Looking Back and Moving Forward

The other night my husband, Eric, and I sat in a restaurant looking through all of our pictures from this past year and choosing our favorites from each month.

Insert a cute picture of us...

I have a bad tendency of crossing things off of my To Do list and forgetting they ever happened. As the New Year was approaching last week, I was really getting down on myself, feeling like I hadn't worked hard enough or grown in the ways I wanted. But sitting in that restaurant with Eric was for me a bright light into the last year and a reminder moving forward to stop being so hard on myself!

Here are my top 3 highlights that I had as an artist in 2022...

1. I completed my first ever mural! And then my second....and third... Before this year it had never crossed my mind that I would enjoy murals, and yet here we are.

Discover Campervan Mural

2. August was the month dedicated to honoring my son, Tucker Colt Pantuso. He would have turned 1 on August 31, 2022. I created an interactive project with others through social media and received amazing submissions from people across the country and world. I also trained for and competed in a sprint triathlon and was supported always by amazing family and friends. Thank you thank you thank you for remembering my son. It means everything to me.

3. Eric and I were able to visit some amazing places and I drew the whole way! We lived in Omaha for over a month, visited Chicago, backpacked in the Colorado mountains, etc. This last year I tried to create easy opportunities in my life to create art for the "in-between" moments. Whether it was in the car, sitting at home watching TV, or exploring the outdoors, I tried to find easy ways to keep art-making in my daily life.

Since I have a tendency to put too much pressure on myself (as we all probably do at times), I am focusing less on yearly resolutions and instead just taking things week by week. Here is to ringing in a New Year where hopefully we can be a tad bit kinder to ourselves and others.