I just read an interesting article about creative geniuses. The key to great ideas like Edison’s light bulb, sublime music like Beethoven’s “odd-numbered” symphonies, and influential plays like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is to be continuously working and creating. Not all ideas are good ideas, and not all works will bear fruit. But the people who have reached the pinnacle of success have been driven to create (in enormous quantity), for better or worse, and haven’t been afraid to fail.
As I look over the past year and my successes and failures, I am cheered by this perspective.
I worked at my “day job,” technical writing, for the first quarter of 2019, and then was lucky enough to spend the remainder of the year pursuing various interests and creative projects. I tried a lot of new things, and was generally happy with the results. Even when I may have failed (to live up to my idea of what I should achieve), I am still glad I gave it a try.
At the beginning of the year, I wrote down my goals for 2019 on a small piece of notepaper that I kept by my computer all year long. Every now and then I whited out some bits and added new items or details. I also took great joy in noting my progress on the goals and putting a checkmark beside the ones I accomplished.
Modeling
Modeling was the first item on my list. Although I didn’t have an agent, I had quite a successful first year as a model:
- A monthly style column, Karen’s Quirky Style, in West Village’s beloved WestView News, with my picture appearing every month
- A print ad for a local healthy juice restaurant, Juice & Joy
- Related video and sandwich board ads
- 2 photo shoots for glossy fashion magazines: The Face and Vogue — both amazing experiences!
- 2 photo shoots for clothing designers, for use on social media: New York’s Engineered by Andrea T, and London’s sustainable swimwear designer Elliss Clothing (photographed by the fantastic Rosie Marks)
- 1 runway gig at the United Nations
- 3 photos of me were on exhibit in an art show at the prestigious Salmagundi Club, and one of them won an award
- I launched a website and Instagram for Karen’s Quirky Style, as well as a line of tiny purse essentials called Purse Pals
I didn’t earn a wack of dough, but most of these gigs paid a bit, so I was actually paid for working as a model.
National Arts Club Membership
I fell in love with the National Arts Club (NAC) last year, when we had our graduation dinner there for the United Nations Association New York’s (UNA-NY) Worldview Institute leadership training program. I started attending their FashionSpeak Friday events, and set a goal of becoming a member. I put quite a bit of attention into creating a resume and application worthy of this institution, and with the help of two wonderful sponsors, Francis Dubois and Phillip Edward Spradley, I became a member on May 28, 2019!
What a thrill. I attended a gala there honoring the best-selling and much beloved author John Irving. (I also attended a UNA-NY gala honoring those who have worked to end human trafficking. I was blown away by the enormity of this problem when I researched this subject for a story for WestView News.)
Photojournalist for WestView News
This was not on my to-do list at the beginning of 2019, but WestView News became an enormous part of my life this past year. I researched and wrote more than 40 stories for them (which would make the State of California deem me an employee—one of the 2019 larger news stories that made all freelance journalists shiver). One of my stories was even a cover story! Thank you, George, publisher and dear friend. It was fascinating to interview people and write about them, and made me feel a happy part of the West Village community.
But more than that, I became friends with many people at the paper and feel like I’ve found another family here in New York. This has been a tremendous blessing in my life. I feel so lucky to contribute to one of the last remaining local Village papers in New York. (You may recall that the Village Voice closed in August 2018. Lincoln Anderson was fired from the Villager in October 2019, heralding a new era of schlock.)
Photography Course & Video Series
As I mentioned previously in a story about taking my friend’s portrait, I started an online Master Class with wizard Annie Leibovitz in the fall of 2018, and it was on my to-do list to finish the course in 2019. Aargh! Failure! I still have about 7 lessons left to do, and my membership expired.
But on the plus side, the course has been a huge inspiration, and I have had a few great impacts from the course:
- My work was exhibited at the Salmagundi Club. (Picture shown above.) I learned about professional photo retouchers, printing, mounting, and framing. I was very happy with the result hanging on the wall.
- I accompanied almost every published article for WestView with my own photos.
- I did another photo series in the same vein as Warhol in the Forest, called Warhol in the Park.
- I did another class through the site, taught by Anna Wintour, and it was very inspiring. Main takeaway—be inspired by life around you. Hello, New York!
- I also took a workshop on video storytelling through the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
- And Wow! I did 13 videos for YouTube in 2019. My goal was to do one a month to add to my New York Love Affair video art project, but I always feel like I’m neglecting my pet project. I guess I didn’t do too badly.
This was a very fruitful, creative part of my life and yet I feel like it is a demon, always chasing me to do more! I went through about 10,000 photos (from New York only) to find appropriate images to enter in the Greenwich Village exhibit at the Salmagundi Club. Of those, I entered six, and one was chosen. And didn’t sell. So I feel this tremendous urge to produce, but I don’t feel that I have succeeded fully. Partially, yes. It was a great honor to have my work accepted in the exhibit. (It was an item I added to the list partway through the year, when I received an email about it from Village Preservation.)
However, in March I have a solo exhibit for Shadow Play, phase four. We’ll see what happens there! (More details on that later.)
