Making art , or really making anything is not a linear process, creating something from nothing, artists are fighting the narrative of productivity , tortured artist stories and business hours . Creativity is not a clock in clock out situation. The ongoing struggle is real, competing needs, a world on fire and still I think that Artists and makers have never been more important. They have always been a dissenting voice its why they want us to be quiet.
I have been working on a few pieces together and once everything is wet I have to pause at least for it all to dry before I add the next layer of colour. I could extend the first layer by making my pieces bigger it would take more time before I ran out of dry spaces to paint but in reality I often have to go away and come back, sometimes because I don’t know what to do next and it takes time to come up with a solution, its not a linear process, at least not for me.
How do you know when to stop if you are not paying attention. The combination of hard work and easy flow , you can go too far sometimes , maybe no one else will notice but you will know. If you are working at night, the light is not the same maybe that matters maybe it doesn’t but you wont know until you have seen both .
Stopping to consider is part of the process, it is still work. I am still working, my brain is still thinking, resolving , renewing, redirecting, then I act. I think this is trial and error and comes from experience and trusting your own process .The line between done and overdone is so fine sometimes that in order to see it you need perspective or actual physical distance it can be just stepping back but often requires more. I am unendingly surprised that even if I leave the studio stuck or frustrated I often come back the next day and am less critical and can see more clearly . It’s like when you say a word over and over again it looses its meaning. You can’t see the wood for the trees.
Our eyes/brains are funny things , our brains fill in the gaps with information . One of the first things you are taught in drawing class is that you cannot trust your eyes. We do self portraits drawn upside down in a mirror to trick our brain and eyes into really looking at what is there. So walking away, snapping a picture on your phone is really a useful tool to change how you see what you are making .
I often wonder if this intense looking at things means that artists see the world more clearly when they are paying attention. I spend a lot of time taking pictures, capturing light , shapes , little vignettes which I will later come back to or mash together. My phone is filled with these.
My creative practice is infused with not just the actual studio time , or even researching something specific that is related to the project or piece you are working on it is a continuously shifting curiosity of listening, seeing, feeling and working in a rhythm which does not fit into a daily schedule and at the same time showing up most days counts.
pep talks and perspectives