2020 Reflections
I keep thinking I should have known - I sliced my hand open at midnight last year trying to open a bottle of sparkling cider and was trying to bandage myself up in the bathroom while everyone else toasted to the new year. What a metaphor, right?
2020 was a mess of complicated intersections. I’ll just say that I’m grateful for my husband, my family, friends, my art community, and of course, my therapist.
My 20 for 2020 list was revamped and shifted. I got a few things started, and am adding their continuation to my 2021 list. I also did a lot of things that weren’t on my list, that ended up being important. Like, my boundary-setting skills got a ton of practice, haha. I got to manage an experimental collaborative community art project. My husband and I had a lot of fun playing Animal Crossing together.
I described my experience of a lot of this past year as “having low bandwidth” - this was sort of something I’ve been building up for the past 5 years, and the pandemic + my day job + all the intersections really pulled that back again. I’m hoping to gain some more of that bandwidth back this year. This is why my word/phrase of the year for 2021 is going to be resilience. I thought about how cliche that is, given 2020, but for me, it’s much more than just a superficial come back to like, eating inside a restaurant… Resilience is built into my 21 for 2021 list, and in my 2021 business plans, so it seemed like the perfect word to guide this year overall.
The #100DAYPROJECT
I’m participating in the #100DAYPROJECT this year!
For my project, I'm choosing to focus on words. It fits with a couple goals I have for the year, crafting a great artist statement, and sharing expressive content more frequently.
Also, I've always found typography enjoyable - from learning to hand letter and create type, to finding the perfect font to fit a project.
I believe that words have power. They have energy and can be used to create or destroy.
I think, because I love them so much, I often over-complicate my thoughts and end up not sharing my own words online. I know that if I want anyone to connect to or understand my work, I need to talk about it, so this is an exercise in sharing my perspective with words.
The power of words is enhanced by their form, just like all art, there are decisions to be made about shapes, sizes, colors, arrangement... it brings me joy to see a phrase perfectly illustrated to fit it's own energy.
I thought about keeping my words only to do with injustices, as this is something in me that has needed expression, but I wasn't sure if I can hold such a heavy focus while I feel so overwhelmed by what is happening with COVID-19. I might need much lighter words some of these days, so I decided to keep it open.
Some artists I'm influenced by who use words in their work:
Jenny Holzer
Barbara Kruger
Robert Montgomery
Here are a few images from my first week of the #100DAYPROJECT:
I’m sharing my project daily on my Instagram stories, and will post them all to a highlight on my Instagram: @jenpalmerart