Summer solstice - life updates, reflections, lessons learnt?
- alicekrieits
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
Wow, we’ve passed the halfway mark of the year already! Where has that time gone? Because truthfully, the first couple of months of 2025 dragged their heels like a toddler throwing a tantrum, but since we hit spring, woosh, that time has flown by. The summer solstice was only a couple of weekends ago - the official marker of the middle of the year - and June has been my busiest month of the year, so I've been feeling a little reflective of my 2025 so far. It has also been 6 months since my last blog post (despite having 4 others drafted!!), so I thought I would share my reflections; what have I achieved, any lessons learned and, if I have ticked any goals off my bingo card?
So, the short answer to the latter is, yes; I have ticked off…drumroll please…ONE of my goals!!
“Be commissioned by a business/council”. I was in fact commissioned by a local family run business; Lathcoats Farm Shop in Galleywood, Chelmsford, to draw their new menu boards for the coffee shop (aka The Bee Shed).
Now, this deserves two shout outs for my art career, because I used to work in Lathcoats when I was 16, up until I was 21 – through school and university – and I would draw little handmade signs for the shop floor. Then someone one day said “can you make me a card - I’ll pay you”. So, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of my Instagram you can see the first card I was commissioned to make. A year later, Katie, one of the family members, commissioned me to draw her wedding signs for her – which kick started my wedding pieces too. And now all these years later, Katie has returned, and she asked me to draw up these menu signs. I think I am correct in remembering Katie is a graphic designer by trade, so needless to say the designs for the signs were great before I even touched them, and in this instance all I had to do was replicate. They kept me very busy for 2 solid weeks; lots of painting, measuring, and very careful writing! (I would go into more detail but I think that deserves a whole blog post of its own). But it was so nice to be invited back to create this piece for Lathcoats, and I’m chuffed with how they turned out.
*Also, I’m extra pleased because Katie came to me through my website, so the proof is in the pudding folks – make a website!
I should say though, truthfully, this was not the goal I expected to be ticking off first, and despite all the excitement of such a fun project, I did find myself feeling a little frustrated that after 6 months of the year I have only ticked off “one goal”. I do often struggle with my “productivity” - I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to be always doing art, and then forget that I do have a whole job, 5days a week, as well friendships and a relationship I want to nurture, a desire to exercise, a home to keep clean, and all the boring life activities! But I guess this has given me an important reflective moment to see that the original intention of the bingo card was to make something fun without setting strict new year’s resolutions. And also a moment to remind myself that I have been busy making art and achieving things that aren’t on my bingo list.
So I guess I am learning, in the words of Dory from Finding Nemo, that I should “just keep swimming” because I am making art, however slow it sometimes feels, and that's okay if it feels slow. It's also okay if, when given a deadline, I smash out the art in 2weeks, or if I’m not given a deadline, it might take me 6months. But this time has also given me a chance to look at my bingo card and reflect on the ones I am closer to achieving, the ones I could achieve if I put my mind to it, and then start putting things in place to achieve some more of those goals.
Please stay tuned as I navigate this journey, this art/work/life balance, and ultimately my love for making art, and making art for people. Till next time! (which is hopefully sooner than 6 months!!!)
Alice
Lathcoats Farmshop (shoutout!)
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