A Year Beckons

So how are you entering this new year? With relief? Fearfully? With excitement? Feeling challenged? Behind already?

I spent much of my day yesterday cleaning one desk in my studio. I hadn't seen the surface in months. Even the chair in front of it was piled with magazines, papers, sketches, things I'd been missing. By suppertime I was down to bare wood! Hallelujah! Chorus, please!

After dinner I began reading a book I'd mentioned to my husband as a possible Christmas gift - Anne Paris' Standing at Water's Edge, discovering "the power of creative immersion". It felt like a good way to begin the year. Last week I was reviewing some of my accomplishments from 2009 and was surprised by how much I'd gotten done. So often I'm feeling frustrated by how little there is to show for my time - but when I counted things up, I was pleasantly surprised. And I'm enthusiastic to focus a bit more - to take advantage of the past successes and move forward. You know how people choose a word for the year - I think mine may be "focus".

I've signed up for an online collage course later this month with Kathryn Antyr http://collagediva.typepad.com/truenorth/ and am really looking forward to this exploration. Kathryn sent an email last week offering a downloadable calendar of some of her work - such a generous gift! Today I did that - and though she meant for it to be used as a small desk calendar that could be displayed in a CD case, I saw the expanse of paper and decided that I wanted to write on it - to use it as the frontispieces for pages of my journal, to piggyback on her energy and generosity, to let that good feeling color my own expressions, whatever they may be. And I got such a surge of possiblity when I spread out the pages on my newly cleaned up desk! What will these pages be saying as I move into this year. I'm so excited!

So, thank you, Kathryn! And if any of my readers find such a journey of interest, I encourage you to check out her blog and jump in.

Here's to a new year of living your art!