Creative Inspirations
I thought to illustrate here the battle with time I often have. It is about needing to get some own work done amidst all the family and other work commitments that compete for my time. Being an artist with children at 5 and 1 years of age is not always easy. Luckily my bookbinding studio adjoins our home. It is the only way I can hope to get any creative work done. If I waited for long stretches of undisturbed personal time to spend in the studio, I’d never get any own work done – because I’d never make it into the studio in the first place. I currently need to be content with snatching ten minutes here, a half an hour there, and only occasionally getting a luxurious few hours at a time. But the need to create is so deeply engrained, growing so fervent at times that a few minutes here and there is better than none at all. I always thought I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything in such broken bits. It’s amazing what necessity facilitates. I have learned to switch in a fraction of a second into deep concentration that seamlessly carries on from the last such moment. And the miracle of it is… several ten minute moments do eventually build up, and a little by little a personal project completes, ends up a finished piece. Which wouldn’t exist if I waited for those several undisturbed studio hours at a time.
This is the first and only time I have ever recorded to the very minute a project takes. Writing down all the start and end times, this is how one of my recent projects got completed in just over 40 hours:
Day 1
9.30-10.05 | 10.35-11.50 | 15.30-17.40 | 23.15-00.15
Day 2
8.55-9.10 | 10.00-11.00 | 11.15-12.30 | 13.00-16.20 | 17.05-18.00
Day 3
11.55-12.40
Day 4
13.35-14.00 | 18.35-19.15 | 19.45-20.00
Day 5
11.20-12.20 | 20.40-20.50
Day 6
18.30-18.50
Day 7
8.40-12.00 | 13.30-14.45 | 15.10-18.00 | 20.55-23.15
Day 8
9.00-10.00 | 10.50-12.30 | 16.00-17.00 | 17.50-18.50
Day 9
8.20-9.45 | 10.10-12.50 | 13.30-17.20 | 18.30-19.40 | 22.00-23.45
Day 10
21.40-21.55
~
Artist book: a scroll triptych
‘Mother, Daughter and the Holy Spirit’
acrylic & ink on stitched canvas, 2010
I think we have the same schedule! Isn’t it amazing what you can get done in small chunks of time? The piece is beautiful, by the way…as is your daughter (and she looks so proud!)!
Maggie said this on August 26th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
I just stumbled across your website while looking up book-binding and I have to tell you that your work is amazing! I love that you focus so much on texture and abstraction in your art books. I want to touch all of them but for now I’ll have to be content with just the photos
And speaking of the photos, they are also really lovely as well! It’s wonderful to see some of the process of your work but that those images are also composed with care. I love it and I’m going to link you on my blog!
Melika said this on September 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Thank you so much for your comments, both Maggie and Melika. Much appreciated!
Mia said this on September 2nd, 2010 at 10:52 pm
I paint in oils in my garage, which is shared with other non-art related activities. I also have a wife who would rather have me in view(!) andmakes comments like “haven’t you anything better to do”. As a result, my painting time tends to be Saturday mornings when she is at the gym or at odd times when I have time in the evening. It’s not ideal but I’ve learned to live with it.
By the way, my wife finds art boring and can’t understand my need to paint.
David said this on July 5th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
David, I’m pleased to hear about others sharing the lack of time problem! Seeing from your website, you’re clearly accomplished. I’m glad you keep going. Art is like oxygen, it’s suffocating to not be able to engage in it. I often say that I have three children, the third one being my creative work – and if the third child is left without the attention it needs, the result is a tantrum, just like with the other two
Mia said this on July 6th, 2011 at 6:20 pm