100 Accomplishments for 2011

2011

Before looking forward to the new year I take the time to look back and honor the previous year.

I do this by listing 100 accomplishments for 2011:

1. I spent 459 hours in my studio making art, an average of a little over eight and three quarter hours a week throughout the year.
2. I created art 203 out of 365 days this year.
3. I completed 18 textile paintings in the Structures series.
4. I created 1 new textile painting in the Markings series.
5. I hand stitched 23 textile paintings in my new Stillness series.
6. I completed 1 textile painting in the Home series, Home #60, the bed quilt I started in 2010 for my son’s high school graduation present.
7. I created 4 three-dimensional houses in the Dream series that were included in the Artist Village.
8. I created 6 new aceos (tiny textile paintings).
9. I created 1 small artwork in the Lines Series.
10. I created a new textile painting for a book coming out in 2012. This artwork is in a new series that will be unveiled in 2012 along with a pattern so it can be copied.
11. I created a total of 55 new textile paintings in 2011 (9 large, 12 medium and 34 small).
12. I sold enough art in 2011 that taxes became a real issue for me for the first time. I had to learn to adjust my thinking to account for the government taking ~40% of each sale.
13. I sold 8 large, 3 medium and 26 small textile paintings in 2011.
14. My proceeds from the sale of 37 textile paintings generated enough income after taxes to pay 85% of my mortgage, major progress towards supporting myself through my artwork.
15. I sold 11 of the 55 textile paintings created in 2011. Meaning 20% of the artwork created this year, sold this year.
16. Structures #119 created this year was sold directly from my website, so I paid no commission on the sale.
17. Structures #28 was purchased for the Seidman Cancer Center in Ohio, part of the University Hospitals of Cleveland art collection.
18. My artwork is now represented by Bluestone Fine Art Gallery in Philadephia.
19. I had a solo exhibit of my artwork at the 1stBank Event Center in Broomfield, Colorado.
20. I had a solo exhibit of my artwork at both Kindness Yoga locations in Denver, Colorado.
21. I had a solo exhibit of my artwork at Dazzle Jazz Club in Denver, Colorado.
22. Home #13 received an Award of Merit at Form Not Function.
23. Structures #113 won the Award of Excellence at Quilt National 2011.
24. I entered 4 juried shows and was accepted in none of them. The accomplishment was not letting it bother me (for more than a day after each rejection) and not letting it influence the art I create each day. I can’t help it that that jurors have bad taste.
25. I secured 3 solo exhibits for 2012 – one in Philadephia, one in New York City and one in Denver.
26. I was invited to exhibit Structures #98 at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in New York City. This is the opportunity that thrilled me most this year.
27. My art was published in Instinctive Quilt Art, Batsford by Bethan Ash.
28. Structures #113 was published in Quilt National 2011: The Best of Contemporary Quilts, Lark Books.
29. Structures #59 was published in What I Wish for You, Skirt Publishing, by Patti Digh.
30. I published an article about my quilting technique in Quilting Arts In Stitches eMagazine: It’s Slow, It’s Traditional, It’s Perfect.
31. I had an interview published by Lori McNee for part of her Power Artist series.
32. I have a profile on the new metroseekers website for Denver.
33. I started saying no to some of the opportunities sent my way as I no longer have time to do everything. This could be one of the harder things I did in 2011.
34. I gave a well received lecture on my artwork at the Parker Artist Guild.
35. I leveraged my word of the year, confidence, and started teaching. I added a Learn from Me section to my website to organize the information.
36. I designed my first online workshop: Working in a Series.
37. I taught two full sessions of Working in a Series in 2011 and sold out the first session of the workshop for 2012.
38. I started designing my second online workshop: Abstraction.
39. Although I didn’t track the effort, I worked on my art business almost daily for numerous hours. My estimate is over 1000 hours this year.
40. I took the time to write detailed and extensive goals for the year.
41. I created a very handy spreadsheet to help me track my progress towards my goals.
42. I wrote a popular blog article on Twelve Ideas on How to Increase Focus.
43. Maintained an active presence for my art business on facebook and closed the year with 1477 fans. Thank you all.
44. I ended the year with 4485 followers on twitter, an increase of 951 for the year.
45. I started a google+ profile.
46. I found a cool and useful way to use my pinterest account.
47. I updated my informational squidoo lenses: Contemporary Art Quilts, Buying Art and Quilt National 2011.
48. I updated my resume.
49. I updated my Structures artist statement and enjoyed looking back at its evolution through the years.
50. I filled in the gaps from previous years in my art inventory so I now have documentation for all of the artwork I have created in my lifetime.
51. I photographed and document all textile paintings completed in 2011 and kept my art inventory current.
52. I posted all textile paintings completed in 2011 to my new art list and website.
53. I wrote 147 posts on my art blog.
54. I continue to maintain over 100,000 pageviews per month on my blog with May posting the top numbers with 135,107 pageviews.
55. I posted 23 photos to my inspiration blog.
56. I moved my studio newsletter to mail chimp as the software is much easier to use than the open source solution I was using before.
57. I sent out twelve studio newsletters, one per month as planned. This is a milestone as I’ve skipped a few each year previously.
58. I added additional announcement options for my newsletter subscribers.
59. I ended the year with 840 subscribers to my studio newsletter. This is an increase of 144 new subscribers for the year and exceeded my goal of 825.
60. I added a recommendations page and publication page to my website to make it easier to share resources with my followers.
61. I cleaned up and simplified the sidebar of my blog.
