Focus

It's hard to believe that it is the first day of 2016.

Last year is almost  blur of activity and places!

Since 2013 I have chosen not to make New Year's resolutions, but to choose instead a word as a guide post for the new year's art.

In 2013 that word was BRAVE

In 2014 the word was REACH

Last year's word was PERSEVERE

And as it has in the past, it turned out that perseverance was needed not only in finding ways to make art, but in life in general.

During 2015, in addition to a lot of knitting for gifts and charity, completing 9 pieces of beaded jewelry, a fair amount of utilitarian sewing and mending and the completion of a queen size bed quilt, I was able to complete eight art quilts - and five of those quilts were accepted into shows.

So what does that reflection on last year's activity bring me to this year?

FOCUS

As I worked on art quilts last year I realized that I need to be more focused on what I am doing if I will ever have enough of a body of work to apply to be a juried artist with SAQA.

That means I need to make some pieces that I am not making just because they fit a specific call for entry somewhere.

I need to make the work -- the venue to enter it will come

And so, I will try to focus on spending more time in studio work, and that work has begun already, as I brought in the new year working on this:

 

And I'm thinking about the look of the background

After I picked out several of the pieces in the lower part of this that just seemed too dark, I think this is better

We'll see what I think after I get the truck done

Meantime, my file of "what project to do next" is growing -- I have three more pieces lined up behind this one that I want to tackle

Time to FOCUS!