Sarah Shotts - A Year of Making

    <figure class="
          sqs-block-image-figure
          intrinsic
        " style="max-width:1080px">
      
    
    

    
      
        
      <div class="image-block-wrapper">
        <div class="sqs-image-shape-container-element
          
      
    
          has-aspect-ratio
        " style="position: relative;padding-bottom:125%;overflow: hidden">
            
            
            
            
            
            
            
            <img src="http://sarahshottsblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/b6fa8-bd35bdc3-4e96-485f-bbc3-39da94ac5f7c.jpeg" alt="" width="1080" height="1350" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">

        </div>
      </div>
    
      
    

    
  
    </figure>
  

</div>

Looking back on my year of making.

The new year promised a fresh start after the struggle of 2020 (even if it was mostly symbolic.) I also had a brand new studio, and some time to myself each weekday as Davy started Montessori. These new supports made a huge positive impact on my mental health this year, and they gave me more time for making.

My experience of time is not fixed. Time expands and contracts based on when and how often I engage with my interests. So when I write and make time feels expansive. When I don’t it crushes in on me and feels very suffocating. This is one of my biggest struggles as a neurodivergent artist mama.

This year I’ve swung wildly between those two feelings.

Currently I’m in Mama Bear sick family survival mode so it kind of feels like I never made anything and never will again. Thankfully I drafted this blog post last week. I started it for my patrons to show what types of work they supported this year, but decided to share it here.

Learning how to navigate fractured time has been a huge theme in my work these past two years. I certainly didn’t make something every day, but looking back I made so much more than I did in 2020. This is largely due to pivoting to whichever project I had the bandwidth for in that moment.

Here is my year in review. Everything I completed, started, and abandoned. (This list doesn’t include ongoing projects like journaling, Patreon, baking, or holiday crafts.)