Monday 31 December 2012

Setting goals and the future!

2012 really passed in a blur; time seemed to fly by, so I felt that I haven't accomplished anything.  o_0 Let me recap some of the stuff that I did; it might give me a better idea on what goals to set for the new year.


Reading & Writing

2012 was most notably characterized by 'reading' and 'writing' because it was the first time in nearly 10 years that I was able to read/write out of leisure. I sadly did not participate in NaNoWriMo, but I tackled a fair amount of fanfiction.  I did a total word count and the number came up to nearly 100K!  That's quite a milestone for me! Indeed it took a year to write and it spans over a good 20 different stories, but still, it's something that I can say I've 'accomplished'. :)

--> Potential goal for next year: Write an original novel or participate in NaNoWriMo.

Now onto books... I read a lot of teen novels this year, mainly because that's the target audience I would like to write for. Here's what I've read in 2012:

Papertowns; Looking for Alaska; An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green
Hunger Games; MockingJay; Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger
50 shades of shit (I read it as a joke)
Sing You Home, by Jodi Picoult
Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones
Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

I'm currently reading The Casual Vacancy and Wicked. After those, I have these books that I got for Christmas lined up:


--> Potential goal for next year: Read 10 classics/serious/adult books.


Sewing

Sewing has more or less been my main source of income this past year. I checked my files and apparently I only made 99 plushies... Compared to the 219 that I made in 2011, that's really not a lot! o_0  However, I did make an excellent contact this year: Andy Nulman (CEO of the Just for Laughs fest).


Those two plushes were commissioned for special events... I attended both and felt a bit nervous 'networking'.  Needless to say, it was an interesting experience, and I guess I got a taste of the real world outside of fandom.

My potential goal for next year is not necessarily to make more plushies, but it'd be good to produce stuff at a regular pace.  There were times that I didn't sew at all because I was busy with other things. Also, my aunt gave me a dressform for Christmas!

It's still wrapped in plastic. o_0

It'll be a good incentive to make some clothes. I have a ton of awesome fabrics that haven't been turned into stuff, so I should get crackin' on those.

--> Potential goal for next year: Make at least 3 articles of clothing, and do something with all that fabric I bought in Japan!


Music

This is one hobby that will forever remain a hobby. Always has and always will! This past year, I've been listening to a decent amount of 'classical' music and my growing interest will definitely overflow onto 2013.

I've been quite the fail in terms of guitar-playing though. o_0 I just haven't progressed at all.  Maybe now that I have a camcorder, my goal would be to finally record myself playing a miyavi solo? I honestly don't have the biggest interest at the moment... But on the flip side, there's a piano piece that I absolutely love and would very much like to play.  It's from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, Fugue no.16 in G minor. I also want to understand more music theory, so I've been brushing up on my knowledge.



Fine Arts

The highlights of 2012 are basically two Nuit Blanche experiences: one at the beginning of the year, in which I made a 9-feet high gorilla in cardboard for the show Transmute, and the second at the end of september, when I went to Toronto and spent the whole night viewing art with an ol' friend of mine. Oh, and there was also that trip to Providence where I visited RISD's grad department.  Those experiences really made me realise how much I do NOT want to be part of the commercial fine arts world! o_0 It's kind of sad and I love the fine arts so much that it's very hard to turn my back on, but the reality is that I'm just not suited for it. I've therefore tweaked my career path and I've decided to pursue 'art conservation' instead. The first step is to learn chemistry, so next year, I've enrolled myself in chemistry courses! Weird, isn't it? I was always good at sciences in High School, but when I knew that I wanted to get into art, I totally dropped all science (except for a math course that I took after my first year of university because I was tired of subjective grading and I needed something objective!)

No matter what I do, the fine arts will always be part of my life. It's not a hobby; I consider it a lifestyle. I will continue to view art, discuss it, inform myself about the artworld, and of course, continue to create paintings and drawings... but I just can't link it to the pressure of money-making.

Anyways, I don't have any particular goals, aside from finally finishing some of those paintings sitting around in my basement studio. I also need to update my fine arts website.

Well, this has been quite informative on my part. I definitely know what I need to work on next year, and to anyone that is reading this, I'd also recommend this exercise! Write down everything that you've done last year, determine whether they are an accomplishment or a fail, and then figure out what should be carried out for the new year.

Onto 2013! Wishing you all the best. <3

1 comment:

  1. Happy New Year! :) Nice to see what you've done and your future goals. Alas I caught up on some reading too this year, ehehe. Is 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' fairly new? I heard about Norwegian Wood but never read it. I read After Dark, and more recently 1Q84 by Murakami and I have to say, I liked neither of them, in fact I hated 1Q84 because of the ending and its overall themes. LOL you mean 50 Shades of Grey (and its subsequent sequels??!) I only skimmed it because it was too horrid to read! Looking forward to seeing what clothes you make! And good luck with chemistry, it was the one thing I hated the most about my degree lol!

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