Stepping into the New Year, 2022 🎆
In many ways, 2021 was about realizing one's artistic power and the journey of the artistic journey. By 2022, I will be putting solid structure into the goals and finally revealing all of the art I have kept hidden in fear of imperfection and self-doubt. The art will emerge and be exhibited this year.
Pandemic was a heavyweight champ 😷
In 2021 I have been looking at my options in terms of life, looking intensely at my soul path. I felt a heavy load on my shoulders during the previous years, especially when the pandemic happened. When the pandemic started and I got stuck back in my country due to full country lockdown, I’m not gonna lie, I felt like maybe it would have been better if I had given up. However, it was those 5 months in lockdown in Poland that brought me back to painting every single day. Constantly. It was like the universe was saying to not give up like it was giving me time to continue.
The year 2020 was the year that I fully returned to painting after almost 4-5 years. Whereas 2021 became a full-on realisation as to what and how exactly I wanted to create, who is Monika Szafoni, what do I represent, and equally importantly, how to stay true to my vision. It took me almost a whole year to show anything to the world.
2021 Felt stagnant 😵💫
I don’t hope 2022 will be fruitful for me... I am confident it will bring an end to hardship since I have thought all this time about cultivating my world, my artistic vision. It’s truly a new beginning of my professional journey, as I am approaching 2022 with a strong, well prepared and healthy mindset. Some things I felt the need to change for good as I felt stagnant in 2021. Despite thinking that I was strong enough to hold the world, I had at times questioned why it had to be so difficult, why things had to be so challenging.
At those weakest moments, I reached for books and strived to figure things out. My ultimate go-to book was “How to sell your art online” by C. Huff. It helped me with my selling approach towards my work and helped me with realising my limiting beliefs. Additionally, it gave me ideas for my professional website, MonikaSzafoni.com, as to how to create a business strategy to profit from my creativity and generally overcome the biggest hurdle that most artists encounter when self-marketing. Also, let‘s not forget about learning to be fine and positive about selling and marketing your pieces. Gradually my reading niche became visual arts business/management/law/finance. It is so ironic that all this extremely significant knowledge had not been covered through all my visual arts studies, even whilst doing my diploma and bachelor. I am glad to have access to all the books that I needed. Slowly, things started to look better and a new exciting perspective was found to look upon. All that knowledge was awakening and made me realise truly what made me stagnant. As a professional artist, I started to open myself up to new adventures by making radical changes.
Celebration 🎊
One thing that I still haven’t done is to take pleasure in all that I have accomplished so far. Now is the time to take pride in some of my successes. It is a bit sad that I have not sat with myself and acknowledged all the efforts I put through in this journey. Ultimately, it's about how you navigated yourself through those ups and downs, how you fought hard to be where you are now. It was through those moments during I had to defend my heart, ideas, goals and dreams where my path became very apparent to me.
This year I am telling the world: hell nah I am not giving up!
By creating new beginnings, I am not giving up. 2022 is coming along, with the energy of things being well, rejuvenating, empowering, and I have faith that anything can happen and will happen. Like being reborn. Unstoppable.
I am opening myself up to possibilities and the potential that I have within me, definitely releasing that damn self-doubt.
Seeking authenticity is a journey in itself. I realised that I was doing things that were absorbing my energy and in the end, they didn’t feel worth it. This is something that I need to stop allowing and let them go. It will help revive the spirits and help me find myself again. Holding true to my vision no matter what, because, in the end, it is my creation, my journey, my understanding of the world.
My message to all artists: be brave and be yourself
Be disciplined and self-reliant.
Lay the final foundations for your security.
All will be well.
Money is coming in towards you.
Thoughts truly become things, you are turning your visions into reality.
Take control.
Use your inner wisdom to make the absolute most out of your life.
Demonstrate your individuality in everything that you do.
Be your own unique self.
Do the things that make you happy and live a life that demonstrates your personal beliefs.
Do things on your own so that you can understand what you are capable of achieving in life.
Do not make yourself smaller.
Strengthen your connections.
Create a positive life experience by focusing on your life’s purpose.
And my new favourite mantra:
What’s meant for me will never pass me by.