I hope this finds you cozy and well. I have a spot of bright news to end the year.
Do you do vision boarding? Where you collage together images that evoke how you’d like your next year to feel and go? I’ve been making a vision board every year for the past several years in client/friend Molly Mahar’s Holiday Council. This year, I didn’t want to “vision board” with the rest of the class, for a very specific reason.
As I looked at last year’s board, and the year’s before that… I’d managed to accomplish many of my goals. However, there was one persistent image. This image stands for “paint my first collection and hang it in a gallery or cafe”:
Now, I was faced with the question: Do I put this on my vision board AGAIN? Or do I get creative and get it done in 2020?
You won’t be surprised to hear that I got creative. I had already painted the collection, I was just stuck on the part where I had to somehow have a gallery show. I had a whole vision of the opening being a physical event people could attend, with canapes, sparkling beverages and lots of hugs. Though, that’s not possible now.
So, in a year when so much has gone “virtual”, I decided to go for a virtual gallery opening. With a bit more Photoshop work, the art was hung on some gallery walls.
I had a “friends and family” art opening over on Facebook last Friday night, all spur-of-the-moment. Was it the same? No, there were no canapes, though I did crack open a bottle of fancy sparkling water to get my bubbles.
But, there was my art, on a wall, and it was up for everyone to see. It was what I could do at the time. I wasn’t going to put that picture on another vision board, I’m moving onwards and upwards and getting those dreams completed in some way or another.
And that’s the energy I bring to every design project. Together, we can make amazing things happen to make your graphic design dreams come to life – and we can always get creative along the way. Please reach out if I can be of assistance. Clicking reply to this email is a perfect way to be in touch.
Thank you for your readership this year, and to everyone who’s written me a note back, to my clients, coaches and team. You make all the difference to my small business.
Erin Ferree Stratton
Skyward Ink
P.S. Need a dose of beauty? Visit my Facebook page to see closeups of the whole art collection. So. Shiny.
Or visit the Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo’s new website (redesigned in a week by me) for a virtual performance of The Nutcracker.