How some simple planning has changed the game of art for me

2018. The Void #2 by Teresa Navajo

You already know that I am a planner...

I should make planners I'm so into planning but there was a massive disconnect for me lately. I felt like I was just spinning my wheels and there was zero traction. I wasn't happy with how things were progressing in my career as an artist and after many a brainstorming sessions for the next big idea - Andrew and I got real and decided to invest zero dollars, use what we already have and make a hardcore plan for my art practice. So, Andrew and I put in an evening at "the round table" lol - that's our dining room table guys, not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. Glamour aside, the conversation we had really changed the game for me and this is what I learned and how I am doing it.

Step #1

You gotta get real. We sat down and laid it all out on the table. I looked at where I want to be in 5 years and what I am doing right now. I realized that some of what I am doing is not action items that bring me joy. We narrowed in on what would be my DREAM COME TRUE outcome and we created a system to make it happen.


Your plan or system may look totally different, but for me it looks like:

• Carving out at least 1 hour each day to create
• Dedicating 5 hours a week to administrative tasks like emails, writing a blog post, creating my newsletter, spending time on my website maintenance.
• Offering myself 5 hours a week to plan. This encompasses planning my art shows, finding shows and events to participate in, sharing my news and content on social media.
• Allowing ONLY 5 hours a week for FRINGE duties that pull me away from my practice. This includes emails, posting in the Facebook group, helping an artist plan their show, meeting up with an artist at an install. It's very very limited here and that's incredibly intentional.
• Adding up all that time, you will notice that all of those hours add up to 22 hours/per week of art business focus, intention and practice. That is a job guys... it's no surprise that you have to put in the work to see the results that you want.

 2018. Poseidon's Realm #3 by Teresa Navajo

Step #2

For me, I am a "yes man" I somewhere along the road picked up this idea that people will like me more if I am always available to do something for them. That hasnt really been working out for me the last few years, so a major part of my discovery was to eliminate the projects, tasks and obligations from my schedule that no longer (or never) brought me joy or were not bringing me closer to my goals.

My elimination list looks like this:

• The answer is never "Yes" without taking some time to reflect and review my schedule. This is true for show opportunities, events, picking up an extra day of work at my part-time job, etc.
• Diligently remove time sucking obligations from my task list. This means that I will be passing off a venue or two to another curator and will only manage one or two show spaces for FRINGE. It means that the artists I do work with in the shows I produce will have enough experience to handle setting up their art show without me being present. 

2018. The Swamp at Dawn by Teresa Navajo

Step #3

Dust off that calendar, notebook or bulletin board and make a schedule. We dug DEEP and planned my weeks out to the hour. I'm really good at self governing and I even budgeted in time to "goof off" because, yep, I am that person. By creating some grace in my schedule from the start - I have taken away the opportunity for me to fail.

This means that, refer to Step 1 - Budgeting 1 hour a day to create... well - if I spend a day in the studio and I am inspired and paint or create for 4 hours, 6 hours or the whole day then it's OKAY to skip a day that week if I want to go to the movies with Andrew or we want to spend some time out with friends. It gives me the ability to plan ahead and not stress or think that I "haven't done enough" so that I can truly enjoy the experiences I am in the moment of.

This means that I have set time for my part-time job and any hours in addition to what works for my art path means I need to already be ahead of the game. No more picking up a shift so that people like me and I later hate myself.

This means that I can truly live in the moment, paint and create a plan for the art and the content I am working on without having to spend a lot of time actually thinking about it.

Wrapping it up

I have been utilizing this system for a full week now - and while that does not sound like a ton of time, it honestly was. Why? Because in just 7 days, due to my planning and refocus I created so many additional hours in my week. I didn't have to sit at the "round table" to figure out my next move. I didn't mindlessly scroll instagram or facebook because I was feeling anxious and unable to start. I accomplished my tasks and had the additional space for the fun stuff and the unexpected stuff.

I hope that my process helps you find what works for you. If what I do isnt your answer, maybe it can get the wheels turning and you can find your own perfect recipe for getting it all done without feeling like there is nothing left of you. If you try my process, I'd love to hear how it worked, or is working, for you!

