Taking stock

Any summer spent in Maine is a good summer.

In 2014, I had an accountability partner. Last January, we agreed to check in with each other once a month to review our goals. This was a flawed plan because she is a recluse and I hate talking on the phone. Then I lost my notes to myself and forgot about the whole thing.

Kaaterskill Falls, 8X10, oil on canvasboard, by Carol L. Douglas. In June, I painted in the Catskills with NYPAP members from across the state. Another iteration of Paradise.

Nevertheless, because no thought on the internet is ever really gone, I was able to find my 2014 goals. They were modest:

--Regain my fitness levels from October, 2013, in terms of health and work;
--Finish and hang my show at Roberts Wesleyan opening 3/24;
--Get a workshop schedule together for 2014 and market it;
--Get my house on the market.

My on-the-road shoe drying rack.

I started the year just a few days out from cancer surgery, so at the time I wrote these goals, I could barely walk, let alone work. Despite this, I finished the show for Roberts Wesleyan, and it opened to plaudits. I went on to have another solo show at Aviv Gallery downtown, and a duo show with Stu Chait at RIT’s Davison Gallery, plus showed and sold many other pieces in galleries.

Dead Wood, 48X36, oil on linen, 2014, by Carol L. Douglas, from God+Man show.

Likewise, my workshop managed to get marketed; in fact, it sold out. And my fitness levels are good—until I got the creeping crud a few weeks ago, I’d have said they were better than in October, 2013.

The last week of summer I spent painting with these amazing women in Saranac Lake, New York. From left, Mira Fink, Crista Pisano, me, Marlene Wiedenbaum, Laura Bianco, Kari Ganoung Ruiz, Tarryl Gabel.

In fact, the only thing on this to-do list that I didn’t get done was selling my house. And that wasn’t due to my inactivity, but because my son decided he wanted to finish high school here. Since it wasn’t a critical matter, we deferred selling for a year. That meant, of course, that I lived alone in Maine for the summer months, which convinced me that I don’t like living apart from my family.

Teaching, whether in Rochester or Maine, is my first love, and I've gotten to do a lot of it this year.

Note that none of these goals were financial. In my life, it seems that if I take care of the work itself, the money almost takes care of itself.

Tomorrow: goals for 2015.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!