2025 End of Year Review
This year has felt like it’s passed quickly and slowly at the same time. As I reflect on all the things that have happened for me with respect to my art career and the goals I set for myself, I realize that so much has happened. I’m grateful for all of the opportunities that came my way, a lot of them unplanned. So I’m wrapping up this year with one final update with a follow up on the goals I had set in the beginning of the year, some reflections, and additional highlights.
Goals
Paint 60 paintings. This year I painted 82 (!) paintings. 50 of those paintings were done within 50 days for the Sanchez Art Center’s 50|50 show that I participated in over the summer. 6 of the paintings were abstract watercolor paintings that I think I started painting last year. I think a major reason why I was able to meet my goal this year as opposed to last year is that I painted mostly smaller paintings. The 50|50 paintings were all 6”x6”. Additionally, I painted 12 more 6”x6” ocean paintings and my paintings inspired by my trip to China were 8”x10”. Last year I focused on paintings larger than 16”x20”, which obviously take more time. While quantity output has been a good metric of progress, I do want to note that I do think my painting skills have improved. Because I painted over 60 sunrise/sunset skies, I find that I’m much quicker at painting them when I start a new one. And yes, I’m going to continue painting sunrises and sunsets. I’m also pushing myself in the content and compositions that I paint by adding figures into my painting, which is me once again challenging myself and making things hard.
Some self reflection that I have throughout this process is that I often find myself thinking that if something isn’t hard for me to do, it isn’t meaningful. I have come to realize that it’s a bit of faulty logic since I’ve seen my painting improve as I worked through so many paintings of sunrises and sunsets: those paintings were quite challenging when I first started, but now I can achieve the effects I want with the colors of the sky right away. I can feel myself discredit the newer paintings because they came easy to me. So this is something I’ve been thinking about and trying to work on changing my thinking.Paint outdoors more often. This was quite an unspecific goal and it suffers from it. I believe that I did a few plein air paintings in the spring or summer of my friend’s lemon tree, and then the motivation to paint outdoors faded pretty quickly. I think I had set a personal goal of taking more weekend trips along the California coast this year, but I wasn’t able to make those plans come to fruition due to other travel plans and work projects. But that’s okay! I don’t feel a great sense of loss from not tracking this goal closely.
Apply to 30 art calls. I applied to 34 art calls and was accepted into 12 of the opportunities this year, which is an improved success rate compared to last year! I was a bit more selective about the opportunities that I applied to this year: I stopped applying to grants fully and halfway through the year I stopped applying to residencies. I have a better sense of the type of opportunities that I want to pursue. These applications now feel a part of my overall process as an artist and don’t feel like a great additional effort compared to how they used to feel when I first started out. So I’ll keep applying to art calls!
Participate in 3-5 in person events. This year I participated in two weekends of Silicon Valley Open Studios, Filoli Historic Garden’s Art Walk, three weekends of Second Saturdays at my studio at Alameda Artworks, and a Live Painting Art Battle. I had hoped to open up my studio more for months on Second Saturday, but the summer months filled up quickly with travel and other events. But I still participated in 6 weekends of events. I did attend a number of opening receptions for shows my artwork was a part of and hosted even more events through my volunteer organization genARTS, so I definitely feel like I was out and involved in community events the most I ever have been this year.
Other notable accomplishments that didn’t fall into a specific goal I had set at the beginning of the year:
I completed and installed two commissions this year. I really enjoyed creating these artworks and the overall process of working with a client to bring something that they cherish to life through a painting. Two was the right number for me because it provided steady work while also giving me space to work on the other projects that came about this year.
I assisted on my first large scale mural with an artist that I’ve looked up to for the past few years. I met Elba Raquel through genARTS events that I helped put together through my volunteering, and this year I finally had the courage to talk to her and ask her if she needed a mural assistant back in January. And within the year, we’ve worked multiple 12 hour mural days over the summer, worked on our business planning, and have become fast friends. We’re continuing to work together and are trying to get a few more mural projects for the next year.
Ebb & Flow, my first group exhibition, came together successfully and opened in July. Putting together this show with the support of The New Museum Los Gatos felt like a great accomplishment and the reception for the show has been amazing. The show has inspired me to create new works and has given me the courage to create more proposals to submit to galleries to find places to share my work.
I entered my second year as co-chair for genARTS and have successfully set up a volunteer pipeline to support emerging art administrators gain experience in things like program development, grant writing, and curating exhibitions. Volunteering has allowed me to build my artist community in San Jose and Silicon Valley, and I have learned a lot about how different arts organizations work and function while leaving my personal brand of organization (documentation, strong communication channels, programs focused on emerging visual artists). I’m entering the last 6 months of my term as co-chair, and I’m looking forward to stepping back into a more advisory role at the end of my term to make room for new volunteers to gain leadership experience in arts administration.
I strengthened my connection to local arts organizations and was asked by two organizations for commissioned work: A skull for Local Color’s 31 Skulls Fundraiser and Art Los Alto’s Live Painting Battle Event where I painted a 3’ x 4’ painting for their fundraiser. There are so many pockets of artists and art organizations throughout the Bay Area and it’s been really great to meet so many new people through these opportunities.
There are probably more notable things that happened this year, but these are the ones that are most salient to me right now. While I like to keep things positive, just in general, I do want to note that interspersed through all of these amazing things that have happened this year, there was also a lot of stress and a variety of setbacks. I do feel like I managed the setbacks well this year with the support of my family, friends, and network of artists. Regarding the stress, I know I can do better. So in the next year, I’m going to work on framing my goals with that in mind. I want to build in more reflection points throughout the year so I can more clearly see how far I’ve come and celebrate the growth more regularly.
So with that, I hope you have a safe and warm end to the year. Reflect on the accomplishments and rest (I’m telling myself this too)! Thank you for continuing to follow along my journey as an artist. Happy New Year!