MOSI GALLERY FEATURE

I am so excited to show two pieces of my original art at the MOSI gallery in Tampa. I decided to show the piece that started it all accompanied by a new work, created for the show.

The Swamp at Dawn - 2018 by Teresa Navajo

City Lights - 2016 by Teresa Navajo

In 2016 I made it my mission to leave the job I had at the time and finally become an artist full time. I painted City Lights while home from work, it was a holiday - the establishment was closed but that didnt stop the people that I worked for at the time to text me with tasks. I was already miserable there and decided to release some of my frustrations on the canvas. Im pretty glad that I did because that day started a fire that ultimately gave me fuel to apply for (and get accepted into) Gasparilla Festival of the Arts as well as start my artist's collective, Fringe Creatives.

Fast forward to today... 3 years after the creation of this painting that literally opened the door to my creative pursuit of happiness and now I am showing it in a gallery along with a new piece, The Swamp at Dawn. I decided to share these two works for this show because it has been a wild journey. City Lights represents where I was and now, The Swamp shows where I am currently...

You may notice that in The Swamp, there is reference to reflections. Something I have been doing a lot of lately. There is still a lot to come for me as an artist but right now, in this season of my life I am embracing the journey I have been on and finding inspiration in nature and the metaphysical. Im learning from the road I have travelled and I am excited to move forward, to bloom into the next chapter. I am very excited to share these pieces at MOSI  and see them displayed side by side, if you are local to the Tampa area, please stop in and let me know what you think!

Naming art - Poseidon's Realm #2

Poseidon's Realm #2 - 2018 by Teresa Navajo

I love how my work can be seen through many eyes and tell a unique story to each person who gazes. That's really my sweet spot I think... that's what feeds me.

I shared this painting on my facebook page recently in a post that said "currently untitled - what do you see" and the response was amazing. I loved each one so much I wanted to share them here:

This piece ended up being called Poseidon's Realm (#2) and is currently available in my shop. It's a mini, only ranking in at 8"x8" - but wow, look at how mighty that tiny thing is! So many people saw so many different, powerful things in that little square.

Creating a "pin-it" button for your blog

Aside from my own website and newsletter, Pinterest is my favorite form of social media. I love browsing it for inspiration, looking up healthy food ideas/recipes and also tend to gravitate to pinterest before any clothing shopping. I realize that Pinterest is technically a search engine and not really "social" media but still - it's my favorite and it is the platform that drives more traffic to my website than all of my other social accounts combined.

After all of the pretty curated boards, the next best thing about Pinterest is that it doesn't take much effort to pump up your feeds and get people to see your stuff. As an artist, I post my artwork, share blog posts (yep, this one!) and create relevant boards that make sense for me. The beauty in this - people search and find you based on what you are already doing and enjoying... Im sure there is an algorithm but it's NOTHING like instagram's crazy roller coaster! I maybe spend about 1 to 2 hours a WEEK on my Pinterst feed and I consistently hit 24-26K in views.

Now, if you know me... I am always trying to make things ultra efficient. So this really simple add on that Pinterest offers makes the easiest and more fruitful social media even easier. It's a "PIN IT" button. You dont have to be tech-savvy to make one either.
Creating a PIN IT button, here's how I did it in less than 2 minutes:

Visit the Pinterest Widget Builder
Select your preferences on how you want your button to look using very simply to use drop downs.
Copy and Paste the code that Pinterest writes for you - it will be located under the example of your Pin It button and clearly says - paste this code!

Once you have the code copied, head over to your website's editor and locate the HEADER of your site. It's usually very clearly marked and often you have to find it by clicking on something like "SEO" or "SETTINGS"

Once you find it - simply paste that code, hit save, then refresh your website in your web browser and hover your mouse over an image already embedded on your blog or website gallery. You should now see a Pin-It button that will allow you AND your visitors to easily post your content to Pinterest.

Best Foot Forward - Fringe Art Show at 7venth Sun Brewery in Seminole Heights

JP DiCarlo, Teresa Navajo + Mark Williams 

A few of the crew from Fringe Art Show helped me install a new show at 7venth Sun Brewery in Seminole Heights called Best Foot Forward... it's probably not a coincidence that this show's initials are BFF - all of the Fringys are seriously like family.

