Most artists have problems getting to work from time to time. It just seems too much to pick up the pencil, sit at the computer, go to the quilting frame. And there is a pile of laundry. And you are working today till 6 anyway. The difference between successful artists and “wishing” artists is ritual.
Running in circles
If you work in an office, you have a morning routine. Whether you get up and shower or get up and exercise, have breakfast and then shower, you have a routine. And that routine is probably timed down to the exact second, either by time or by what’s on the TV or radio. It gets you out of the house and into the office on time.
Creating a ritual for art is exactly the same thing as a routine for work. A ritual legitimizes your effort, eliminates distractions and assigns a top priority to your artwork. As long as your artwork doesn’t have a priority higher than the laundry or watching TV, it won’t get done. And you set the priority every day of your life.
Your art work is powerful, but not powerful enough to overcome your resistance and drag you into your studio. You have to do the work. And that means shifting priorities. To art. Why is that worth it? Because art makes meaning in your life. It helps you understand yourself, your world, your journey. It’s also uncomfortable sometimes to face the meaning you make in art, so it’s easy to shove it aside.
The ritual doesn’t have to be complex. Decide ahead of time when you will do art. Choose a whole hour. Set a timer to ring 10 minutes beforehand to give yourself time to quit what you are doing. Make a cup of coffee or tea, grab the cup and head to the studio. No excuses. Once you get in the habit, it will first get much harder to meet your ritual. The phone will ring, the kids will demand your attention, a crisis will erupt. Keep to your schedule. In about a week, it will suddenly get easier.
Your morning routine works because your job brings in money and you have given it permission to take over your life. Give your art a chance, too. It brings meaning to your life. And as my mantra says, “you don’t find meaning in life, you make meaning in your life.” Give meaning a chance.
–Quinn McDonald is an artist and writer. She is a life- and creativity coach who helps people create meaning in their life.
Perfect post, perfect timing! This is one of my biggest hurdles to overcome. I know how much of a release art is for me but when I get “hit up side the head” by life, I don’t allow myself to unwind with my art.
I am getting better at giving myself an hour with my art, even if I don’t have anything specific in mind to create. I work on small pieces that I can possibly use in a larger piece, in the future. But even something small and “willy nilly” can bring me back to center. If I can just remember this on a DAILY basis.
Thanks for this post Quinn! Priorities, priorities.
I can write about it because I know soooooo much about pushing art to the back and doing “important” things like answering emails!
I’m very curious about artist block. Most people experience it, but it has never happened to me, nor to one other artist friend of mine. Everyone else I know personally, or have heard of, has experienced it from time to time. Beyond the fact that I guess I’m lucky and I am very happy about this, I must admit that I feel a little unconnected with the mainstream, because I don’t understand being blocked. Ever since I was a child, I could spend time making art at any given moment and be happy and productive. It has always been my practice to have several things going at once, and I have never felt the need to finish one piece of art before starting the next, as I have always believed that some works take longer to evolve than others, so unfinished pieces do not cause me the stress or anxiety that I’ve heard other artists express. I usually have something on the easel, something on the table, a few (or more) on-going sketchbooks, and two or three things that are portable. When I’m not working on one, I’m working on another, and everything I see and hear along the way is fodder for art. And when no subjects from the outside capture my interest, I start digging from the inside, doodling, coloring-in, collaging, etc. Not because I’m trying to get over a block, but because it’s a fun and very compelling process that leads to unexpected results.
I hope you don’t mind the long comment. This is a subject that I’m very interested in, and I truly wonder — maybe even agonize a little– over what it is that makes me (and my friend whose name I’ll withhold for her privacy) so very different in this respect. I feel perfectly comfortable that art is my priority, and any tension I feel has to do with other things intruding upon or interrupting my artwork. I get everything else done also, and it doesn’t matter to me if I work 15 min. at a time or 6 hours. Given the option, I’d spend 6 to 8 hour days in the studio, then go out and do something completely different for the rest of the day, but when that’s not an option, 15 min. works. I just adjust to make it happen. And knowing that this is not the way many other people experience artwork does make me feel a little odd.
Every artist feels, works, thinks and creates in the way that makes meaning for them. Some find it easy, some find more digging necessary. As a creativity coach, I have a tendency to stand with my arm around the shoulder of the stuck, the blocked, frustrated, and afraid. That doesn’t mean there aren’t happy artists, who never furrow their brows over work/life balance, pricing their work, or struggling with the “to sell or not to sell” questions. Art is how we make meaning in life. And you seem to have found an artesian well of meaning making. That’s a GOOD thing!
trying hard to establish a ritual. don’t even have eh excuse of kids interrupting, though there is THE CAT…I am going to my worktable NOW!!! but have a quote to share with you: the only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary. Mary Kurtz…
Good quote–I just hope it’s true. I know that I do a lot of housework to avoid the studio. And yes, a ritual helps!