RELAX AND ENJOY THE JOURNEY; Time, Pressure and the Professional Artist
I came to art from another world, the trial lawyering world. That world is one of time sensitive deadlines. Motions and responses are due in specific time frames. I absolutely HAD to be on time for court appearances. I billed clients by the hour so each hour was divided into six-minute increments. Time was regulated, divided, sliced and diced.
That was the world I came from. Boy, was I ever glad to leave the stress of lawyering, especially the hourly billing, which I assure you every lawyer hates.
Now when folks ask me how long it took to make something, I have two responses. First, I just laugh. I have no idea. I don’t even wear a watch when I create because if I got resin on it, it would be ruined. I never ever EVER want to keep track of my time again.
Second, I usually relate what pastel artist Tony Ortega said when someone asked him at a demo how long it would take to finish the demo piece. He said, “Four hours and twenty years.”
Good answer.
But recently I found myself stressed.
As a consequence of having lived in a world filled with deadlines (and because it is my personality to be this way), I lean toward focus, drive, production and ambition. Everything I read about being a professional artist says that I must make the production of art a top priority. In short, I am under pressure for I am a serious artist. I have to (make that want to) blog because that’s how one finds followers on social media, followers who buy your art. I want to create an artist talk that would be interesting to non-artists so I can shop the talk around to groups like Rotary, thereby exposing myself and my art to new audiences. I want to be a supportive friend so I attend art openings and post on Facebook about the opening. I attend artist talks both to support the artists who are speaking and to learn what artists say that resonates with the public. There are never enough hours in the day to do all of the things I'd like to do professionally as well as manage my personal life; my guy, exercise, cook, clean, laundry, etc.
Recently I found my self stressed out, all stressed out. I wasn’t meeting my own, self-imposed deadlines. I wasn’t creating enough. I wasn’t doing enough on social media. I wasn't blogging. I was wasting time on the wrong social media. I was too tired at night to attend every event that had a business purpose. In short, I felt that the pressure was overwhelming me.
This was ridiculous. As I told my gallery owner, I eat breakfast whether I sell art or not. The pressure to create and sell is all self imposed. So what was I doing to myself? No one else had these same expectations or demands of me. This was me, all me. This was my nonsense.
Fortunately, I had just picked up Arianna Huffington’s latest book, “Thrive”. “Thrive” is all about how we work too hard, don’t take time for ourselves and can’t seem to shut off overwhelming connectedness. I saw myself reflected in “Thrive”. It wasn’t a pretty picture.
The very reasonable suggestions in "Thrive" are all common sense. Shut off the computer. Meditate. Don’t get on email or social media until noonish. Exercise. Connect with nature and family. Put your health (and sanity!) first.
All of these are simple. All of these apply to artists.
So I plan to take my own advice and relax. Creating art is supposed to be fun, right? Why are we doing this if we don’t enjoy it? I will and do forgive myself when at the end of the week I didn’t get it all done.
I will relax and enjoy the journey. After all, the journey is all there is.
