I always look forward to the end of the year time. With few obligations over this quiet week, and me tucked up inside a cozy home, it’s the perfect time to reflect on my year of making art so that I can note all that I’ve achieved and celebrate the progress I’ve made in my art practice.

Ever since the completion of that project, I’ve wanted to revisit my encyclopaedic source material, saved for many years, and approach the subject matter in a different way and with a different artistic tool kit.

The time feels right to revisit these books of knowledge and use them for a 100 day project.

Do you choose a word of the year: A word or an idea to hold in your mind to return to when you feel the need to focus your attention? Or perhaps an aspirational word fits better. Or maybe a word that will guide you as an artist?

My green slipper orchid pays me a visit in December, like an old friend, just in time for the holiday season. It’s a signpost for this season. December is also the time of year that I turn my focus inwards, look back on the art year that was and begin to think about the year to come.

“Assemblage” is posted in my studio to remind me this is my intention. I am a process driven artist.  Conceptual concerns hold little interest for me in my art practice at the moment.  Making something from nothing and finding beauty in the combination of materials is what interests me. 

December is a contemplative month. As the cold weather settles in and the skies open up to blanket us in snow, I’m snug inside reflecting on the year soon to be over before I begin to dream about the new year and plan for things to come. It’s in this reflective state of mind that I write about my art year 2022.

My word for the year is abundance. With every choice that I make with my art I want to have this word, abundance, informing my decisions. For me, abundance means to make more work, work that is finished or not, it doesn’t really matter. My word of the year also means that the work is larger to my previous work, both in volume and in scale.

Aside from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, the shopping and celebrating, December seems to bring with it the need to look back on the waning year, to reflect on what has been, before looking toward the new year to come. So it’s with this spirit that I write about my art year in 2021.