Can you believe it’s 2013? I never thought the world would live this long. Actually, I never really thought I would live this long, let alone reach 32 (a fantastic age), so perhaps it’s time to have a little retrospective on the past and start envisioning the future. Hope in the future is, after all, the main generator of happiness in most people.

Setting My New Life Goals (in 3rd and then 1st person)

Understand Where You Came From:
I love art history, but I don’t read enough of it, and since it is so engrained in design it seems foolish not to look back to the past on occasion. This year, I want to read more specific and applicable art history materials, and seek out museums I’ve never visited in towns unfamiliar.

Find Adventure in New Places:
Since I recently moved to a new city this is already in the works for my day-to-day, but I’ve traveled extensively in my life and truly believe experiencing a foreign world is invaluable. So, this year as to not become complacent, I plan to get involved in wanderlust and travel to Scandinavia, in particular the design mecca of Stockholm, while revisiting a few regional cities and friends along the way. I was 21 when I lived in Europe, so I can only imagine my tastes have changed in the past 11 years.

Hone Your Craft:
Keep creating, for the sake of art and imagination. I take pride in what I do for a living, and feel incredibly lucky to make a living off my craft, but it’s good to remember that not all work must be monetized, some work is personal and specifically irrelevant. Because of this, I want to create more for the sake of experimentation and fun.

Never Stop Learning:
Knowledge is power. I will keep training myself in development (and in my world in particular, that means Xcode). My goal is not to become a developer, but to further understand the structures in which my work resides. It can only make us stronger designers to have a base knowledge of various, relevant programs.

Care Less, Do More:
I believe in order to do great work I must care less about what others think and how I am perceived. I must do more of what I want with my world, what will bring me happiness, what will reinforce my dreams.

So, there you have it. 2012 has been a solid year of adventure, changes, design and art, new friends and old, and really throwing oneself out there (mixing it up, if you will). I feel solid about 2013 and self exploration.

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On a related and unrelated note, and to explain why I threw in a painting of a random baby above, last night I saw Becoming Van Gogh at the Denver Art Museum, and it seemed highly relevant to a new year and self-reflection. The traveling exhibit was lovely and focused on his early work and evolution of technique, as opposed to other exhibits I’ve seen relating to his relationship with Paul Gauguin (a traveling exhibit that came through the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands when I was there in 2002). Becoming Van Gogh did a great job of incorporating his written word, taking excerpts from the book Dear Theo, a collection of letters written to this brother. Self-expression, creation and destruction, self-doubt, and general questioning of worth are such central themes in most artists’ lives that it was somehow cathartic to read what one the greats struggled through, and remember and apply this commentary in my (or your) own voyage and battles. Van Gogh did, after all, die alone and impoverished, with no fame or family, and generally speaking struggled with loneliness and self-worth, yet he poured out letters of pain and struggle to his brother that can be applied today and give young artists hope. Not hope in their potential fame, but hope in the human struggle and their place in it.

“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”

“As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.”

Beautifully stated and Happy 2013.