Year In Review: 2010
This year was slow and deep. I wonder what I have to show for it -- no basking in the glow of a long list of productions. On the other hand, I feel like I've been on a fine, fine journey.
My Productive Work rates about a "B" -- for organization and time commitment, but with actual entertainments and sales still just over the horizon. I'm still reaching for the "Tell stunning stories" tenet of my Manifesto [sidebar], but I'm thinking that the scope is expanding to include not only my inner life but my "household" (the impact of living with art).
"Art life lived deeply"? Again, I continue to be a diligent B student. Maybe I should worry less about "peer networking" and delve more into the work that gives me joy. I do love my technology and creating systems that make me more "efficient" -- it sucks up a lot of time, but I find it hard to regret that since it gives me so much satisfaction.
"Graceful life lived adventurously"? Okay, "A-" here, only because I tend to short-change myself in boldness.
Productive Work
Collections
- Sold 18 antique guns from collection, plus a few powder flasks to a private dealer (see also "Cries and Whispers: Gun Babel"). We should have been more aggressive in moving this collection, but kind of lost energy when the early profits didn't amount to much.
- Catalogued and sold antique cartidge collection to a private dealer
- Good dent in photo-llustrated book collection and cleared out old photo albums on Ebay;
- Major shift in Ebay strategy from junk to valuables. Achieved "Top Seller" status, satisfaction score of 1200, and temporary boost income -- but I lost steam in the last quarter.
- Did a lot of work organizing other collections, reflecting on them, preparing them for their "next lives." (Jewelry, precolumbian, prints, photos, letters, asian)
Entertainments
- Enormous progress on GRAND EXITS; readers gave helpful feedback. Didn't make my soft goal of distribution by end of year, but added time experimenting and revising will be worth the effort.
- Huge effort creating the MAD IN PURSUIT ENERGY CARDS and associated Artist's Adventure web pages, with downloadable versions at Scribd. This was a wonderful project in the making of it -- very energizing. The world is indifferent to it... it winds up being very personal -- maybe a true work of art.
- AUNTIE SONG. My folk song.
- KATHLEEN'S MACHINE (radio from 2009) got licensed for broadcast and picked up by REMIX.
- Teensy start on more sharing of work via Rochester Film Office project (short videos for airport video wall) and Artdrop project (self-portrait).
- Can't really say I've expanded my "audience" except maybe via Facebook.
- Didn't pay much attention to my website, but did manage to finally put together my graphics and cartoon gallery.
Exploratory
Skillbuilding
- Practiced drawing direct to computer with new pen tablet
- Better tabletop photography with new DSLR camera, for Ebay and catalogs
- Learned tabletop video with Vado camera to enhance Ebay listings
- Progress manipulating Indesign (catalog to index cards)
- Played around with some new literary techniques during July, followed up with a "Writing Throught the Divine" workshop in Oct.
Peer Networking & Environmental Scanning
- My peer networking is especially bad. Joining She Writes came closest to genuine conversation with other writers.
New Territory
- The place where art/creativity and spirit meet is new territory for me; I feel like I've only just begun to explore.
Infrastructure
- Got my network humming for file sharing, with laptop on ground floor for order processing and various cloud solutions for access to needed info
- Blog redesigned for Wordpress 3.0; new blog set up for review of GRAND EXITS
- Trying to go paperless with my Getting Things Done system, using a combination of Google Tasks (today's to-dos); Nozbe (project management); Evernote and Snagit (inbox functions)
Energizing Not-Work
- Great roadtrips out West to the Grand Canyon and northeast to Nova Scotia. Both deeply inspirationational. Lots of planning for a European rail trip, but decided to postpone it for a while.
- Continued wonderful interactions with friends and family on- and offline.
- Short experiment in church attendance. Lots of reading about the history of religion, esp. works by Karen Armstrong. Worked my way back into metaphysical systems and (with my buddy Pat) Joseph Campbell and Robert Thurman.
Addendum 1/2/2011
More reflecting on my year:
- Spiritual reading has led me to stop thinking about mission (imposing my worldview on others) and to think more in terms of pilgrimage (wayfaring toward my own destination, maybe not yet discovered).
- Philosophical reading got me thinking about shifting from producing pieces of "art" to being the art or living life as art.
The consequences of Jim's car accident and hospital visits (one car, more coordinated time together, cancelled vacation) got me thinking that perhaps we were drifting along in a muffled old comfort zone anyway and that we need to re-energize ourselves in new ways, together.- Rearranging our displayed art/artifacts (for company and in prep for more inventorying) reignited my enthusiasm around living with art and sharing it with others. Engaging with it, using it as a tool to engage with others, learning from it... all really more important than selling off the items we're less interested in.
12.31.10
Am I living by my manifesto (below)? Am I fulfilling the job description I published on 1.7.10?
MANIFESTO: TELL STUNNING STORIES. Dial up the volume of my voice; take risks; make it impeccable. (Adopted 1.19.08)