I am so excited to celebrate this show on Friday, July 13th.
Join us at 7venth Sun for a beer and some hang out feels. We will be there starting at 7pm.
The show will hang into August, so if you can't make it - pop in when you can and snap a selfie in front of our art show.

SHOW DETAILS:
7venth Sun Brewery
6809 N Nebraska Ave,
Tampa, FL 33604
7pm - 10pm (opening reception)
On view: Teri Navajo, Mark Williams, JP DiCarlo, Kara Voorhees Reynolds, Hoolie Rowe, Curtis Whitwam, Mria's Mezzanine, Macy Higgins and Mark Stevens.

Take me to The Castle - 2018 by Teresa Navajo

Liquitex painting class at Blick (Tampa)

Last weekend I taught a Liquitex painting class at my favorite art supply store, Blick.

Winding Road - 2018 by Teresa Navajo

If you hang out with me on instagram, you know that my typical style is abstract so this was totally out side of what I've been creating lately... but it was a ton of fun to dive back into my college days of painting and sharpen those skills related to creating more realistic works. 

My group of ladies were all artistically inclined in some way and we had a blast getting messy, making lots of dirty paint water and eventually creating a Liquitex masterpiece. Take a look at all of this beauty guys! For me, the best part of this workshop was the push, for the last 5 years I have been working on mostly abstract styles - so creating something that forced me to get out of my comfort zone was really a treat. Now, I am inspired in a new way and this past week, I've caught myself looking at botanicals, sunsets and wild surroundings in a new way. Thank you Liquitex for sponsoring this event and for helping me see some new beauty in my everyday world.

If you'd like to take a class with me, I'm currently teaching kids workshops on most Saturdays at both the Tampa Museum of Art and Imagine Museum. I'm looking for locations to host pop up adult classes in the Fall, so if you have a favorite wine bar or coffee shop that you think would be a fun spot to hang out and get creative, shoot me a comment below or email me at TERESANAVAJO@GMAIL.COM

Blick also offers FREE workshops every Saturday, so be sure to follow them on instagram at @BLICK_TAMPA to catch the next one!

OPUS 2018

OPUS 2018 - Kara Voorhees Reynolds, Mark Williams & Teresa Navajo

I recently exhibited in OPUS and it was somewhat of a surreal experience. Here, I got to be the artist and didn't have to do anything other than show up, install and be present in the moment during the event. It was pretty great honestly.

Typically I am the one running around like crazy, setting up, promoting and getting everything juuuuust right for a troupe of artists to come in and shine. Fringe keeps me busy so I hardly ever get to make enough artwork to participate in shows. At the start of this year, I made a vow to make more time for me... I wanted to make one piece of new art each week (obviously that didn't happen, but leave it to me to be overly ambitious!) but I did have 12 new pieces when the call for artists for OPUS came out.

I went back and forth on if I should even apply... I feel so "rusty" in my practice lately that honestly, most of the work I am producing doesn't feel perfect enough to share. I pushed it off and allowed my schedule to fill up and then, before I knew it, the deadline was just about over... then, surprise! Extension! Well, now I guess I had no excuse and under the advice of Kara ( Art by Kara Voorhees Reynolds) I applied and was warmly invited into show.

So how was OPUS?
Well, the people running the event were very kind and it was a pleasure to meet them. The event had great attendance and the selections on display were expertly curated. It was a great night overall and I'd love to show again or even be part of the jury panel.

I know that what you really want to know is if the event was profitable - I did not sell any work, but I didn't expect to. The collection I showed featured larger works that had pricing to fit their scale. With that said, there were three other Fringe artists there and all three of them sold at least one piece of art. That's pretty great if you ask me. It was also great to dip my toe back into this side of the art world, I am definitely bitten and eager to show again soon.

Here are some (very candid) photos from the evening.

Did you attend OPUS? If so, who was your favorite artist on view? I'd love to connect with you about this show and others in Tampa!