Don’t Call it a Resolution
Aaaah! The fresh feeling of a freshly laundered year was upon us a month ago, and like many folk I had a small stack of hopes, dreams and let’s say, ‘resolutions’ – all racked up ready for the new year.
These included most of the usual suspects – getting fitter with some daily exercise, to read more, daily meditation, learn a language and get a tattoo amongst others. Four stale weeks later and to be honest, not a great deal has stuck. They all seemed so possible for that first week / first day but now, its not all looking so optimistic.
Realistically though there are a few bigger, more practical plans and attitudes to working that are still pretty at the front of my mind and might actually be doable with a bit of planning, patience and steady practice.
Beam it Don’t Dream it
2013 was a great year for me getting to do more live video mixing and projecting with bands. I had decided the year before that I wasn’t going to go to any more music festivals unless I was invited to take part one way or another. I had the busiest festival summer since the nineties last year – I played at the blue lagoon, did three shows at Greenman and even got to Glasto. I’m hoping to do more of the same and crank it up a notch if possible. This will hopefully include the next phase of the unbuttoned project with Zwolf that was a great experience last year.
Update – I’ve managed to gather the means to visit SXSW this year, so will be taking my projector in my hand luggage with a view to beam beam beam (with Gulp!)
But it’s so Beautiful
There are a handful of aims / goals and wishes I would like to see happen this year, and in many ways I fee the best way to facilitate them would be to let go or unlearn the bad habit of screen addiction. It’s a modern day affliction that feel stops me from reading more (real books), drawing more, making music and just remembering to be in the moment and breathe more and not get sucked into the twitchy ‘pleasure refresh’ that smart devices seem to encourage.
This could be an excuse for laziness, but I’d like to at give it a try. While I don’t think going cold turkey on my iPhone is every going to be realistic, I am trying to think twice before mindlessly feeding my FOMO and letting it be the first thing I grab for when left for more than 10 seconds to my own devices. Making sure screens don’t go upstairs to bed with me is another thing I’m being careful to watch (well my phone at least – catching up on episodes of Parks and Recreation on the laptop is a pre-bedtime necessity!)
Skill is a B*m Disease
At the beginning of last year, I enrolled in an intaglio printing class at the Print Market Workshop. It was a fantastic few weeks learning the ins and outs of the printing process that I missed while at University. It sparked a new found excitement in me to get my hands dirty and actually make something tangible rather than from pixels. I had intended to fully enroll at the branch near me, but never quite got round to it, and eventually lost momentum.
This year, I’ve been bought four sessions at the Prinhaus to get me into some more making, not to mention become more familiar with screenprinting. As a focus over the coming weeks, I’ll be making a book – binding it and filling it with one-off prints, drawings and collages. Just because. As and when I make a new page for this, I’ll no doubt post it on my Tumblr where all my sketchbook work ends up.
Never Enough Time
I do have a list of projects and goals for this year as long as my arm, but I wouldn’t want to jinx them all by broadcasting my hopes here.
What I do hope to do overall though is to try and keep a momentum of personal projects rolling, even if that’s remembering to draw at least once a day.
To be more mindful and aware of opportunities as and when they arise, and not to be afraid to say yes (but know when to say no!)
Live in the NOW. Don’t let pressure run away with me, but use all experiences as opportunities to learn.
Oh yes, and finally get around to having that tattoo 😉