207: The next best step

Cliff Shadows, 9" x 11", 8 color woodcut

WRITING a journal helps you keep track of goals you have made. Although I keep a journal I've learned through the years that I'm not good at accomplishing long lists of goals. My aim changes too quickly. It's an artist's prerogative to change direction as often as inspiration requires.

Yet I still need a way to ensure artistic progress. For the last few years, I have used a method where I list all the possible moves forward at that particular moment. I pick the one I'm most excited about and the one most likely to move my artistic project forward.

The list in my journal is much like goal setting–I generate a list of possibilities–but the intent is different. I select only one aim as the next step forward. I focus solely on that step. The list remains in my journal and I may return to the other possibilities but only as a resource to determine the next best step.

Wishing you the very best in 2015.

Brad Teare–2015

The box I made to store my journals (my wife added some of her trompe l'oeil props).