New Year. Back to Work with Focus, Structure and Intention.

Gone are the days of the daily commute to the office, being a top-tier rewards member of the local coffee shop (because caffeine was essential for managing the juggle) and living each moment meeting-by-meeting. Nowadays I’m running my own show while being there for my family. My time is mostly dictated by the school calendar then by myself and my own goals and motivation. When our son, who is 6 years old, is at home, creative work tends to come to a standstill. I’m not particularly good at multitasking family-life with printing or squeezing in creative moments. And if I’m entirely honest, I don’t mind.

However, that being said, I’m feeling thankful for the start of the New Year and the start of school. I need routine, I crave structure and organisation. I’m ready to get back to work and push forward with my printmaking endeavours and allow myself to fully focus on Adventures in Print.

This year my ambitions can be summed up as more; I intend to carve more, share more and connect more.

I’m starting this year with a request for a larger version of an old favourite, my ‘Peonies’ linocut. Peonies are my absolute favourite bloom and carving them transport me to a wanderlust summer-filled day. Peonies remind me of when we still lived in Scotland, in our very old flat with enormous single-glazed Georgian windows. As soon as it was peony season I was always sure to have a bunch sitting on the sideboard in our living room. The sun would stream into this room all day, encouraging the flowers to swell and bloom into beautiful delicate crowns. I don’t think I could ever tire of peonies.

I’m currently in the design stage, with the revision of ‘Peonies’ being more connected, with more blooms and fuller.

The thing I love most about printmaking is probably the process. And the mediative effect carving has. You can’t rush this stage, each gouge and strike with the carving tool is deliberate and slow. You can only focus on the present, working intentionally.

In between writing out my goals for 2023 and to-do list for this month, I take pause to reflect on some of my favourite prints of 2022. There’s no getting away for my love for florals and foliage and I’m sure this will be evident throughout my prints and patterns this year.