After a busy month and some procrastination, I'm finally writing down and sharing my plans for 2023 and early 2024.
Greetings, everyone! It's been a while since my last blog post, and for that, I apologize. Nonetheless, I'm grateful that you're here to read this.
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who has supported me during my artistic journey in the past few years. It's mind-boggling to see my growth from the beginning to where I am now. I can't express enough how grateful I am for all the support, opportunities, and much more. I hope you all stay safe, prosper, and continue to accompany me on the long road ahead.
Secondly, I'm writing this blog post as a guideline for the remainder of the year and early 2024, as well as a statement of my intentions and transparency. As I grow creatively as an artist and more competent as a business person, I believe it's essential to clarify my vision, statement of intent, and transparency to foster sustainability and trust between me and the community in the long run.
Artistry and Creativity
Since I began my artistic career, I've always wanted to push myself to be better than I was before. This statement applies more now and in the future than it did before. 2022 was a big year for me, and I want to keep that momentum going for as long as possible. Here's a list of things I want to do to maintain this energy:
Apply to and submit work to as many artist calls and competitions as possible that interest me.
Apply to art grants and scholarships that I'm eligible for to produce more work.
Attend more in-person sales and artist meetups.
Work with a wider range of artists and mediums.
Produce more prints and works of art.
Getting Lost in the Sauce of Art and Business
While I've listed some general plans above, I want to take a moment to discuss things in more depth. This year and going forward, I want to share some of my more complex projects and thoughts openly to have them written down and known by my audience. While some things won't happen for a while or will be under stricter wraps until I'm ready to share them, it doesn't hurt to let people see a small glimpse inside my head. For example, I want to return, revamp, and reimagine my long-abandoned project, Nature and Nurture, and further expand on the lion, the Jackal, and the Man. Although one is more recent and the other has laid dormant for years, both concepts and premises offer plenty of room to explore and develop deeper connections to my motifs and practices. I'll explain this further later, but below are some projects and ideas I've been working on in the background for a while now.
Drawing, Comics, Zines, and Printing the World
This year, I want to invest heavily in getting better at and honing my skills in my primary ways of making art: drawing and printmaking. I also want to share some of the many projects I have in mind. First, I want to create monthly zines that share smaller, more digestible stories and thoughts that I have. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while but never had the courage to start until now. As you may know, I haven't posted or shared any zines for the first three months of the year, and for that, I apologize. Although it's not a pressing matter now, I want to make up for lost time by making something that explains the lack of content for that time frame.
Secondly, I'm a huge comic nerd, so it's no surprise that I am a huge comic nerd so there comes no surprise in me saying I want to develop and make my own comics. However, this is easier said than done. This project has been something I have been toiling away at for a while now but haven’t made any significant progress on. This year I really want to push my progress by a manageable degree. I want to start this by working on zines and moving myself towards my larger goal of comic books.
Lastly, I want to touch on Drawing and printmaking, my two most favorite ways of making art. Drawing hasn’t always been my strong suit, but I do want it to be one I’m much more comfortable with. This coming year I do want to make more pieces that are solely drawings with my flare and touch of specialty. This will require me to push myself and share more of my work from life drawing to advanced thoughts I have. Printmaking is something I also want to further expand upon and get better at by experimenting and researching new ways of printmaking. Also included in this I want to revisit old projects and reinvigorate them with a new energy. Also, I want to conjure up a few new projects that I will share details about for later. Of course, making friends and learning more about artists and collaborating with them is a great and large goal of mine. Essentially, I want to print the world and make friends along the way.
To Recap:
· I want to develop and better my understanding and practices of printmaking and drawing.
· Develop my skills for making comics and zine making.
· Collaborate and communicate with more artists.
· Expand and reinvigorate old projects long forgotten.
· Print the World
Business, Marketing, and Other Boring Things.
The last thing I want to talk about is the boring details of being an artist and business owner like marketing, money, and other boring business details. Luckily this will be a quick little blurb. First and foremost, I feel like it's time for me to make content for both YouTube and tik-to since this allows me to reach a wider audience in a good amount of time. While I do have experience with making videos and script writing, but this aspect of my business is something that I’m not fully secure in and will be a constant on and off again project. I do have some interesting ideas, but they will take time to execute. I do plan on also implanting and using my newsletter to keep everyone updated and for marketing purposes. Money wise I have a goal of making at the very least $800 a month from my art. This may be a stretch but I’m hopeful it's possible. The way that I want to accomplish this is by having frequent sales on my inprnt shop, launching and selling special prints and pieces on my website at a premium price (yes, I want to launch my website store this year). From this I want to further expand my artistic practice and business hopefully I will be able to accomplish this.
While everything said will take time I hope everyone that is reading this will stick along for the ride and I wish you the best
