Art and Creativity – Sharing My 2011 Goals

Home #52
©2010 Lisa Call
2.5″ x 3.5″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)

$40

The Vision

My long term vision for my studio practice:

• To be the best artist I can be. I do this by making a large body of art and exploring in new directions in a variety of sizes.
• To be a self supporting artist. To do this, I must create enough art every year to provide myself with a good living. I came close to making that much art last year, but not quite. This year, by setting specific goals, I hope to reach that mark.

These intentions are derived and distilled from my definition of success.

My Art and Creativity Goals for 2011

• I work in my studio 800 or more hours in 2011. This is an average of 15 hours a week.
• I create 24 new large textile paintings (larger than 12″x12″).
• I complete 10 works in progress.
• I create 200 new small textile paintings (12″x12″ and smaller) mounted on stretched canvas.
• I take an oil painting class.
• I paint informally with friends and family.
• I work through the entire Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book and associated exercises.
• I complete 12 new Plains drawings.
• I journal and sketch through the year.

Some Thoughts on Writing Goals

I’ll post my business and personal goals over the next few days but first a few words about goals in general.

I haven’t written yearly goals in a few years, and it feels really good to be doing this again. While not writing goals was an interesting experiment and some amazing things happened as a result, I like the motivation and direction that goals provide.

Some specifics about my goals:

1. I write them as if I have already achieved them, so they are written in the present tense, not future tense. It’s a law of attraction thing. Words are powerful.
2. I make them specific and measurable. I don’t say “I work a lot in my studio” as there is no way to know when I’m done. And I find myself playing silly mind games on what “alot” really means, then lower my expectations and drift away on the internet doing nothing of value.
3. I think big and dream big. I’d prefer to fall short than not aim for the sky. I don’t feel bad when I don’t make my goals. That is a waste of time. I just readjust and keep moving forward.
4. I don’t view my goals as set in stone. If events change, I can change my goals. I get to make the rules here and I believe in flexibility.
5. My goals are not about restrictions but about opportunity. I view them as things I WANT to do vs things I HAVE to do. This mindset difference is huge.
6. The goals follow directly from my long term vision. If they aren’t in alignment, something is wrong with either my vision or my goals.
7. A few of my goals are not specific and measurable. They are lower priority and about playing around, investigating new things. They are reminder of things I want to do but don’t feel a need to be more specific about.

Tagged as: 2011 goals, goals, vision