to try

• go to top galleries and see which sculptors + textile artists they represent
• move away from very convenient materials and find your own (you'll stand out immediately)
• what materials are no one else using or being recognized for?
• make sure your medium is personal to you
• find consistency
• art should have multiple layers and provoke multiple analogies
• allow for ambiguity and conflict inside the piece
• experiment with medium until you find a novel combination of your own
• develop a voice for your visual desires and speak in that voice loudly
• consider your own artist's frame for every work
• focus on what might be your future "trademark"
• look at people who came before you to see what is possible + find something to "fight" against
• become an expert in sculpture & textile art being made right now (not 20 yrs ago)
• allow the anxiety about art's irrelevance to become part of the work itself
• connect how the art is made with what it is made of

to avoid

• vague, predictable, cliche subject matter
• linear, predefined subject matter that doesn't invite dialogue
• going for a stock, mass-produced, impersonal and predictable combination of materials
• focus on avoiding the ethos of mass production
• not looking for references, for who came before you, makes your art derivative

build a recognizable body of work

• creating a specific technique within a specific medium
• visual consistency comes from recognizing common visual elements in your work and making it intentional, amplifying those elements
• consistency in presentation and finishing is an integral part of the artwork
• the presentation and finishing should add to visual consistency
• consistency of motifs, subjects, and subject matter
• conceptual/methodological consistency comes from a strong, distinct vision
• start with a clear artist statement and explore it consistently

my strengths

• demographics
• ambition
• location

learning drawing

• while watching tutorials, take notes in sketchbook
• find a unique way of drawing that is radically *you*

making your deepest work

• create something honest, not just beautiful - people are moved when they feel they are not being lied to, so don't soften or avoid the truth
• express tension instead of ignoring it - hold opposites together without collapsing them
• consider what form would allow your work to land with more clarity and beauty
• use symbolism to make the personal collective
• let your art alter your identity