Goals for the year 2026
My list of art goals in order of priority
- Learn the Hayter Printing method
- Woza ART - Website
- Focus on completing 10 artworks about my Nepal trip using the Hayter printing method
Reflection and planning
In the past I have found it difficult to set goals for my life and stick to them. Which is mostly why I have given up on them.
After finding a journal of mine from a few years back I have come to realise how radically better my life has become. And simply by luck and pure chance.
So imagine how a small amount of planning could help me.
I am not unique or special
If you want to focus and dedicate your life to art. You need to surround yourself with like minded people. Only then will you come to realise that very very few people are truly gifted or unique. In fact, I find comfort knowing that the majority of us have to struggle to succeed.
This is a fact of life. If you surround yourself with artists that work much harder than you. Who are better than you. Who are more passionate than you. You will realise that there is truly nothing unique about your own life. You are a product of this world, a small time lapse in this universe. So you might as well use the very little time you have to create what you can.
This is quite a radical thought, even for myself. Since just yesterday I really struggled to calm my inner critic at life drawing class. I was unnecessarily harsh and brutal with any mark I made on the page. Yet what I produced taught me something. I managed to look at my work the next day and realise that I had made progress on mark marking. I had been able to break through the barriers of simply drawing in line.
How did I change?
The reason I was able to break through my intense line drawing obsession was 2-fold.
1. I had been studying the book of Diane Victor.
Interestingly enough it was not her work or even her workshop that caused me to change. It was reading that book and learning about Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Through a commentary made by someone who spent their lives learning about the artist, I came to learn of the term Horror Vacqui, which means the fear of leaving empty space within the subject of the artwork.
And by studying the past I had managed to learn something new about myself. Also that progress is made in small steps not in great leaps.
2. I observed how persisted and determined other artists were.
The artists I had surrounded myself with were older than me. Many of them had to devote the majority of their lives to another career in order to art do at a later stage. However, during this period after their big careers. They chose to focus on art, and to do so with discipline and charasma. They had a specific direction they were heading towards and it was as if nothing could stop them from achieving this.
I found this refreshing. Since I am still relatively young, I am undisciplined with my craft and also have no idea what I am trying to say. Mostly I just produce what is on my mind for the day. Not that there is anything wrong with this. I just crave a steady habit of creating something meaningful.
Looking back, my artworks have mostly been short stints of extreme hard work and then long lapses of producing nothing. I used to blame this on the fact that I had commitments in life, be it family, work, etc. But this is not true. I have been fortunate to be able to live in a country where I am free to be who I am and practice art. How can I blame others for not letting me achieve my goals. This is absolutely nonsense. The difference between someone actually stopping your dreams and your perceived reality of their intention is often very different.
In fact this reminds me of something quite profound. After I had quit university for the second time, I was working intensely on art at home. My father suggested I go an work somewhere to learn a new skill. However, what I heard and lied to myself about was that he didn't want me to pursue my art as a passion. Instead he wanted me to drop something that at the time I thought was working and bringing me an income. I was so upset and angry. I took the job with much begrudgement and decided to leave and not communicate much with my family for the next 2 years. However in hindsight that job at National Urethane Industries, put me into contact with someone who knew about the WeThinkCode_ programme in 2016. That programme changed my life forever.
Yet only as I write this do I realise the major impact my father played in this story. He only wanted the best for his son. He wanted me to be strong and to make tough choices which would help me succeed. In the 2 years I attended that programme his health rapidly declined as my success in a profitable career grew dramatically. It was not until completing a year working at a prestigious corporate job, did I hear he was very ill. I also missed the telephone call that day, because I was too busy working and refused to answer. So only heard news of it later.
The point I'm trying to make is that you define your outlook on life. I chose to see my father as someone who was trying to harm my passion. Yet in reality he was only trying to help me grow into someone he could be proud of.
To bring it back to art. These artists I surrounded myself with are working much harder than I do and they have not had the luck I have been fortunate of. Yet they are still determined and persistent. Something I must definitely try to achieve.
Focus for January to March 2026
1. Learn the Hayter Printing method
- Study Stanley William Hayter's life, workshops and printing techniques
- Learn more about the process from Mimi van der Merwe once a week.
- Learn how to prepare Zinc plates with the correct acid.
- Learn about the techniques with the different rollers and inks.
- Practice what I have learnt.
2. Woza ART - Website
- Keep the website updated each day with new art events.
- Post each week on the WhatsApp channels with the events for the week.
- Write an article about an artist each week.
- Research about the history of art in South Africa.
- Focus on improving my grammar skills.
3. Focus on completing 5 artworks about my Nepal trip using the Hayter printing method
- Plan the artworks to align with my lifetime artwork plan.
- Identify what I would like to say in my work.
- Question how I am going to use the supernatural in my work.
- Do some more research about Nepal.