New Year's Resolutions

The festive season is over and the Giamei family is back from the mountains. Luca is back at school and there are no more excuses.

I'm horrified by how long it's been since I last put an entry in my blog. My blogging is lagging woefully behind my practical work. I've been writing everything down on paper but I really need to catch up.

During my holiday I fell while skiing and got a hard blow to the head. Which luckily only resulted in a mild concussion. However, my life did flash before my eyes! I realised that LIFE IS SHORT - time is wasting and I need to get more done.

I've been procrastinating because I'm suffering from lack of confidence. Looking back over the last couple of months, when approaching any of the projects I've been spending far too much time in front of a computer screen trawling through other students' work and tutor comments to see what's expected. I've also been looking at examples of other artists works in books, on the internet and in documentaries on sky Arte. However much of this activity has been rather unfocused and really is more like displacement activity because I'm afraid to commit myself and post my own work on the web.

Of course this fear is ridiculous because I'm on the course to learn so I need feedback to help me. 

Another obstacle is the fact that when I go to the UK to work I do a week of very long night shifts (14-16 hours for 7 nights) and all artistic activity ceases during that week. The habit of drawing each day is lost and it is difficult to get the momentum back again each time. I justify ceasing all drawing when working by saying I'm too tired to concentrate to the level required. I think this has been a mistake. 

My resolutions are:

1. Get my blog up to date within the next three days

2. Fill at least one page of my sketchbook every day regardless of work status (even doodles and reflections if I'm too tired to focus my eyes!)

3. Record in my blog all time spent looking at other artists along with what I hoped to learn from this activity and what I actually did gain (an attempt to limit exhaustive trawling and focus my research)

4. Remember this is a leisure activity which I have chosen to do. Stop agonising, start experimenting and enjoy it.