Shoebook.me
Failure! Or I’m not sure what to call it. This was a genius idea I had for social networking for shoes, Christmas Day, a week before I moved to New York. People like the idea, and I’ve got the domain name, built the site once and took it down, started again, and then abandoned it. I guess I am pulled in other directions. Perhaps I’ve lost my enthusiasm for shoes? [Moment to ponder additions to my shoe collection this year. Hmmm.]
Honestly, I needed all of these shoes. Well, most of them…
- Rubber boots to wear when I clean the shower with CLR
- Two cool pairs of sneaks to wear while travelling in Scotland, London, and Paris
- Pink feathery boots for my second Karen’s Quirky Style column, in April 2019
- Wingtip brogues were actually a re-do; I stripped and painted these 70s-style platform boots for my David Bowie tribute performance at the NAC
- Black flip-flops replaced an old pair, and I wear them all the time for doing errands around my building
- Rainbow flipflops – cute mistake
- Silver Margaux flats – just a mistake; I thought I could eventually like them, but it never happened. And I didn’t get any ad revenue from them, either! Moral of this story: never buy ugly shoes, even if you think they will be comfortable.
But I guess I have been following too many alluring tracks this past year to sit down and focus on shoebook.me. Maybe in 2020! I’m not putting it on the list, so don’t hold your breath.
Dance Parade
Yup! This was a lot of fun. I set the goal of participating, and couldn’t find anyone to go with me, so I joined another group and had an amazing time.
In addition, I’ve continued to study ballet at the world-renowned Joffrey Ballet School, and I took a couple of classes at Lincoln Center, taught by dancers from the New York City Ballet. What an amazing opportunity. Plus, of course, classes at Barre3 five times a week. When I had to stop running in 2018, I was worried about losing my figure, and also my sanity. I’ve managed to retain the former through Barre3, and found another family there as well. As for the latter, it might be highly over-rated!
New York Love Affair Website
This is another partial success. I had the domain name loveaffair.nyc for quite some time. When I first created the 20-minute video of excerpts from my New York Love Affair series for the Vancouver International Film Festival, I created the site to support the video series. But I never kept it up, so this year I folded it into this very website that you are looking at now.
I rebranded this site Wild Visions: Love Affair NYC. I didn’t want to lose the tremendous SEO I’ve achieved with the bcwildernessvisions URL, so I’ve kept it, and I point loveaffair.nyc to this site. I also revamped the graphic design a bit, and added an email sign-up option. Go ahead, sign up!
You won’t be inundated, as this is simply a monthly blog. If you want to dip into my New York doings from time to time, this is the place.
Total Blog Entries in 2019
I mentioned above that I wrote over 40 stories for WestView News in 2019. I also wrote lots of blog entries:
- This website: 12
- karenrempel.com: 6
- karensquirkystyle.nyc: 30
I would have to count this as a rousing success! Almost 50 blog entries. This is probably what gives me the most satisfaction of everything I do. But wait… Every time I sing I feel a mix of euphoria and angst (wishing I was better). And there’s nothing like the feeling of dancing freely to music that moves me…
This year I’ve continually asked myself the question what am I meant to do? What is calling my heart?
I’ve sung, danced, modeled, written, photographed, created videos, and in general explored my artistic passions to the fullest of my capacity within a given year. I love all of these activities. I guess there is no single answer to what satisfies the heart. Except, perhaps, a singular mystical answer about abiding in the mystery. So they say!
Friends and Family
The recap of the year wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the amazing richness I have in my life, of friendships and wonderful times with my family. My cousins Irma and Julie and Stephan visited New York and we saw many amazing special corners of New York. My Mom and I went to Arizona with my dear friends Sally and Bill, and I also went on trips with Deborah (Scotland) and Rosanna (Switzerland), plus dipped into London, Manchester, Paris, and Big Sur. Wow. Some friendships may have ended last year, but many wonderful new friendships have begun, and I am very grateful for the ongoing friendships with people in BC, New York, and around the world. Thanks especially to all the friends who came to hear my Bowie performance. That meant so much to me.
The focus of this entry was on creative flow, so I didn’t touch on everything I did this year, but of course there were also many fantastic cultural events and lots of fun time with friends. All of this gladdens my heart and brings more inspiration in a reinforcing cycle of creativity.
Where’s the Money?
You might have noticed that in the upper left corner of my notepaper list for 2019, I had written a high number. I didn’t earn anywhere close to that. Not even a quarter of it! True, I only worked at my day job for one quarter of the year. I had hoped that some of these various endeavors might have led to a new income stream. Not yet!
But I have always looked to my technical writing career to pay the bills. I didn’t want to put any strain on the creative stream to have to be successful. That way the creative expression can be pure joy and love. My art doesn’t have to suit other people. I don’t have to convince anyone of its merit. It’s 90% creative flow for its own sake, as an unstoppable source emerging from my being. But there’s still that 10% that hopes someone will like it!
I guess in that sense, it has been a successful year. I hope yours was too. Thanks for reading. And all the best to you in 2020. There is much possibility for hope and positive change in the new decade.