That Way, Donna Zagotta
I’ve noticed a growing trend where instead of making New Year’s resolutions, people are choosing a theme to focus on for the whole year. I like that, because having a theme forces you to boil all of your goals and objectives down to one concise, big, simple, juicy idea. Having a central theme for the year is a great reminder that will help you stay on track when life gets super busy; it’s a way to stay focused on the big picture and not get mired down in the small details, distractions, annoyances, and frustrations of everyday life.
My theme for 2010 is: More productivity with greater ease and less stress in both my art life and personal life. I guess I could boil it down even further to one simple theme word: Harmony.
How will I carry out my theme – how will I create harmony in both my art life and my personal life? Well, to start with, I’m creating a plan for the whole year with quarterly goals, deadlines, and scheduled progress reports. Next, I’m making a list of all I want to accomplish this year along with another list of all the actions I can think of that I will need to take to get things done (identifying the actions to be done has been a key missing ingredient for me!). Instead of pushing myself to accomplish my goals, I want to work on setting up a nurturing environment along with habits, routines and attitudes that will more naturally and gracefully move me towards my goals and desires.
How about you? Do you have a gigantic and juicy theme that will inspire you in 2010? How will you carry it out? Please share!
The painting in today’s post is titled That Way, and I am so excited to announce that is was juried into the 2010 American Watercolor Society exhibition!
Happy Painting!
Hi Donna, Congratulations on being juried in to the AWS’s show! Interesting post; I like the idea of a theme!
Thanks Peggy! I’m thinking it would also be fun to come up with a specific “theme” for this year’s body of work. Right now I think for me it might be “color” – but then there’s “design” – maybe I’ll choose two themes! ….Donna
Way to go Donna! It seems like your paintings that incorporate “direction” come up big winners.
Donna, great painting. Congratulations on making the AWS show again! Regarding action plans, I learned the importance of taking actions in the right order to move forward from a great book by Barbara Sher called “Wishcraft”. By asking yourself if you can take that action now, if the answer is “no” you can discover what else needs to be done first. There is even a way to diagram the whole thing, which makes it fun and visual. I think I need to do this myself!
Hi Bev – great to hear from you! “Direction” – I never thought of those paintings that way – but you are right! Do you think it’s autobiographical – I do like to give directions, don’t I? Donna
HI DZ, first of all — a big fat CONGRATULATIONS on AWS acceptance into show– yahoooo
I was just thinking this morning that is was time to make some lists and then I read your post– have been feeling a bit anchorless– lost my mooring– and was reading a book this morning and all of a sudden it hit me– make lists– that is what I tell artists in my workshops– but I don’t always do what I preach
by the way– before I even came up to read your post– it hit me that I have been meaning to put you into my sidebar of my blog as one of the artists I admire– am adding to the list along with Alex Powers and other artists whose works I admire. Also I am so slow– but am putting a link to your blog and the nice writeup you did on my work– in mys side bar as well— I apparently do everything late– which is better than ‘never’–
congrats again.
dw
Thanks Myrna! I have the book Wishcraft – I’ll have to check it out. The action part of the goal setting process is so important – a goal without an action plan is just a wish! I’ve also found that when I make an action list I sometimes find that I really don’t want to do the work that it would take to achieve a particular goal, or I find that I really don’t have the time it would take to work the action plan. Thanks again for the info!
Hi DW – thanks! Making lists – I love making lists! Lists are dreams waiting to happen. I find that as I’m getting older they’re really important. But I can’t imagine you feeling “anchorless”, you seem so centered and — anchored! That would be a good post, wouldn’t it – how to feel anchored again when you’ve lost your way in the fog. We all feel that way sometimes (some of us more often than others!). I’ve just begun work on my first painting this year – it’s taken awhile and I felt a little “anchorless” myself as it had been a long time since my last painting. But all seems to be going well – at the moment.
I apologize for the out of order answers to your comments – I still haven’t worked out some of the “bugs” yet in this program. Donna