Sign me up.

OK. I'm diving on in. A social media knocker for years, (and, sorry, but I will NEVER understand the Tweeting thing), I have decided to launch myself into the realm and see what it can do. And what I can do.

I am a mosaic artist living in the hills behind Byron Bay, at the Eastern-most tip of Australia. Like most hobby artists, or at least the ones I know, I make some little money through my artwork but always rely on other jobs to help pay the bills.

Me - I'm over it. I have hated most of the part-time jobs I have ever had in my life, from pulling beers to cleaning toilets to filing the damn paperwork, and as I approach my middle years I am getting less and less able to lie at interviews.

What I really want to do is to make artwork full-time, particularly mosaic artwork. I have never really trusted that I could do it, you know, live off my art. I didn't grow up with the idea that art was a 'real' job. It has always felt a bit like a really great hobby that I make some money from, and I guess I've been too chicken to really commit. Not now 'though.

Challenge Number One:

I hereby challenge myself to make my art my business - my successful business. Others do it - why not me?

Challenge Number Two:

I hereby challenge myself to shed the tag of 'Luddite' and learn to understand all this 'stuff'.

I like to write and I like to make things. I figure to put these together and write a bit about the things I make - hence the blog. I have loads of projects in my head. I think I will just start with one and blog about it as I go.

Challenge Number Three:

I will post in my blog once a week. Friday mornings is my plan, allowing for school variables.

I work better with given time-frames. Open-ended seems a little vague to me and frequently morphs into 'unfinished' or 'abandoned'. Sometimes, it transforms completely into 'never started'. I have decided to give myself a finite period of time to get a true grip on all these new goodies and change my hobby into a profession. It doesn't mean it all has to end there, and I don't presume everything will happen within that set time, but it does give me something to measure and plan for.

Challenge Number Four:

I hereby challenge myself to plan and work this fully for the next 12 months. I will reassess everything at the end of that time to determine my next step.

With all that in mind, my next post will be this coming Friday, Valentines Day, 14th February, 2014. I will write about my new project - the hows and the whys and the whatwiths.