2019: Year of the Spinks

I’m about to take a huge jump into full time art. Though I’m admittedly a little nervous, I couldn’t be more excited. I thought it was a good time to put down some words about how I got here and my thoughts on the future.

A few years ago I grew restless in my career. After 10 or so years as a Graphic Designer, I worked hard but felt unfulfilled. I wanted to draw more, to be proud of what I was doing, and most of all simply to spend my days doing something I enjoyed. The biggest realisation of all though, was that no one was going to hand it to me. I had to start taking tiny steps towards reaching my goals.

At the start of 2018 I quit my full time job. Luckily the company I worked for offered for me to continue working part time while I tested the waters in the art world. I’m so glad I took this route. This past year has been a massive learning curve and I’m glad I had a fall back so the dream wasn’t over before it began.

2018 was a great year. I did some pieces I’m really proud, I shared a group show with some artists I admire and came on board as a Copic Marker brand ambassador.

I now feel like the time is right to take the jump and throw everything at it.

I’m a big believer in goal setting. When you write down a goal, you make it real. Some people say it’s the universe giving it to you, but I look at it more like making yourself accountable to it. You identify where you want to be and start working out real ways to get there. Where I’m at in life right now, on the brink of being a full time artist, that was one of the goals I wrote down a year ago.

So here’s some of the goals I plan to work towards in the next year (or so):

• Survive as a full time artist
• Sell out all my artworks in a single show
• Show my work overseas
• 10K instagram followers
• Have someone I admire repost my work
• Win an art prize
• Spend over 100 hours on a drawing

I really want to continue growing as an artist. To experiment, explore, to draw bigger, to find more detail. I want to grow my style. To write more. I have so many ideas and now I’ll have the chance to pursue them. I’m so excited!

2019 is looking even more promising. Kicking things off with a massive show with The Other Art Fair, I couldn’t be more excited to jump head first into the artist life.

Here’s to a massive 2019!

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