An Artist's Resolution

New Year 2015.
A time to consider a few resolutions? I cannot recall ever writing down specific resolutions. This is surely the wrong way to go about making resolutions  I need to make a change. I resolve to write down my resolutions this year. This is very doable so I am off to a good start. Next up is getting the resolve to follow through. This is the problem area. We can go wrong here for several reasons. 

Distractions make focusing on our goals difficult. Consider that we live in the age of distractions, which makes it difficult to follow through on a goal. Get rid of distractions. TV, smartphone addiction and any other activity that is not taking you in the right direction. It is a distraction.

Then there is waiting until conditions are just right. For example getting a solid body of work together for an exhibition. Either the works are not quite ready or I want to get another subject done, but there are other things coming up that need attention. Before long I am putting off the goal until next year. The fact is conditions are never perfect. There is always something else that could be done. The idea is to do it in spite of conditions not being ideal. Then you have action.

What about if you have the desire, but fear a lack of skill? Or maybe you want a better studio or materials or need some other conditions to be met before getting started? There is only one thing to do. Start with what you have. Even cavemen who painted with the most basic of materials have produced lasting works of beauty. How can we complain with our abundance of art materials? Get started with what you have and it becomes easier.

Do what you can. This is not glamour. It is honest. Take what you have with your passion for creativity and get to work. This sort of attitude will carry you much further and for longer than some grandiose resolution that never sees the light of day. 

Yes I have a few ideas of what I want for the year and I am visualising them as I write this. But most of all I am resolved to start now with what I have. The rest will follow at the right time and place. That I think is how the universe works.

Happy New Year!