"The Winter Arc"
Embracing the plateau, calendar launch... did someone say coffee?
Heyyyy lovely soul!
Have you heard of the concept The Winter Arc? Recently every time I open up Instagram or YouTube that’s all I see. Essentially it refers to a period of time where individuals utilise the chilliest, shortest days of the year to refocus and visualise their objectives in order to arrive at their desired goals.
At first I liked the idea, until my entire feed filled with people creating click bait content around this concept. Whilst I’m not a fan of trends, I do enjoy adopting a concept and turning it into something that feels more me.
Embrace, face, grace
As we edge towards the end of the year, it goes without saying, we all begin to reminisce, question how we spend these final months and make plans for next year.
Regarding my career, this year has been the most challenging (yet) and I think it’s because, in the grand scheme of things, it’s actually still very early days. When you first set out to pursue…anything really, there’s a buzz around simply learning the thing, followed by disbelief when you notice progress such as being commissioned or making a sale. You're convinced you’ve got it figured out. Every small milestone fills you with encouragement and glee. I like to call this stage beginners buoyancy. Nothing can sink that early day optimism. We often speak of peaks and troughs, ebb and flow, ups and downs but no one really talks about the plateau.
This year, despite feeling creatively aligned, the business plateau has clouded my vision and chipped a good chunk out off my, relatively non-existent, confidence. The business plateau is similar to the middle chapters in a book where you can sense something is building but you’re getting a bit impatient waiting for it materialise.
All this to say that whilst my Winter Arc objective might not be to set ridiculous challenges, my goal in these final months is to channel the curiosity I had in the earlier days of my career. The notion that we’re always a beginner not only humbles you but lights a fire. My challenge is to embrace the uncertainty, to face pitfalls with eagerness and to go a little bit more than I think I can.
(…oh and have grace for myself if I need to take a min to chill because life can be tiring.)
This made me giggle and think :
“Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware. The cosmic banana peel is suddenly going to appear underfoot to make sure you don’t take it all too seriously.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Take my silly notes with a pinch of salt
If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know every year I create a calendar inspired by a certain theme or concept. This year it’s built on silly notes I’d write to my future self in case I needed a gentle nudge.
Whilst the concept always takes time to build the illustrations are obviously the most important part… it’s gotta look pretty ya know.
Soooo I present to you “Noted” - notes (and pretty pictures tehe) from me to you.
A coffee a day keeps the doctor away
That is the saying…right?
I still can’t quite tell you what the collab is just yet but I can tell you life is pretty good when you get to draw coffee pots for a large proportion of the day. This collab came about by embracing that early day mentality I spoke of previously where instead of assuming things will find me I embrace curiosity and just straight up dive into peoples DMs with “Hey I like coffee! Wanna collab?” (suffice to say that is not what I messaged but you get the gist).
Extra notes
I know I’ve mentioned how hard this year has been quite a lot, so I just want you to know how grateful I am to those that constantly show support, send me messages and buy my work. You have no idea how much I wanna squeeze you in real life and tell you how much you mean to me.
Extra extra notes aka upcoming markets
If you made it this far hiiiii I will be selling at:
Daytime Favourites Market :
02/11/24 11am - 4pm The Old Schoolhouse, Edinburgh
Tea Green Winter Markets :
23/11/24 10am - 5pm National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh
07/12/24 10am - 5pm Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow
Until next time lovely souls,