62. I reorganized the art on my website, moving all of the smaller works to their own section: Collectible small art.
63. I joined Alyson Stanfield’s Artist Conspiracy, which helped me stay focused on my art business and I enjoyed the conversation with fellow artists.
64. I worked with a coach, Cynthia Morris, to get started planning my workshops.
65. I hired a proof reader to help me clean up the emails sent in my online workshops.
66. I sold over 1300 yards of pfd fabric to other textile artists.
67. I sold one yard of my own handdyed fabric, which is 100% of what I offered up for sale.
68. I bought a new iron. Other textile artists will understand why this makes the list.
69. I created nine new textile paintings for an exhibit in seven days, and lived to write about it.
70. I wrote nine new blog posts for MakeBigArt, my website devoted to empowering artists to think big about their art, their marketing and their lives.
71. I maintained a semi active presence on facebook and twitter for makebigart.
72. I took the plunge, closed some doors and cleared my studio of old project and supplies that distract me from my primary focus. (the supplies are up for sale on ebay.)
73. I finally got my yard landscaped enough so I could have a garden, the first time in three years.
74. My garden provided ample inspiration for my art: color, more color and design.
75. After some terrible results, I learned to take some decent photos with my iphone.
76. I bought more art this year, as I do every year. My focus in 2011 were found object flowers that I planted in my hammock patio.
77. After living without window coverings for 3 years, I used my art income to purchase Hunter Douglas blinds for my entire house. I didn’t realize how important the privacy was until I got it back.
78. I wrote a series of blog posts about art for the holidays, including a suggestion to buy art for kids.
79. I bought my kids and my 11 and 12 year old nephews original art for Christmas, to varying degrees of appreciation. I will do this every year now to build them a collection.
80. I ate some amazing chocolate and french pastry in New York City.
81. I attended numerous gallery and museum exhibits. The clear favorite of the group was the deKooning exhibit at MOMA.
82. I walked more in 2011 than in previous years. The most common location was the cherry creek bike path.
83. I maintained a rigorous yoga practice the first half of the year.
84. I had an uncountable number of fabulous meals out. Denver has some extremely good restaurants. Although the food in New York City gets some of the top billing.
85. I attended two concerts by Sarah McLachlan. The one at Red Rocks was pretty outstanding.
86. I enjoyed six dance and ballet performances and one opera, which was fabulous at the Metropolitan Opera House.
87. I attended fourteen plays and theater shows.
88. So I didn’t feel too cultured I also attended two baseball games and one football game.
89. I spent a week in Costa Rica on a yoga retreat – pure heaven. My Stillness series was inspired by this trip.
90. My kids and I enjoyed a fabulous beach vacation in North Carolina, which I extended a few days longer to visit with my wonderful friends in Williamsburg, Virginia. These women are some of dearest and closest friends as we were brand new stay at home moms together long ago.
91. I attended the opening of Quilt National 2011 in Athens, Ohio and enjoyed my textile art immersed weekend and met some new art friends.
92. I spent 5 glorious days in New York City for the opening of Uncommon Threads at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts. I ate incredible food, viewed amazing art at the museums and spent time with the art friends I met in Ohio.
93. I spent several days in Vail, Colorado during the summer soaking in the beauty, seeing amazing dance, eating incredible food, hiking to the top of the ski hill, soaking in the hot tubs and retreating to my room in silence to get organized and get my art business back on track after feeling a bit adrift.
94. I read and listened to 33 books and tracked the list on goodreads.
95. In my favorite act of self pampering, I received eighteen massages over the course of 2011. My definition of success is one massage a week and this year I averaged about one massage every three weeks. I’m a third of the way there!
96. I continue to receive regular acupuncture treatments for maintaining my health and helping reduce stress.
97. I provided love and support to my daughter as she struggled through some difficult experiences this year. I tremendously enjoy my close and silly relationship with her.
98. I supported my son emotionally and financially as he pursues an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, taking after both his mom and his dad.
99. I continued to work 40 hours a week as a project manager at the large and dysfunctional multinational software giant that gives me my paycheck. To survive the insanity I scheduled a monthly bowling outing with my fun team of developers.
100. I donated 10% of the gross income, income before expenses or taxes, from my art business: from art sales, to teaching income, to awards, etc. Given my profitable year, I was able to donate thousands of dollars to things that inspire me and felt my art made a larger difference in the world beyond its beauty. Although listed last, this is by far the accomplishment that makes me smile the most. Being able to give to causes such as Doctors without Borders, the Red Cross and institutions such as the Denver Art Museum and my daughter’s amazing public school fills me with joy.

Why the List?

This is the third year (previous lists) I’ve completed this exercise and I get a lot from it.

I create the list to remind myself that my year was very full and I have much for which to be grateful.

It’s easy to dismiss the positive and focus on the negative so this list is created without judgement. Looking back I have many excellent memories and close out 2011 with a smile.

The list also helps to bring into focus the things I’d like to work on in 2012. So onward, tomorrow some goals for 2012.

 
If you have compiled a similar list, I’d enjoy reading it as I love the inspiration and energy so many positive thoughts bring about, so please leave a link in the comments.

Tagged as: 100 lists, accomplishments, end of year, goals, gratitude, reflection