I won't bore you with an intro about how difficult this year has been for the world. You've already heard it all. This is ironically bordering on intro territory already, so let's get to it.
Despite every disappointment over the last 365 days, there are four things I am somewhat proud to have personally done this year. They are all creative-based, which tells me something important about where I place value in life. Though I've recently hit a rough patch, I can acknowledge the following four things as significant, however insignificant they actually are.
Geometric Pet Portraits
Back in April, I drew a stylized photo of my dog while watching TV one night. After posting it to social media and getting a positive response, I realized I could probably generate pet portraits for others. After all, who doesn't like custom art of someone they love?
I started taking commissions and cranking them out, sometimes twice a week. Clients seemed to like them—so much so, I had a steady stream of interested parties for months. In June, I found it too challenging to care about doing the portraits due to more pressing issues with social justice matters, and I took a break from it all. I resumed drawing later that summer.
My last commission was in December—someone gifting the drawing to their significant other. She was so pleased, she tipped me! That was nice.Every drawing was sold for $50, and all of the money was donated to the Freestore Foodbank. In total, I was able to raise $550 for the non-profit this year. Some of the drawings below were done for free for friends, so there are more than 11 drawings to support the $550 donation.
Home Improvement and Woodworking
We bought a house in Bellevue this summer, sort of unexpectedly. While we knew we'd buy this year, we didn't anticipate doing it in the summer. It was the best thing we did all year, though, because it gave us endless amounts of projects and things to do to keep us busy. As such, I rarely found myself aching to go out against health officials' advice during that time.
From a custom-built workshop to remodeling a finished basement, I spent months working to improve our new house and make the best use of the modest amount of space we now occupy. Later, I got into woodworking and started making plant stands, a side table, simple shelves, a weird spice rack, and other similar projects. A friend even let me build him a workbench using scrap wood in his basement, and another friend let me make her an outdoor gate using 150-year-old barn wood she had in her cellar. Sharing my work on social media has been rewarding, mainly because I've had several people tell me they were inspired to work on their own homes as a result of me sharing what I've done. Knowing I've had even the slightest impact on helping improve others' homes, however indirectly it may be, is heartwarming.
For some of these projects, I used the hashtag #KeepingTheDreadAtBay when posting to social media—my cheeky way of saying, "woodworking and home improvement temporarily gets my mind off the horrors of the world and our collective situation and helps me get through the day." While mainly a joke, there is a lot of truth to it. Working in the workshop I built is a bandaid that lets me get offline and out of my head for a few hours. I liken it to getting a good night's rest because it is restorative to varying degrees.
Daily Photos
Last year, I started making one intentional photo a day to act as both a creative goal and a sort of alternative journal to keep me active and conscious of my day. Not wanting to stop at the end of 2019, I continued into 2020. As of today, I have successfully completed two full years of daily photos.
Though not all of the daily photos from 2020 are my best work, they are each an essential piece of my day because they represent a much-needed routine. While most of the year has been anything but routine, daily photos were a rock I could return to for a little sense of stability in an increasingly unstable, uncertain year.
I plan to keep going with daily photos indefinitely. There is no downside to creating something every day.
Freelance Work
CincyPhil.com launched this year. It's my professional real estate portfolio and connection point for prospective clients who I've been fortunate enough to continue serving this year. I picked up several new clients this year while continuing to work with return clients. The work has been largely fun and interesting, and safely meeting new people during a pandemic has been nice since all I do anymore is stay home.
While I do not have enough business to subsist entirely on freelance work, I think I can get there at some point in the future. That time is not now, though. There's much more work to be done to get to that point.
Happy new year.