As we often say at this time of the year, 2017 seems to have passed so quickly. When I was thinking of doing a review post for this blog, the lyrics of the song Seasons of Love –one of my favorite musicals songs– came to mind. The firsts verses say:
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
That's my point, how do you measure a year? In my case, 2017 has been really important as it has been the first as a professional illustrator, after a career shift and it has entailed a lot of heavy –sometimes painful– lessons and new beautiful experiences. Everything has been so intense to me that I felt I needed to somehow look back and appreciate it all. So, can I measure five hundred twenty-five thousand and almost six hundred minutes? Exactly like this...
in illustrations
I am really so grateful for all the beautiful projects that I was able to participate with such as the one with CCT SeeCity painting Pistoia's delicious treats and personal challenges that I strived for along the year. From intricate figs to detailed glazed donuts, I really aimed at improving my skills and scope. I even tried portraits! I only hope 2018 brings more challenging projects which bring me out of my comfort zone and open new markets for my artwork.
in travels
Some of the best memories from 2017 have to do with traveling and during this year I had the fortune of visiting Madrid, Pistoia and its province, Münich and Salzburg. It was wonderful to enjoy the food, the atmosphere and the culture of all these locations. Some of them I was familiar with but I got to discover an area of Tuscany that I now hold dear to my heart.
in sweets
Boy, I surely ate and baked a lot this year! Certainly, one of the best pleasures in life but I might need to tone it down for 2018... Nah! I learnt to make the famous Japanese Fluffy Cheesecake and baked loads of cookies and pies –pecan is my favorite–. I also discovered and tasted the Esterházy torte and Russian and Cuban cakes in my travels. I really enjoy learning new recipes from all over the world and hopefully next year I will learn even more.
in ventures & lessons
During 2017, I learned quite a few lessons in my journey to become a professional illustrator. Personally, I feel that printing my own calendars, sending my first sets of promotional pieces, illustrating my firsts collections, starting an online shop and dealing with clients; were pretty much the core of my learning process. I mainly found out what doesn't work, which is invaluable information, too. As they reminded me with this year's Star Wars film, never underestimate the value of failure. Well, I can honestly say that was my end result with most of the things I tried but that's the key part, I guess, I ventured.
in gratitude & love
One of the main issues –at least for me– of becoming a freelance illustrator that no one warned me about was the fact that I obviously had to put myself on the line, as it must happen for many other career choices. In my case, dealing with self-confidence, giving myself proper value and recognizing certain areas that required major work on my part were fundamental factors that I had to face throughout the year. Being someone else's employer for most of my professional career, I neglected some of those aspects, if not all of them.
That is something that I guess also qualifies as a lesson but, for me, it resulted in gratitude. It has been painful at time but working on those areas forced me to take a closer and better look at myself. I can only be but grateful for that and for everything else that fundamentally challenged me during 2017 because it also resulted in love and appreciation. In the words of Joanne Woodward, in The Long Hot Summer (1958, Martin Ritt), it means now that I learnt that "I am a human being. [...] It means I set a price on myself: a high, high price. You may be surprised to know it, but I've got quite a lot to give."
In that same sense, I have been more appreciative of everything happening to me and everyone who helped me or were kind to me. Aside from my family and friends, I want to give special thanks to Judy Unger for her invaluable advice, to Elena Mazzoni for her creativity and for providing an unforgettable opportunity, to all the artist's sharing their work and experiences and to everyone who has been supportive along the way. You all made my world bigger.
So, it has been five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, how do I measure a year in the life? How about love?
Thank you so much, 2017.
I truly hope that next year will bring dreams to fruition and will bring us all a little closer.
All the best,
Miriam