I broke my foot - That's how I started 2023

Art Letter #5

This is the 5th Edition of Art Letters, a weekly letter I write to my Art friends about the joys and challenges of my creative life. To read previous editions, click below:

Hey friend!

How has the first month of 2023 treated you? It’s been a funny one for me.

This year, I decided to really take journaling seriously. I got a beautiful planner, and started planning my every week. I even got a word of the year - WELLNESS. Which includes Physical, Emotional and Creative wellness. While the first week went according to plan, it’s ironical that in the second week of the year I named the year of wellness, I broke my ankle.

Yup! What a start 😀

(Above: An oil painting study I painted on Jan 1st 2023)

So what do you do when you break your ankle at the start of the year where you decided to walk 10k+ steps 5 times a week? You re-caliberate!

So while the “physical” wellness part of it might have gone through a bit of a setback, there’s no reason for me to stop the rest of my plan. Specially the creative wellness part.

I’ll get into more about what I mean by creative wellness in the next one, but for now I’ll leave you with a few of my favourite discoveries from this week:

This video by Jess Karp on her Alphabet Project

Link:

This is the most beautiful video I’ve seen in a while. Everything from her process, to the finished artwork, to the cinematography, the music and the editing. I loved every little detail of it. It has given me a new wave of inspiration which shows how being creative can be so energising!

New artist I discovered: Tahlia Stanton

Link: https://www.youtube.com/@tahliastantonart

I sometimes describe art as “Good Smelling”. And her art is exactly that. It’s bright, energetic and happy - and so is she btw 🙂

What I’m reading: Beyond The Wand by Tom Felton

Links:

Amazon.in: https://www.amazon.in/dp/1529149428

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1538741369

As someone who had a huge crush on Tom Felton my entire childhood, this book is like finding gold and re-living the life of 13 year old Riddhi. It’s super interesting, easy to read and takes you back into the magical world you used to love as a kid.

That’s it for now, have a great week!

Love,

Riddhi.