Welcome 2020!

"Be strong. Be proud. Be what you love."

I think this will be my motto for 2020.

My sister gave me this sparkly card for my birthday in August. Inside it reads "Be your passions. Be your beliefs. But most of all... be you. And this will be an amazing year."

A new year always feels exciting to me. I like January 1st a whole lot more than the grand finale of December 31st. I'm just ready to get on with it.

I have to say, 2019 was a good year for me in my little art world and I'm excited about my plans for this coming year. I hope to take more risks in my painting - I am worried I'm settling in a little too comfortably. I'm thinking about structuring my studio time differently... like setting aside one to two hours first thing in the morning to sketch, play, journal and experiment. Or perhaps it would be easier to set aside one full day each week for that. Not sure. I'll be flexible until a new schedule feels right.

On the flip-side of a great year in art, the personal side of life has been really sucky, so I definitely feel happy to close the door on 2019. Buh bye. Between my son's surgery and rehab earlier in the year and my own perfect storm of health troubles, 2019 was a rough go. Almost-constant pain, among many other things, tried hard to break my spirit. Slowly things are getting sorted, but most importantly whatever is going on doesn't appear to be one big scary thing but a bunch of small minor things all at once. We were also hit hard with news separate from this, but I won't say more out of respect for the privacy of those in my life.

All I can say is, THANK GOODNESS FOR ART! If you do not have a creative outlet in your life of any kind, do yourself a favour and discover one. Your overall well-being will thank you. Art makes me strong. It makes me proud. And it is definitely what I love.