (racket-ball sized) non-cancerous meningioma brain tumor. My doctors tell me that a meningioma is extremely slow growing and one of my size could have been there for 10 years before we discovered it last summer.
Sure - I had a few symptoms over the years that could have possibly accelerated its discovery, like the year I suddenly had vertigo or how I would get this sharp pain in my head every time I laughed at my husband’s jokes (and he is a really funny guy so that was a regular occurrence). But both these things were easily treated with decongestants as odd as that sounds. One day last Spring was different however. I awoke to find that I had intense nerve pain running up and down my left arm. I started physical therapy shortly after that and it did make a difference. Then one day half my face went numb and suddenly I was experiencing for the first time in my life real anxiety, claustophobia, and insomnia seemingly overnight. After realizing that my symptoms were most likely neurological in nature, my husband strongly urged me to go see a neurologist. It was my neurologist that was the first to order the MRI that you see above. Finally we had a terrifying answer to what was happening to my body.
Now that I am on the other side of this experience and thankfully completely healed (without any lingering side effects) and back to all the things I love to do especially painting. I can tell you that my outlook on life has been transformed. I do not regret what happened to me because it brought into better focus what was most important in my life; namely my relationships with my family and friends, my faith and my calling as an artist. I have read that the reason suffering exists in this world is to hollow you out from the inside so that you have more room for love. This is exactly what happened to me. I am a better person today than I was before and I will not squander a single moment of my life going forward because every day is indeed a precious gift. I ask myself now, “am I living up to my potential”? Am I working as hard as I can on my {insert here}; health, fitness, relationships, art, etc.?
We have decided as a family to celebrate August 16th with an annual retreat. And furthermore, I am claiming August 16th as a day of self reflection and a review on the progress of my New Year’s goals that I set without fail every year. And it occurred to me that if I shared my story with all of you, that perhaps I could inspire you to find the light in a difficult anniversary of your own.
Suffering is like the setting in a diamond ring, without the setting you would not notice how brilliant the diamond is. Simply put, without the difficult times in our lives we would not truly appreciate the good.
No matter what you are going through in life right now, I believe you can find the light to get through it. Do yourself a favor and reclaim your own day. Life is too precious to not embrace all of it.
Who Makes Up Your Brain Trust?
One of the biggest secrets to success must definitely be to surround yourself with people who support your ambitions and who also push you to evolve into your greatest potential. Obviously your greatest supporter should be your partner in life but it is also equally important to establish a strong support system among like minded colleagues. I am blessed to have many artist friends who are my advisors and who continually inspire me. However there are two in particular that I turn to most often for advice, Elizabeth Floyd and Jonathan Linton.
So how does this brain trust work? Well it all begins by being in frequent contact with one another in support of each other's work. I text or call Elizabeth and Jonathan regularly with my thoughts, questions or WIPs (work in progress photos). Elizabeth and I text daily and have regular FaceTime chats to go over our goals and projects. We plot the course of our individual careers by making suggestions to each other in the areas of commissions, competitions, technique and thematic ideas. Liz and I read ALOT and we are constantly referring books to each other to help us grow. Many of the books I am currently reading are those that Liz has given me including this Hammershoi book she sent me for my birthday to help inspire a series of paintings I am currently working on (thanks again Liz :) ).
Jonathan is a hugely successful portrait artist with many years of experience and a former instructor of mine. You may remember Jonathan from this post. He is the guy I turn to with my nuts and bolts questions on anything having to do with the field of portraiture. And he fortunately lives nearby (or unfortunately for him?) and has yet to lock the door on me when I come by his studio practically unannounced. Jonathan will give me honest feedback on my work and has a keen eye for anatomy and painting/drawing technique. He can always diagnosis what is "wrong" with a painting and if I get his seal of approval on something I know the client will love it.
So who makes up your Brain Trust? If you don't have one in place now I would seriously suggest you think about putting one together because positive relationships like these can add a whole other dimension to your artmaking. But think carefully about who you will let into your circle of trust. You should feel safe and respected with the personalities you surround yourself with so that you can freely share your innermost creative thoughts to them--and likewise, they to you. The right partnership will be obvious and will leave you feeling inspired every time you connect with them.
I plan on interviewing other artists and creatives for future blog posts on this subject. Do you have a remarkable brain trust? If so please drop me a line and tell me about them and how you work together; suzanne@lagoarthurstudio.com. Thanks!
My 2015 Word Themes
new-years-resolutions
On this last day of January I want to share with you a strategy that my friend the talented floral still life painter, Elizabeth Floyd, shared with me. It is the exercise of adopting "Word Themes" to direct your efforts during the New Year. Word Themes are motivating and inspiring, but do not bog you down with the minutiae of specific goals--great for those who don't have that all figured out yet. It is a mantra you keep running in your head as you plan your daily life. Check out Liz's blog post for her 2015 Word Themes here. My words for 2015 are "More", "Limits", and "Rebirth". Now at first glance the first two seem contradictory but in my mind they actually go hand in hand. "More" stands for completing more work and being more prolific. But as someone who tends to put my blinders on and work unceasingly through my commissions, I realize that I need to set "limits" to my day in order to be more healthy and balanced. For instance, instead of squeezing every minute of studio time during the period that my son is in school, I will instead work one hour less so I can ensure I get my daily exercise and have time to take care of my home (believe me, it needs it). It also means that I will begin working on several projects at the same time so that I can create my own body of work outside of my portrait commissions which will enable me to participate in gallery shows once again. And lastly but most importantly is "rebirth". There are deep creative influences beginning to surface in my work right now and I am filled with excitement of where they will take me. I hope my words help you to come up with your own and if you do embrace them, drop me a line here and let me know what they are.
Bring it, 2015! We are ready.
Mastering Work Flow: Black Boards
WorkFlowBlackBoard.jpeg
Here's a little peak inside my studio. I am currently working hard at getting a body of work together for the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour (WLAST) which is scheduled for June 21 & 22. At the same time I have a double portrait commission half way done. I need to work on all my projects at the same time and I need an easy, daily reminder of where I am in each of those projects. I grabbed this low tech Mastering Work Flow technique from my bestie, Dana Aldis a couple of years ago and I find it really helpful to keep one on task while avoiding pulling out all of your hair.
At a glance I can see what the project is and whether or not it is complete (check mark = done, "o"= open). I could take this one step further and diagram out how long I think I have left on each project and then schedule my day accordingly. And I might just do that as I get closer to my deadlines.
Or I could just simply ignore the white elephant in the room...