2024 is upon us! And with a new year’s imminent arrival, it is customary to reflect on the concluding year and formulate plans for the year ahead. Of course, sometimes the reflections inspire feelings of satisfaction and internal articulations for a job well done but they can also inspire sadness, regret, and other feelings of discontent for what could have been done differently. But alas, living in the past prevents us from taking advantage of the many opportunities in the present.
2024 offers new possibilities and scope for improvement on what worked in 2023. For the student or professional artist, it may be worth doing a thorough assessment of the concluding year. What plans did you enter January 2023 with? Were these plans realised? How were they realised and are there favourable aspects to the process or outcomes that are worth building on? I don’t encourage lamenting on what failed, but a rational acknowledgment and reflection to chart a modified course forward is advocated. Could it be that more or more effective collaboration was necessary to realise the grand plan? Or perhaps different collaborators were needed altogether? Could it be that the sum total of plans was too ambitious for the time that was allotted and the resources available? So, perhaps the plans can be revisited but more time allocated to them to allow for errors and corrections, missteps and redirection so the plans may manifest better, if not very well.
