2017 in Review

Overall, 2017 was a pretty good year for me. The general mood seems to be that 2017 was even worse than 2016, but for me, it was about the same. At the start of the year I was jobless. It wasn't a bad thing though: it was intentional. (Isn't it interesting that there's not really a good word for not having a job?)

I participated in my first exhibition in January. This was a huge step for me: the first time that anyone other than Husband had seen my art. It was terrifying and exciting and surreal to watch people looking at my art, wondering what they thought of it. It was also lovely to spend an evening with other artists. Despite the anxieties of that evening, I wanted to do more. I also had to get a job though, and that took priority.

At the end of March I started working on an 18-month digitisation and archiving project with a small team. This took up most of my time and energy for the rest of the year, but I did manage to participate in a second exhibition, in November. This one was in a proper gallery space, and I learned a huge amount about what it takes to put on an exhibition. I didn't sell any work, and in the end I don't think it gave me that much exposure, but it was extremely valuable in terms of connecting with the gallery owners, and meeting a couple of interesting people. I feel I know enough now that I could put on a solo or small group show in the gallery -- though I don't have enough works yet to fill even a quarter of the space!

Other things I did:

★ went to a cyanotyping workshop
★ finished my conscript (the blog post about it is still in progress, though!)
★ wrote a zine about my chronic illness
★ started making a Temperature Scarf (due to be finished March 2018)
★ wrote this blog post comparing different online shops which has received 180 times more views than any of my other posts!
★ re-read the Harry Potter series
★ went to a herbal balm-making workshop
★ went to two concerts: G-Dragon and VIXX
★ started learning to play the ocarina
★ had my DNA analysis done by two different services

Now for the customary stats (last year's stat in brackets):

Books finished:
full-length: 19 (20)
short & manga: 13 (20)
currently reading as of today: 14 (9)

Blog posts: 57 (63)
Instagram posts: 284 (?) There will probably be more this evening!

Craft items started: 2 (6)
Craft items finished: 4 (6)
Craft projects in progress as of today: 42 (40)

Zines started: 1 (1)
Zines finished: 1 (0)
Zines in progress as of today: 1 (1)


I was a bit disappointed to find that I did less of everything this year than I did the year before. I learned new things in other ways than reading books though, and did things that can't be counted in stats, like spending time in the park and observing how the plants change over time. Those are important things too.



Have a happy and safe new year everyone!
See you next year! xx