And now a word from your guidance counselor….

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Let’s talk about goals. Goals? Wha? Huh?

During a ES quorum late last evening, conversational ebbs and tides carried our discussion through topics as varied as Kanye West’s hook vs. ThreeSixMafia’s hook and the possibility of a braille Rubik’s cube. The former required little argumentation to determine the victor whereas much excitement arose at the possibility of the latter. I have told you this so that I can now unveil a plan in which I plan to implement and I would encourage others to do the same if they do so desire.

It was during one of the conversational tides that I thought to mention my intention to begin a monthly plan that I have tentatively entitled “One A Month”. The plan is as follows: I will create a list of things to do every month. So, for example, possibilities are; read one book every month, acquire one new skill every month, see one new tourist attraction every month, create one sculpture every month, submit one proposal every month, etc.

So, is anyone interested in self betterment within a group environment?

Jeff said,

September 13, 2007 @ 8:47 pm

yes. what are things we do?
1. read a book
2. new skill
3. see something in the real world (tourism, art, etc)
4. create a sculpture/graphic/model/painting/whatever
5. submit to a competition/make a proposal
6. One misc item based on the person (ie, shave 1sec off my rubiks time)

lets compile a big list then take it from there. I take it the goal is to start in Oct?

matt said,

September 14, 2007 @ 8:48 am

Here is a list of what I have come up with:(I am going to start immediately, so these are my choices for Sept.)
1. One Book per month- “Mental Floss’ Condensed Knowledge”
2. One New Skill- 3 min Rubik’s Cube
3. One New Project- Shades of Magenta Rubik’s Cube
4. One Submittal- MoCo Loco
5. One Drawing- TBD
6. One Attraction- Statue of Liberty (This Weekend? Anyone?)

Paul said,

September 14, 2007 @ 9:54 am

I’m in. I’ve been meaning to draw more often and do things other than be hung over. I don’t know if I’ll make the S of L this weekend though. Shelves and Apt stuff Saturday, work Sunday….

Audrey said,

September 14, 2007 @ 10:53 am

I think this sounds good. Strangely I am imediately turned off by these “lists” but I dont know why. Odd. Which surely means that I need a list too.

What I am most excited about is opening up our blog forum to more frequent individual project posts for more active critique/discussion/suggestion/praise/disgust. …Posting in-progress work/goals/visuals as well as the final product/venue. Not so many surprise reveals. And it will make for beautiful blog entries.

I varied my list at touch. Is that cool? I think we can customized a bit to clarify since it’ll be pretty much the same.

So….Here’ s my list….The A List, if you will:

1. One Drawing - (at least)
2. One Sculpture
3. One Installation proposal - (drawing/phtshp)
4. One cultural event - ( theatre, museum, music,)
5. One day in chealsea - ( Hell, divided into cubes. Take notes etc)
6. One new skill
(aaand 7. One night out salsa’ing - never gonna learn if i dont go public)

Jeff said,

September 14, 2007 @ 11:12 am

I like “Cultural Event” better than “Attraction” it encompasses attractions, but is more flexible. I’m for flexible listage, but i think we should have a base 5 (or so) that everyone does. helps make nice consistent documentation.

1. book
2. culture
3. drawing
4. skill
5. . . .

(i think submitting to things could be a weird one for some, like architects, i dunno)

Audrey said,

September 14, 2007 @ 11:21 am

Can we not go for and share our own personal lists as a group?

Jeff said,

September 14, 2007 @ 3:01 pm

we could. but i think having some sort of base makes the whole idea stronger as a project in it’s own right. for example what does the 1-a-month page on es.com say/look like? It’d be cool to compare these base 1’s and show the variety of goals after those. I, for example, don’t draw. ever. but I could get down on some drawing action, probably won’t be as nice all the masters in the group, but it’ll be good for me and nice if we are all producing a drawing a month, for say , a book.

maybe im being to controlling over the thing.

Paul said,

September 14, 2007 @ 3:13 pm

remember when we were gonna do a CW project every month?

I think the main thing here is to pick things that are doable every month, and things that we actually want to do every month. I have not decided if I think we should have similar lists or what. I think a base few, plus whatever we want. I think my list would be more like

1. drawing
2. culture
3. book
4. skill
5. cook a nice meal

maybe we have the same 4, then whatever else we want to do.

