Looking back ....

Alyson Standfield reminds us artists that we need to take time at the end of the year to reflect back on our achievements. As fellow artist and friend Cath Sheard says "It’s easy for achievements to sort of slide on by barely noticed. Knowing what we have done, and where we’ve been, helps map the road forward"

I know that I am guilty of focusing the majority of time on where I'm going and not taking time to really celebrate where I've been. Where we come from and our past experiences shape who we are today and need to be acknowledged and embraced as an important part of our journey and personal growth.

So today I'm celebrating 2010 - looking back on the highlights - I am truly grateful for so many wonderful experiences that I've had this year - not just the positive ones - but the negative ones too - for in adversity we grow the most. There are just too many wonderful moments that I have shared with my children, partner, family and friends to mention them here. Those are the moments of laughter, tears, happiness, sadness, excitement, anticipation, frustration, love - the whole range of emotions that make up the daily tapestry of our lives.

The focus of these highlights are art related ...

1) January - being selected as one of 7 feature Artists by Bajidoo Bangles - a fabulous American based jewellery company. Having a feature article in the local paper with one of the other artists who were selected - Lauryne Hart. Having hip surgery and employing a contractor to look after the NZ Art Guild so I could recuperate.

2) February - HER Business Magazine writing a Feature Article about me and my art - huge honour.

3) March - Getting engaged to my wonderful man, John Boylan!! Completed my first artwork on a torso incorporating my journey of life series - this has developed into a completely new series which has been really exciting for me. Completed my first book review for an American Publisher - the book was called Alpahtudes and was a life changing book to read.

4) April - My involvement with the Legato exhibition made the news with two articles, a radio interview and a segment on TV3 news. A small group of artists who were involved with the exhibition did a preshowing of artworks at Howick RSA where one of the artists gifted a very personal artwork to Battle of Cassino Vet Watty McEwen. It was a very humbling experience. I also had a feature piece written in Urban Living Magazine by Virin Gomber (an amazing writer) which included one of my artworks. One of my artworks sold to a well known art collector in Auckland.

5) May - Met two wonderful facebook friends (Mike and Andrew) at our exhibition opening - they now own 3 of my artworks which is really humbling given that Mike is an Artist and Andrew and Interior Designer. And then we were off to Italy with a group of amazing NZ Artists to exhibit at the Legato Exhibition. Spending 3 weeks exploring Italy with my wonderful man and friends was definitely a highlight this year. Donated an artwork to a fundraiser for Galmorgan Primary school and Coordinated several other donations. Our wonderful Auctioneer, Tony Loughrin, who does all our charity auctions for us was organising this event for his son and it was great to finally be able to give back to him!

6) June - I was a finalist in the Her Businesswoman of the Year Awards for Outstanding Business Citizenship - Huge honour!

7) July - The 5th NZ Art Guild Collaborative Artwork was unveiled!! I was awarded a place on the ART Venture Programme. An intensive year long accelerator programme for Auckland Creative Entrepreneurs. Only 13 people were selected from an application pool of 55. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and is very exciting! Visited The Learning Connection and NZ Academy of Fine Arts both of which are in Wellington. Was fantastic to meet with the staff and see around both facilities. I also met up with my cousin, Shirley, who I have only seen once in 30 years. She is such an inspiring person and I can't wait to see her again!

8) August - I created a new website so that I could sell prints and greeting cards of my artworks - www.sophia-elise.artistwebsites.com Having fun with the kids and my man - dying everyones hair in a way that expressed their creativity - my son had blond highlights, my man ended up with an assortment of colours including ginger, my daughter had pink, purple and blue hair!

9) September - I donated another artwork for The Women's Art Exhibition and Charity Auction to raise funds for the North Shore Women's Centre. This was one of my event highlights this year. The North Shore Women's Centre have the most amazing staff and provide much needed quality, low cost services to women in the community. It really was my privilege to work with them and two of the team I have kept in regular contact with. I helped out at my daughters school art day and it gave me a renewed appreciation of teachers!

10) October - One of my artworks was in the House and Garden Magazine as part of a feature story about my favourite Interior designer - Monochrome Inc. The NZ Art Guild was a finalist in two categories for The David Awards for Small Businesses - Most Community Minded Business and Most Inspired Use of Marketing! yay! And a business I've been mentoring this year - Home Brew West which is owned by an incredible young man, Allister Van Mil was a finalist in Outstanding Lifestyle Business!!

11) November - I was invited to have a two week art residency in India in February which unfortunately coincided with my sisters wedding so I turned it down - however it was a huge honour to be asked! Applied to do my post graduate diploma in Counselling and made the short list straight away. Yay! Restructured the NZ Art Guild and have a permanent part time contractor, Tanya Dann, who is amazing! Kumeu Art in the Garden saw a 50% increase in art sales this year which was brilliant!

12) December - Got funding through the ART Venture Programme to create the NZ Art Guild into a Charitable Trust which will enable us to become a sustainable organisation. Finalised the 2011 exhibition calender for the NZ Art Guild which includes exhibitions at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts!


This year I personally exhibited in 16 exhibitions - which was fantastic - I sold artworks in many of these events and in fact had my best sales year in the last few years. I donated several artworks to a variety of charity fundraisers including - school, churches, sporting teams, national charities, local charities etc - I swapped artworks with fabulous artists, gifted artworks to others, received gifts of art myself.

Through my work with the NZ Art Guild we helped raise over $20,000 for charities this year. My wonderful supporters in the NZ Art Guild - the members - my friends - and the volunteers - Rachael Inch, Sharlene Schmidt, Christine Dempster and Tanya Dann - have made it possible and have enabled us to reach out and help so many people in a variety of ways. I'm very lucky that the management team are also my nearest and dearest friends despite living in different cities and islands even.

I owe are huge dept of gratitude to The ART Venture programme with the most incredible participants, facilitators and advisers who have given me such knowledge, insight, skills and been huge supporters of the work I do. I am so privileged to be in this programme.

The wonderful mentors I have met along the way who have helped me in many ways - but esp to Pam Martin who is such an inspiration!!

And a huge thank you has to go to my long suffering man - who is always at my side for every event - helping with hanging, take down, opening nights, co-ordinating events, packing artworks, buying supplies - surprising me by tidying my office and doing the filing when it has got completely away on me - being on call 24/7 for babysitting duty, picking up the slack with household chores and always always supporting me unconditionally in whatever I do.

And my Children who are so incredibly wonderful in every way. They teach me so much - I admire them hugely - they have such incredible qualities that some adults don't even have yet - they pitch in and help if they know something needs doing - are always so supportive of my own art (always nice to have fans even of the ones you want to throw in the bin!! lol)

This year has been incredible in so many ways - and I want to thank everyone who has been involved in making it fantastic! Whether it was through text, email, phone, facebook, in person - you are all amazing!! Thank you!!