Every Day is a New Year’s Day

Kirsty Hall’s Art Jar 1 Jan 2011

So what’s so special about New Year’s Day for making resolutions? Is there any greater degree of success if you start something new on 1 January as opposed to any other day? Why do we feel a need to make resolutions on that day and not 2 or 3 January?  Or 17 May for that matter? It’s the same with dieting and days. Noone starts a diet halfway through the day. You have eaten a load of buttered maltbread, and instead of thinking ‘That’s quite enough, no need for anything else today’  you are hit by “I’ve blown it now so there’s no point” pessimism.

Actually, though, I’ve found in recent years that I am capable of resolving something about anything at any time of the day, month or year. Sometime last September I started my daily  #adailyselfreflection, and though some days it was a struggle to post, I’m still going strong. It was only after I’d started it though that I became aware of just how many dedicated daily something-or-others there are out there. The #draw365 hashtag on Twitter, for example, has numerous adherents. And browsing through blogs over the last couple of days has been positively revelatory. Blogging artists are a focussed, determined and supremely well-organised bunch who are not afraid to declare their goals for 2011 which frequently include a daily-something-or-other. One such project is Introducing 365 Jars « Kirsty Hall. Kirsty plans to release art jars into the wild in the Bristol area every day of 2011. I am full of admiration for this declared project. All my own declared goals take place safely within the confines of the house and can be achieved without getting up from my seat. Good luck, Kirsty, and I shall follow the project with interest. It is reminiscent of Kit Williams’ Masquerade from the seventies- without the gold.

Anyway, I remain resolutely committed to establishing routine as the springboard for EVERYTHING else this year. My family were full of helpful suggestions for how I might resolve to improve myself, but I know that for me, multiple resolutions are not the way forward.  If I can get the writing morning pages/self-portrait drawings/ drawing exercises/ dealing-with-social-media tasks done in a set routine every day it will be so much easier to create the mental and organisational space  I need in order to make art.

And the key to it all is to get up early.  Farewell, woman in a dressing gown.