A Year Rolls to a Close

It seemed to me that the blistering days of summer 2025 would never end, then we seemed to have about three hours of fall before the holiday season descended. It may be a bit early for resolutions, but I find myself ruminating on another year drawing to a close and thinking about goals for the year ahead..

I've invested heavily in my development as an artist this year, and it has paid off nicely. The year began with me biting the bullet and enrolling in Nicholas Wilton's Creative Visionary Program (CVP). As the year concludes, my painting, Rosetta Stone, has been accepted into the highly competitive Abstract National Exhibition. It's been a heck of a ride! And yet I know I have barely begun the journey - a journey that demands I push deeper and deeper in the months ahead. It's good to feel that a tiny victory lap is justified, and it's good to know that I have more hard work to do.

Going into CVP, I felt confident that the program was exactly what I needed, yet I had a nagging worry. Most of the participants were painters, the program was geared to painters, and "mixed media" was about as close as I could get to owning an identity as a painter. I decided to relax, show up, and trust the process. In the background and despite not being a "painter", I had, for some time, been dancing around the use of oil and cold wax medium like a moth to a flame, dabbling and retreating, and then dabbling some more. Somewhere along the CVP way, a switch finally flipped. I was painting, I had no hesitation to name myself a painter, and I was up to my elbows in the yummy world of oil and cold wax. Looking back, I was primed and ready, and CVP pushed me over the edge.

I end the year much more confident in myself as an artist, and I have taken a truly meaningful step into the bold, free, authentic expression my heart yearns for. Those are big wins. I acknowledge them.

Rosetta Stone, by Wanda Oliver, 30x24, oil and cold wax medium, 2025.

What do I need to work on in 2026? The art inside me is bigger, bolder, messier, more expansive, and more sculptural than anything I have yet done. I need to rip away another layer of encrustation and let it out.