The end of a decade!
It went so fast and yes I know it's said all the time but it really passes so quickly. It seems the older you get the faster it goes too! But with this post I want to try to pause and it is here I feel like taking the time to look back as well as look forward as it helps get a handle on things giving me greater perspective over the past and looking toward my future. This post will have a bunch of my personal intention and memory lists — I hope it might inspire you to join me in this task.
Making decade memory lists as well as 10 for the future decade intention lists and a few other lists below I believe have power in shaping the things you want In your life. The simple act of writing down a thought idea or desire can help make it more real and really be the spark to light up the full intention bringing it to life. Sounds a bit kooky and frilly to some but if you set all preconceived notions aside you may find value in this as well.
Honestly this is how I have run so much of my life from going to art school to working in publishing and having solo art shows in galleries. They all started as idea sparks I put to paper to map out a plan loosely or tightly but the physical act of writing it down made all the difference. In this post I have several themed lists for art, travel, joy and a general life one for 2020! Why not grab a pen and paper and jot down your own! Ok now on to my decade reflecting past and future!
2010- 2019
The last ten years had some big ups and down for sure. Gains and loss, Loved ones passed, Old jobs lost, new jobs found, old friends faded new friends came into focus, old circles disappeared new ones emerged...you know the cycle of life. I personally made lots of changes and all through it managed to keep making artwork thankfully. For me art grounds me it is the thing that truly centers me in life. It provides peace, clarity and calm as it helps me sort things navigating life paths with greater ease and fluidity and it is just part of being alive it’s how I function. Whether I am showing in a gallery, art fair, online or secret in my journals art is always present.
So far I have defined my adult existence by the creation of my personal inner art world I have created since I was very young. It's a personal universe I hope to keep growing. I also hope to nurture my inner world and figure out ways to share it with the rest of you who follow my art path with me. If that means perhaps dipping my foot back deeper in to gallery shows or perhaps finally making that art book and publishing it either with a publisher or self publish I have to figure that all out. These lists will help provide a loose map with clues layered in there where I will find the answers I need.
Also looking back at the last 10 years I have managed to travel which is something I very much love to do. It is a gift to be able to explore and see this incredible planet we live on as much as possible. Sometimes life can feel like it's moving slow and you feel stuck even defeated to point of giving up but eventually you get up and moving and seeing all the things you can to fill your heart with. I hope to see more of this world in the next ten years. Now for some lists! At this point feel free to write out your own or you are certainly welcome to read along with mine.
ALSO DON’T WORRY about getting these lists perfect just make a brain spill and see what comes out. It’s more interesting that way. These are not set in stone resolutions that will fail you they are more meditative lists of memories and intentions of things you want to explore or see come to fruition.
10 stand out things about my ART LIFE from this past decade:
Museum and Gallery Shows both solo and group shows in NYC, Brooklyn, NJ, Germany, Italy and California to name a few.
In 2019 I redesigned my website with a new modern updated feel including the addition of my blog The Angie Journals and my Podcast integrated Into one site. Also in 2017 I redesigned & switched my Art Shop to Bigcartel to use a more updated platform.
I made a podcast! The whole thing: song, content, host produce I did it! yay for the Clarity Cloud Podcast.
I was featured in several art books (Edgy Cute and Low Brow Tarot).
I was part of a variety of art fair pop up shops where I had my own booth.
I designed a font
I designed and worked with manufacturing to produce a limited run Enamel pin of my art
I learned package design which opened up so many opportunities in my design life and helped when working with my art merch and promotion.
Learned to play the ukulele (it's not visual but it brought so much joy to my life as well as feeding my creative heart)
I created more digital work by using a wacom tablet and apple pencil and ipad pro. It's just another set of tools to expand my creative reach.
And now 10 Art Life things I would like to do in the next decade:
Make an art book on my artwork from the past 20 years work
Publish my own written and illustrated children's book
Create a new body of work that I specifically exhibit in NJ
Make an art patch
Create some die cut stickers
Paint a mural for a city or town
Create another travel sketchbook (like the one I made for Switzerland).
Take a glass blowing class
Work with an agent to get my work in more places and grow in new ways
Have my own brick and mortar shop/space
TRAVEL LIFE 10 memories of the last decade:
Switzerland - Lauterbrunnen and so much more!
Iceland - Ring Road
Hawaii - Volcano,Big Island & Maui
Wyoming -Yellowstone & Totality Solar eclipse of 2017
South Dakota - Bad Lands!
New England - Salem MA. Portsmouth NH, Maine and Capecod MA
Joshua Tree Park, California
Hudson Valley New York ( so many towns in this area of NY State I adore!)
The Jersey Shore New Jersey (Asbury Park, Cape May, Seaside Heights)
Pennsylvania (Lehigh Valley area, New Hope)
TRAVEL LIFE 10 places to go NEXT decade:
Scotland
Norway
Mexico
Turkey
Egypt
Ireland
Vienna
Utah (Zion + Southern area)
New Mexico
Ithaca NY (Finger Lakes Region)
10 Things that filled my heart with joy or hope:
Traveling with Snail
Cats: The decade began with Nervil and closes with Professor Toops, Bezzlebubs and Furuza Zuzu
Learning things
Family,Friends & hosting gatherings
Music - my ukulele,Concerts / live music gives me a jolt of energy and joy filling my heart.
Seeing Lava (Volcano Park) and Totality solar eclipse in Casper Wyoming in person
Gardening
Hiking
Cooking with my 🐌 and our home we created.
Protests /Charity Art Shows / Volunteering
JOY intentions for the NEXT decade:
Make art
Share art
Travel
Vote
Progress
Laugh
Sing made up songs
Love family & friends
Be in nature
Spread kindness through art, words, actions.
BONUS* In next decade get LASIK surgery to fix my failing eyes!
AND because I love lists and setting intentions by writing them down here is my 20 things for 2020 list of all the things I would like to do for this coming year. Not so much resolutions as they are really mapping and planning out the things I want to explore accomplish and see come to fruition. *This list includes non art related things. You should try one too they are really fun to dream plan and plot things and when they actually happen it kind of blows your mind!
20 THINGS FOR 2020!
Take Glass Blowing Class
Produce a die cut sticker
Vote! and Continue to push for progress
Travel
Paint
Draw
Complete 2 art series I’ve been working on.
More time outdoors in nature
Write more
On going clearing of closets and digital folders - release the things that don’t serve you any more... donate items or give them to friends who could use them.
Garden
Plan a spring BBQ with family/ friends
Look into Ceramic / pottery making
Have a virtual studio sale
Have a irl garage sale
Find 1 to 3 new galleries to show with
Finish all book maps and pitch books
Donate 3 bags of old clothes
Make and print a holiday card before the end of November
Focus on progress & positive change / less noise In other words chin up stay hopeful a full light heart has great power to change things.
It's all in writing now. I can revisit this list as you can yours.Check in and see if this is still the path you want to head towards in 6 months or any time, see what you can mark off as completed. Now I am going to end this year cooking a favorite dish with my Snail and cozy up with our cats and greet the new decade together!
It’s all blue skies and clear hearts.
Happy New Year Dreamlets!
I wish you all 20/20 Clarity for 2020!
Dreaming myself awake,
Angie