Last year I made a resolution to be better about sharing work in progress, with this blog becoming a place to hold myself accountable. Every month, I had a set week designated for a specific aspect of my work, from dissertation research to sketching. Throughout the year, I maintained that consistent schedule, whether the post was about actual work, or the struggles of working. Looking ahead, how do I plan to use this blog in 2022?
Overall, I liked the new format. Aside from holding myself accountable for sharing ongoing work, the blog has been a useful record of my research, offering a succinct overview of what I’ve been doing in my notes or journals. Beyond the value of discussing ongoing work as an exercise, it’s allowed me to keep track of what I’ve been reading or writing about, which will be helpful as I continue to expand my dissertation and other projects.
That said, sometimes the structure proved a little rigid. Work, whether it’s research or sketching, ebbs and flows, and not every week, or day for that matter, is going to yield the same results. Sometimes I found an interesting development would happen weeks before I was scheduled to post about it, and it no longer felt as fresh or exciting by the time I actually wrote about it. Other times, a scheduled week would come up and I wouldn’t have much to say. On more than a few occasions, I moved the order of posts around to better accommodate the reality of my working schedule.
I encountered similar issues with my social media work. As part of my ongoing effort to share work in progress, I turned my Instagram account into a mirror of my blog, but instead of posting once a week, I posted three times a week, with updates on my dissertation, museum work, and art happening on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This schedule proved to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, these more frequent updates were useful because I was able to adapt them into longer blog posts, often combining multiple updates into a single post. Conversely, I didn’t like the amount of time I spent on social media as a result, especially when I could have been working on other things. I maintained my blog schedule through the year, but by September, with the fall semester gearing up, I had more or less stopped posting about my work on Instagram, and as of now, am taking a break from social media altogether. Given that blogging has always been a better platform for me to talk about my work, I’ll probably back off from social media in the future. I’ll still post there when it seems relevant, but I won’t hold myself to the same demanding schedule. I’ve got enough going on as it is.
But let’s return to this blog. Moving forward, I’d like to maintain a consistent posting schedule, but with more flexibility than the structure I used last year. I’ll definitely continue to post monthly dissertation updates, but I’ll probably vary the week depending on what I’m doing. I’ll also continue talking about my curatorial work, but I might switch to every other month if I’m going through a slower period of work.
As for my creative practice, I’ll still talk about my sketching, printmaking, and related projects, but I’d like to put less emphasis on the production of finished pieces, and more on just the process of making, sketching, or thinking for its own sake. I’d also like to make space for the other facets of my creative practice, including baking, knitting, the house we just bought, and music.
Did you know, for instance, that I’ve been playing the flute for over 20 years? Or that I’ve incorporated my flute playing into my museum work at various points in my career? Chances are unless you’ve known me in real life for more than five years you probably don’t, because I’ve never talked about it on here. This year though, I’d like to try.
In essence, my approach to blogging this year is to continue talking about my work, but with more flexibility. I’ll still publish new posts on Sundays/Mondays, but rather than hold myself to a rigid subject-driven schedule, I’ll post updates when they feel best to do so. I’ll talk about my dissertation and my museum work, but I also want this blog to reflect my other interests as well. My life, after all, is not solely about work, far from it.
So that’s the plan; we’ll see how it unfolds. In the meantime, here’s to a 2022 that’s less dismal than the previous two years.
Be well, everyone.