Portland Artists Set Goals, Hopes and Dreams for 2015
How to: Setting Good Art-Related Goals
Are you developing goals for 2015? One useful way to come up with good goals is to use the SMART criteria. This acronym has been kicking around in management, coaching and fitness circles for more than three decades. But it also applies to goals that artists might set. Here’s what it means for your goal to be SMART, and an art-related example for each criterion:
Specific
Bad example: I will do some art this year.
Good example: I will work on my painting series of dachshunds dressed as Ziegfeld folly girls.
Measurable
Bad: I’ll produce lots of paintings.
Good: I will complete 27 paintings.
Attainable
Bad: I will become the world’s most prominent dachshund portrait artist and get to host my own TV talk show all about dachshunds.
Good: I’ll get two shows in local pet supply stores.
Relevant
Bad: I’ll take a class on dog training.
Good: I’ll spend three afternoons sketching at a dog park to improve my skills.
Time-bound
Bad: When I get around to it, I’ll show up to the First Thursday Street Gallery
Good: I’ll have prints of my dachshund portraits ready for the First Thursday in May.
Amelia Opie
In 2015 I will be writing and illustrating a children's book. Not with any goals of being widely published, but more along the lines of something I could have made by a local printer, and then sold by me.
Stefanie Styskel Shilling
My intention with my art is to be vulnerable, and with an open-heart. To include many layers in my painting as there are many layers to me. To value myself and my art.
Joanne Licardo
‚ÄãMy dream for myself is to somehow have at least one month to do my art, only art. No teaching, and no commissions, just my own thing! I've never had that experience. I may need to do a retreat or something where I’m paid.
Edith Casterline
—I want both of the shows I have scheduled for 2015 to go well. And I want to line up (for 2016) a show outside of Oregon (in a place worth being excited about). Dream: MORE TIME. With way more time, I could play/experiment with some ideas that have been rattling around in my brain.
Heide Davis
—My goal for this year is to have an art retreat in the Hill country of Texas, at my family's property, for a whole month. The plan is to retreat from outside influences and clear my head to produce work that is truly mine. This country place is so inspiring to me and I hope it works!
Alea Bone
—I want to try to stop making the kind of art that I think other people might like and try to be brave enough to make the kind of art I need to make - even if people hate it and don't get it. Yet it seems counter-intuitive to take that risk when there is still such a need to prove myself: Prove to the patrons that my art is worth buying, prove to the gallerists that I am a selling artist and prove to my family that (art)work is a valid career choice. But regardless of all that practical BS, I'd like to try to focus on finding my own voice and I'd like to create A BODY OF WORK that really demonstrates it. I'd like to finally put together a website (something I've wanted for years!) and I'd like my art to be recognized beyond Portland. I'd like to travel to Folk Art Festivals and Outsider Art Fairs across the country to see and meet and learn from other artists. I'd also like to organize an enormously fabulous group art show and throw a big party around it! And most desperately, I'd like to learn how to reconcile my need to be an artist with my need to be a mom and a wife.
Mary Tapogna
—I would like to organize and/or move my studio. I have no good place to meet with clients. I also want to continue doing projects that challenge me, i.e. types of things I've never done before. It's such a feeling of accomplishment. And I want to get me and my work out into other cities.
Organizations can have hopes and dreams, too!
SE ARTWalk
—Bringing all the SE Arts happenings and organizations together for a stronger scene!