Let's Dance 2012

I look forward to posting my New Year's post. There is always a sense of excitement for the unknown events that will shape this next year. And above all, it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the year I have had as a whole.

It has been a year full of extreme goods, and extreme bads. I have struggled professionally and personally for sure but I have accomplished more than I had hoped. I have met amazing people that have helped to shape this last year in ways I could never have anticipated. And I am most thankful for those who brought a smile to my face when I needed it most. And when I stumbled, those words of encouragement were welcome and appreciated.

This past year I found myself further immersed in this amazing community of artist and collectors that have such a passion for what they do or what they love and I have loved every minute of it. The opportunity to spend some time with some of them at DesignerCon was most definitely a highlight and I hope that I will have that opportunity again. And for those on Twitter, Instagram, and the CP forum it has been a pleasure to get to know everyone and interact with you. And thank you for those of you that have willingly shared your knowledge and insight. I am indebted to you.

As for my family, thanks go out to my sisters and cousins, they may not always understand what I am doing but they show up. They go to shows with me and support me regardless of what my crazy mind is cooking up. My older sister and her husband are my biggest cheerleaders, and my cousin and her husband are the proud owners of several of my original illustrations and customs that they kindly display in their home. You guys warm my tiny tiny Grinch heart.

And now with the sappy stuff out of the way, I turn my attention to the new year. This next year will find me trying to keep my life balanced. As amazing as this past year has been, I was very distracted from a very important goal. And I cannot allow that to happen again. So I go into this year with a renewed sense of purpose and focus and I am take on this goal guns blazing. I will continue to update my sketch blog randomactsart.tumblr.com but I am going to try to hold back a bit and get better. I want to paint better, sculpt better, draw better, and just BE BETTER. As of right now I have nothing on my plate so I am taking that as a sign that I need to step up my game. I need to evolve if I am going to have a presence and if I am going to be able to consider myself an artist.

So as you can see, I have no specific things I want to achieve. There will not be a bulleted list of resolutions or hopes and dreams. In fact, I really only have some professional aspirations that I will not share here. I will continue to do my thing and if opportunities arise, then I will remain open to them. I am an ambitious person so I have many things I want to accomplish in my life and they require more than  year to come to fruition. So I am trying to think differently and not get hung up on small things.

As I wrap up this post I hope the new year finds you well. Best of luck to everyone. 2011 you have been kicked to the curb. 2012. You. Me. Now. Let's do this.

New Year

I was very excited for the new year last year, and I had very positive outlook. Thankfully I can say that it was truly a great year. By no means was it perfect mind you. I had bad days for sure. Hell I even had a few bad weeks. There was stress and unhappiness like any other year. But there was also progress.

This past year saw me participate in my first art show. I had the opportunity to participate in a few custom toy shows as well. I started working and developing my animations. And I continued to work towards my career goals. And very unexpectedly I found myself reaching out for help and getting a lot of helpful feedback and how to's from people in my career path and in my toy universe.

Before New Year's Day I was also given a lot of great advice and I intend to put it to practice as I tear the shrink wrap off of this brand spankin' new year. I am not necessarily making resolutions, but I am setting goals for myself.

My 2011 goals are simple but they are resolute.

I will continue to work harder, and try to work smarter :)
I will continue to work towards participating in more custom shows and embrace more opportunities (here's to hoping they embrace me back)
I will continue to work towards strengthening and pushing my style as I work towards get into a gallery show or two.
I will continue to push myself and my animations and hopefully make more steps in that direction.
I will take better care of myself so I can abuse myself with lack of sleep when I need to.
And I will try new things regularly.

I know no man (or woman in my case) is promised tomorrow but if I get all 365 days the next year I am going to make it better. More animations, more customs, more painting, more drawing, and above all more growth as an artist. So Cheers to another year. May it be prosperous and filled with some truly awesome moments.

Let's do this.

V