01. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Became a social media director
Have the best boss I’d ever had become the worst
Go to St Louis for an extended period of time
Be married for a year (and counting!)
Get a full time job where I can be creative
02. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more?
No, and yes.
03. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Strangely, not this year.
04. Did anyone close to you die?
Luckily, no.
05. What countries did you visit?
The US of A.
06. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
A healthier body
A happier and healthier family
A gallery show out of the KC area
07. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
February 1st, the day I got out of the worst job I’d ever had and got into one where I have excelled.
08. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Selling two paintings while I was hanging them for a show.
09. What was your biggest failure?
Failure? I dunno. I had some mistakes I made, but every setback is something for me to learn from and grow from, so no, I don’t think I had any failures.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Oh yeah. Second heart attack. That was enough for the year.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Paint.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My cats Monkey and Korma. They amaze every day.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Long-time role models. When we’re younger, we don’t see the people we look up to as people just like us, making their own mistakes and sometimes exercising poor judgment. As we get older, that luster fades and we see them for what they are, and a lot of times that can be a big ol’ bummer.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent. Bills. Food.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Paying off old debt.
My last two solo shows.
One year wedding anniversary.
Getting a new job.
16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
‘Monster’, by Kanye West, Jay-Z, Bon Iver and Nicki Minaj. A lot of people tried to get in my way, to hold me down, to keep me from succeeding, and I just plowed right through them. Because I’m a motherfucking monster.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
Happier.
ii. thinner or fatter?
Fatter. Last time I type that in one of these.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Losing weight.
Painting.
Spending time with Katy.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Getting pissed off by a boss who ended up being of no consequence.
Worrying about my comic book art.
Spending time in the hospital.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
If it’s like this year, I’ll be busting ass on paintings for everyone in my family, and then seeing the delight on their faces when they open them up.
22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Maybe, finally, with myself and who I am.
Stayed in love with my wife, and maybe even more so.
23. How many one-night stands?
None.
24. What was your favourite TV program?
Friday Night Lights
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don’t hate. That’s a sign of weakness.
26. What was the best book you read?
Traditional? Supergods by Grant Morrison.
For Work? Social Media ROI by Olivier Blanchard
Comic? Love & Rockets (new work) volumes 3 and 4. Jaime Hernandez kills it in those!
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
28. What did you want and get?
A new job.
29. What was your favourite film of this year?
X-Men First Class? Wow, not a big year for movies.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Had dinner with family. 31.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
That great boss not becoming that bad boss. Most of the other bad crap spiraled out of that.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Rob 3.0. Jeans and a t-shirt.
34. What kept you sane?
Katy and the cats. Painting.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Pablo Picasso.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Occupy Wall Street.
37. Who did you miss?
That good boss who didn’t seem to exist anymore.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Jason Mize. Easily the best working relationship I’ve ever had outside of Andy Denzer.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Keep moving forward. When we get stuck on things that happened in the past, we don’t keep moving forward. We become stagnant.
The Tao Te Ching teaches:
The sage’s way,
Tao
is the way of water.
There must be water for life to be,
and it can flow wherever.
And water, being true to being water
is true
to Tao.
Those on the Way of Tao, like water
need to accept where they find themselves;
and that may often be where water goes
to the lowest places, and that is right.
Like a lake
the heart must be calm and quiet
having great depth beneath it.
The sage rules with compassion,
and this word needs to be trusted.
The sage needs to know like water
how to flow around the blocks
and how to find the way through without violence.
Like water, the sage should wait
for the moment to ripen and be right:
water, you know, never fights
it flows around
without harm.
Now mind you, the Tao Te Ching is mostly about being subservient and not questioning authority (as most religious texts are), so everything in it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. But this chapter has always stood out to me. We move in a linear way through time, always forward, always towards our destiny. Just like a stream of water. When we only focus on the past, and let our past keep us from moving forward, we become stagnant and not true to our nature.
I started the year working at the worst job I’d ever had, and feeling like there was no way out. Then I got the new job, but my boss had apparently gone crazy and turned into a horrible, horrible person to work for, calling me things like stupid and incompetent and that nothing I did was of value. But then he got let go, and I was promoted within a month. I had a solo show that I had been working on for months, only for the gallery owner to cancel it at the last minute, but that led to two really great shows, both with several pieces getting sold. I had the heart attack, but my body recovered.
Every obstacle at the time seemed insurmountable. Every one of them I let erode away with time and perseverance and strength of character. They’re all in my past, and that is where they will stay. Me? I’m moving forward.