Goodbye 2022

It’s that time of year again where I’ve made another full rotation around the Earth. Time to reflect on the previous year and cherish the fun times and leave behind the not so good.

It started off with a trip to Scotland to see an old friend, I was all set to hop on the train and see Glasgow and Edinburgh weeks before a predicted storm on the day of my travels. So yes, I travelled during a storm on the train, It didn’t go as expected but you can see the outcome here.

I also got to see some old friends later in the year around November and even met some new ones face to face, finally. It’s just nice to see people again.

This year was also a year of death, I had lost some close to me including my cat Mindy. She had been with me since Primary school, so she was there through my awkward teen phase to getting my degree and beyond. The house sure does feel quiet without her, but this isn’t my first rodeo with bereavement. I’m thankful for the time I’ve had with Mindy and my heart goes out to anyone who has lost a loved one.  

In art news, this has been the year of AI in art and it’s indeed a minefield, using loopholes to profit from the copyrighted artwork of others is rather unsavoury and the implications of this technology for artists is concerning but hopefully not a knell for many careers.

As for my personal art career I did live portraits at a local event, the past few years had rendered this non-existent so it was a breath of fresh air to be in a room full of people being able to talk about art and draw.

Other than fairs I’ve been improving my own practice through mentoring, and I have to say I and my peers have seen an improvement. I look at my past work and cringe like many other artists and it is a good sign. It means I have improved and will continue to.

So, this year has been a sort of death an re-birth cycle. Death of loved ones but new beginnings with my improved artwork, doing in person events again and finally graduating physically (yeah, I forgot to mention that one).

It’s been a rough few years for many and for me It felt like my career was just in the void but last year I can see things going forward and hopefully this year it will only get better.

Let’s all keep going forward.

Alisha