The turn of the year

December 20"×16" (50.8×40.6cm). Oil on canvas. 2012

Over the weekend, I have updated one of my website galleries, "Impressions". This piece on the right, appropriately titled "December", is one of the new additions to this gallery (where it can be viewed, or downloaded, in higher resolution, by the way).

In spite of a fleeting temptation to let the turn of the year pass unnoticed, unexamined, uncelebrated, I've decided to succumb to the yearly need for a period of silence, decluttering, contemplation, taking stock and maybe making some plans. Which means, among other things, that I've decided to shut down all non-essential activities till the end of this year, to slow down, to give myself time to think. Looking over how my life is organized now, it turns out it doesn't mean very much. 

Painting stays, because otherwise the life is hardly worth living; and I have three paintings to complete before the year is over: the thirty sixth sonnet, for one, is still at the conception stage; the other two, "Magdalene" and "Eugene" are closer to completion, but it's still a lot of work to pull them to their full potential. There is also my Brooklyn Art Project sketchbook that needs work, and two #twitterartexhibit postcards to finalize and send out. 

There is also the thirtieth sonnet to talk about on my "Shakespeare in colour" blog, and it's likely that this time of contemplation means two other "year-in-review" blog posts (one here, one over there). And the "winter special" on my website is due for replacement on the day of winter solstice. And, obviously, I can hardly stay away from my daily way to keep in touch with the world, Google+.  

Add to this the usual "maintenance" stuff of daily life, plus a higher than average doze of decluttering, and my "slowing down" doesn't impress even myself. Still, there are things I can and will shut down for a while: namely, all activities on all external websites and portfolios; all "selling" activities in particular. If it doesn't add much in terms of time, it will still add a lot as in terms of silence and a healthy degree of detachment. And then we'll see how it goes in the New Year... (that is, if the world doesn't end before).