I'm the kind of artist who enjoys making New Year's resolutions.

It was only a year ago that I started using Twitter, and I began with Facebook during the summer, and while these have both been great tools for my art and writing career, it has come to the point where I need to do the bulk of my work offline.

It's been great fun to help other artists out individually by answering their questions, being active on forums, and retweeting interesting articles that interest other artists... but now the time has come to invest more seriously in my own work, and that means spending more time in the studio, and writing on a computer that isn't connected to the Internet.

This might seem a little selfish, but it's the only way I know to get back to my career faithfully. The Internet is just to much of a seductive place to spend the bulk of my day. Then at the end of the day, I have nothing to show for my time except a slightly overloaded and confused mind and a lonely studio.

Yes, I will be actively writing for Fine Art Views, working on my ebooks, writing instructional articles for Watercolor Magazine, and contributing to American Artist's online forum. I occasionally write articles for Workshop Magazine, but only plan to do one or two of those a year.

The truth is, I miss that time alone in my studio or notebook where I create and ponder - with soft music and my muse. As much as I enjoy helping others, I need to be who I am, and that is an artist and writer. I hope you understand and will support me in this effort. You'll still hear from me on twitter and facebook and on forums, but not as often and when I have something to contribute that seems important.

It's been a wonderful and exciting year, and you artists out there have made it so. It's time to make a few adjustments so that I am more productive and can be better at what I do. Thank you all!
Sincerely,
Lori