Wow, can’t believe I forgot to do a roundup for the last two years! 2022 was definitely a cruddy year, and most of 2023 was too. But here I am, still persisting. Gotta keep moving forward.

2022 Review:

• January/February – started creating an acrylic-ink chicken painting series…didn’t pan out? I made like three pieces :'(

I’ll come back to it some day.

• April/May – We downsized our home and moved while the housing market was hot, super hectic and stressful batch of weeks. Needless to say, not much art was done in this time.
• May – Grandma Boehman passed, a monumental figure in my life especially when I was a young’un. Really took a toll on my mental and emotional wellbeing for months.
• November – Officially started my own illustration business, S.R.Pierce Art LLC. I can now say that I’m a small business owner!
• Not too much accomplished art-wise, I worked on my 1^st children’s book all year and dare I say it, took too long on it. I’m so paralyzed by perfectionism (still working on that).
• Here’s one of my favorite drawings from 2022:

2023 Review:

• January – Published 1^st children’s book, ABCs of Beasties!
• March – Pregnancy loss (I’ll talk about it more in another post). Needless to say my mental well-being has been forever changed and it still ebbs and flows from good to bad.
• Fall months – Ran a booth at three markets, the 1^st ones I’ve done since 2019. I got to meet some local artists and creatives, as well as make new connections in the city. Some markets were better than others, but at least I know more about selling and sharing my work in person. Definitely more markets to come!
• Here’s a sticker design I created for those markets:
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• October – started an email newsletter, where I provide some nice freebies
• I now have books and stickers in physical stores
  • Salt and Ash Market– Indianapolis, IN
  • Bad Cat Boutique – Jeffersonville, IN
  • Micaville Outpost – Burnsville, NC
  • Grady Goods – Louisville, KY (new consigner!)

Projects in the works for 2024:

• ‘Birds in My Backyard’ – children’s book #2 (coming in April), this is a working title, not sure what the official title is yet! It’s about a boy (and his dog) that explores his neighborhood and discovers many bird species
• ‘ABCs of Beasties’ activity book (summer/August) – to accompany my alphabet book
• Zine Club on Ko-fi (later this year) – I’ll be mailing out zines and stickers on a monthly basis through a tiered club, pretty excited to work on this!
• Youtube channel (would be nice, but this will only happen this year if I get everything else done first) – I want to move away from Instagram, I’d like to do some Draw With Me videos and a read-aloud of my own self-published books!

I didn’t make an official New Year’s resolution or goal list, but my projects listed above are my 2024 goals, I suppose. Earlier this year my sister mentioned how she doesn’t make resolutions, rather she chooses a ‘focus’ word for the year. So, like a true sister, I’m stealing her idea 🙂 My focus word for 2024 is ‘Outreach’. I’m making a more conscious effort to reach out for potential art opportunities (shops, shows, clients), reach out to family members more, and to get out of my shell and share more work!

In Case You Missed Them:

• What makes a story a myth, legend, or folktale? – A quick guide to the differences between these terms
• Top 5 Favorite North American Cryptids – my summer hit list
• Things I Learned Self-Publishing my 1st Children’s Book – some crucial things I learned the 1st time around