Richiebrown's Blog

one of the few things I accomplished this month, it was a gift.

In recent years, Christmas time has become a somewhat depressing, frustrating, and alienating time for me. It has a lot to do with crowded stores, rabid consumerism, out-dated traditions, and the pressure of pleasing the people in my life by trying to tolerate and half-halfheartedly participate in the previously mentioned  things for the sake of what many refer to as “holiday cheer.”

I rarely can be productive/creative in a depressed state and thus have been trudging through what I’ve internally been referring to as the Holiday Doldrums.  In addition to my feelings of yuletide yuckiness I’ve also been thinking about how I am 24 and still living at home, making very little progress in my plan to make a living off of my creative endeavors, and my student loan debt is accumulating interest.

Now that Christmas is over, I’ve decided to become proactive. I plan on becoming more organized and improve my overall physical and mental health. I’ve mapped out a list of things that I plan on doing differently this upcoming year.

These things include: trying to develop better sleeping/waking habits, keeping a dream journal (and sticking with it), keeping a regular journal (something I have never done), doing at least one drawing a day (and sticking with it), experimenting with new and unusual meditation techniques, applying for some artist residencies, submitting some of my book ideas to publishers, putting together a portfolio for freelance illustration work,  looking for places to put on art shows that are outside of my comfort zone, and starting to charge for my creative services rather than doing (often times very tedious) things for free. 2012 is going to be the year that I make shit happen…somehow.