Missy said,

September 14, 2007 @ 3:32 pm

I agree with Jeff, I think the idea is stronger if we have a base 5 like this…

1. book
1. cultural event
1. drawing
1. skill
1. submission (competition, magazine, blog, gallery, etc.)

I’m thinking the website could have a page for each month with everyone’s accomplishments, etc, and one for the current month with everyone’s goals. I like the pink ‘1′ that Jeff picked, its superhot.

Cheryl said,

September 14, 2007 @ 3:42 pm

I’m totally in to the main list with sub-lists based upon your individual person. I don’t usually draw, but what better way to start!

matt said,

September 14, 2007 @ 4:02 pm

I would have to say that I like the idea of 5 or so goals that are the same for the whole group. Any other “wild card” goals could be determined by the individual, but I think that we could probably agree on at least 5. Perhaps the drawing goal could be replaced with something more universal for the whole group. On the other hand it might be nice to have a couple of goals that would bring people out of their comfort zones (for example, drawing is not my strongest point but that does not mean that I shouldn’t do it. Something interesting could result in forcing myself to do something that I am not accustomed to doing on a regular basis).

After more consideration, it might be interesting to have a 3D and 2D category instead of a “drawing” and “project” category. Any thoughts?

Anywho…I think that along with becoming well-rounded creative individuals this has the potential of becoming a very interesting group diary of acheivements.

Cheryl said,

September 14, 2007 @ 5:05 pm

If we wanted to with a base list of 5, I would go with Missy’s list and change submission to project.

1. book
1. cultural event
1. drawing
1. skill
1. project

Submissions are good, but you’ve got to do a project in the first place to submit to something. And I am not thinking of these projects as something that will always be submitted somewhere. For instance: Paul’s project for the month could be pimpin’ his apt. Mine could be making Jeff a wood-grain embroidered sweatshirt. Or is that taking this grand idea and making less of it…..I don’t even know, but I like my list.

matt said,

September 14, 2007 @ 5:34 pm

Your list is ok, but a wood-grain embroidered sweatshirt is excellent! I want one.

Audrey said,

September 14, 2007 @ 5:47 pm

Ok, great. I digress. 5 basic things.
(I suppose I had a different process in mind before…more organic where, say, a list of 6 is redefined every month for each person; where the goal chosen would also reveal something interesting in addition to the fulfillment of that category. Perhaps another rendition in the future…)

This’ll be great! Though I still believe that we should have some discussion focus on evaluation of work/projects in progress and not just the final book/site etc.

I like cheryls list.

matt said,

September 14, 2007 @ 5:57 pm

I would agree that we need a forum either online or a regular monthly in person meeting in which we discuss work. Perhaps it could be done “Cranbrook Style” with written reviews etc. But I believe that this should exist as a separate entity. I would be up for discussing your latest work as the first work reviewed by ES.

Jeff said,

September 14, 2007 @ 5:59 pm

i was thinking something like this:
http://www.uniquescrapstore.com/image.php?code=ART-ACC-STARSTICKGLD&w=162&h=162

Missy said,

September 14, 2007 @ 6:10 pm

Yes, I like Cheryl’s list as well, but at this point (in our respective careers) aren’t we selling ourselves a bit short if we aren’t submitting our work to be published in a magazine or blog, or put into a gallery, or doing a competition, etc.? I know its alot, a project/submission every month, but thats what we are doing with this, right? Pushing ourselves harder?

Audrey said,

September 14, 2007 @ 6:13 pm

No we aren’t. I think we will.

Paul said,

September 14, 2007 @ 6:39 pm

I think it’s fine to leave the “project / submission” open enough to allow for some projects to exist outside of the competitive world. If nothing else, they will add more work that we care about to our portfolios, which will also take us places and help us grow. But I also really enjoy coming in 2nd place, so I’ll still be entering things.

I love drawing, and want to and plan to do more of it, but does everyone want it on the list?

qwrpichl said,

November 12, 2007 @ 3:11 pm

qwrpichl…

qwrpichl…

a76d9f30f1eb86c78603 said,

December 15, 2007 @ 10:37 am

a76d9f30f1eb86c78603…

a76d9f30f1eb…

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