When I first created my website and saw that I had a built-in blog, I thought it would be using it a lot more often. After all, I write almost every day, I figured it would be a piece of cake! Well it turns out that I was overestimating my abilities. Between painting, keeping my social media accounts active (Instagram, Facebook and TikTok), doing art challenges, commissions, and exhibitions, I managed to post ONE blog post last year, and that was months after launching my site. Forget about the Patreon I was supposed to launch, the YouTube channel that remains devoid of any videos, and the myriad of other ideas to create passive income that I've yet to explore. Blog nuttin'!
In the last three months of 2021 I found myself getting burnt out. In October, I completed a daily art challenge (The Strada Easel Challenge) where I worked exclusively from life, instead of from photographs as I usually do. It was a great exercise but it was also exhausting the have to do art every single day. I did come out with some really nice paintings though.
In November I had a series of commissions to complete before Christmas. As all of my clients were abroad, I had have them dried, varnished and packaged in time for them to arrive by December 25. Pace!
In December I participated in a group exhibition and created a bunch of new pieces that I showed alongside some older paintings and drawings. It was really exciting to show my first collection and I was really happy with how well the show went. But as you can imagine, by the end of the month I was completely drained.
So I left to Tobago for two weeks and found the rest, relaxation and replenishment that I desperately needed. I also celebrated a birthday while I was there!
And now I'm back and ready to hit the ground running. And one thing is for certain, I can't continue at the pace I was working at last year. For one thing, I want to dedicate more of my time writing on my blog, on a space that is mine, rather than posting so much content on social media. I like to write, and I want to share more of my process here, where I can actually expand on my thoughts, instead of writing paragraphs on my Instagram captions. It will likely mean my social media accounts will suffer to some extent, but I'm ok with that. It's more important to me to develop a connection with people in a way that feels more organic and authentic to me.
Uh... that's it really. That's as far as my mind is currently capable of strategizing for 2022. Just blog more. I'm hoping that it will lead me to also dedicating more time to my Patreon, because I think it's a very promising platform that will enable people to support me even if they can't purchase from me. There's also nebulous ideas floating around about making prints and such (you can already buy some from my website but eh... I haven't
even gotten around to uploading all my artwork and figuring out pricing.... entrepreneurship is exhausting). But hey guys, small victories, it's January and I've already uploaded a whole new post! I've equaled last year's quota already! Look at me all 2022-ing! Let's go!
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