In this post, I will focus on artistic goals. If you want to read my last post on personal and monetary goals, click here.
Artistic goals can be about exploring topics and ideas, using different kinds of materials (i.e. collages), or creating certain types of works. In the latter case, that can be broken down into works in a particular medium (i.e. photography, painting, etc.) or works that explore certain themes and subjects.
In creating any work, we explore different facets of it through various renditions and perspectives. If we’re painting a certain kind of landscape, we might experiment with different styles, colors, and compositions to convey a particular mood or emotion about it. We don’t really know what’s going to hit a home run, but we do know that by trying out different things, we’ll begin to understand what works and what doesn’t (i.e. what techniques, colors, and compositions have the greatest effect).
In the process of creating art, we’re honing our craft and increasing our knowledge of techniques, as well as fine-tuning our intuition and abilities. But the thing about creating art is that it takes continuous practice and resilent dedication. Mastering our artistic abilities is a never-ending process, since there are always new ideas to explore, and our knowledge and techniques can always be improved.
When we create art, it’s a testament to our creative impulse, a testament to the fact that there are different modes of seeing the world and of imagining what lies beyond it. But that creative impulse can only be manifested through a medium, which must have a subject, which conveys a theme by the way we stylize and compose the work.
Thus, our artistic goals are really about us mastering how to illustrate our ideas using all the techniques and knowledge we have at our disposal. But to get to that point, we must understand what we’re capable of, and what medium best suits us, and what styles, themes, and subjects speak to us in a kind of natural and inspirational way.
Fallton Havenstonne 