What a year 2018 has been. I thought about not posting a reflection this year, for the first time ever, but I think it’s been a good practice to truly focus on how I’ve grown in my art, online presence, etc.
This year I’ve learned to take my creative process in stride. I can be very hard on myself for not creating. But life gets in the way. Weather you’re busy, or just physically or mentally unable, take care of yourself first and the art will come when it needs to.
I’ve switched my focuses between making photos, creating videos, writing blog posts and just relaxing. And while I probably haven’t made as many photos this year, or written as many blog posts, as I did last year, I’m happier with what I have made.
I’ve focused on making art this year rather than showing it. While I do intend to get my pieces published or in gallery shows, I want to make sure the work is full and complete first. That said, my in progress series – Monochrome, was featured on Exclu Collective’s site back in September. A still from my series Headlights will be shown in Rome this coming January thanks to LoosenArt (note if you’re discovering this post in 2021 or beyond, I do not trust Loosen and will not submit to them further). And the whole of my 5 part series, Survival was on view in Yonkers, NY, and now for sale online through D. Thomas Fine Miniatures.
As for books, I created the design and layout for, and had a featured spread within the Toy Photographers 2017 book which was released this past January! The 2018 book should be released soon. I pulled back from their blog throughout this past year to focus on my own work, but did publish a post on Aphantasia and believe I will have a blurb in the upcoming book. Speaking of, I also learned I have Aphantasia this year. If you’re interested in learning more, click the link to read about it. I have another, possibly more detailed, post coming up, but I’m waiting on a bit of info for it.
Jacob Makaya also released his book 100 Dreams and their Biblical Interpretations in both English and Swahili versions this past year, with my image and design work on the covers!
It’s been just over a year now since I began posting on YouTube semi-regularly. My style of videos has changed a bit over the year as I find a balance between what I enjoy creating and what people like to watch.
And last, but certainly not least, I was featured on an episode of the Toy Photographer’s podcast!
In 2019 I hope to complete my Monochrome/Polychrome series and publish it in a process driven hard cover book. I also want to push myself to spread my art farther online – although I’m still brain storming exactly how I’m going to go about this. I also have plans for images involving a new 1:12 scale figure, as well as some wisps of ideas for other images. The best place to see those right as they’re produced is on instagram, but I’ll post them here as I have multiple images to share together. And my list of video ideas keeps growing as well, but those are slower moving. I may be traveling a lot for work, so I also hope to figure out how to incorporate new locations/travel into my photo process. As for the rest of 2019 we’ll just have to see what it brings.
What have your 2018 accomplishments been? Large or small, it doesn’t matter, share them in a comment below. And what do you hope 2019 will bring?