Being an Artist
I bought some big paper today that is acid free. It's 18x24. I want to draw or paint on it without feeling "pressure" to do something "fantastic". I hope I will do something on it soon.
I've been contemplating myself, the artist, lately. That might sound a little haughty, and perhaps it is.
A while back I read an article about a woman who started writing novels. She got them printed, and continued writing a series of novels with the same characters. She mentioned that she treated her writing (her art) like actual work. She gets up in the morning and writes for 6 or 7 hours, then works on the business side of it in the afternoon.
I've been thinking that setting aside a few hours of art time would be a good thing to do. I think part of my reluctance is that I often work on art when I'm struck by inspiration and can't do anything but draw or paint out my idea. I end up with some nice pieces this way, but I don't create a lot of work, and most of my efforts are rather disjointed and don't fit together as a cohesive portfolio.
There's also the fear of the big blank page which also intimidates me to some extent, which is why I've stuck to small scale stuff in sketchbooks for so long. The big paper is my first step toward leaving that fear behind, and I think it's something I'm just going to have to practice getting used to.
Overall what I'm saying is that I'd like to become more disciplined and deliberate about creating art. Not that I want that rigidity to translate into the work itself, but just so that I can get in the flow of making art everyday, and get used to being creative more often. I've known this for a while, and there are plenty of things I could blame it on, but ultimately I'm here now, and I do have time, and it's high time I start setting up that structure in my day.
I've been contemplating myself, the artist, lately. That might sound a little haughty, and perhaps it is.
A while back I read an article about a woman who started writing novels. She got them printed, and continued writing a series of novels with the same characters. She mentioned that she treated her writing (her art) like actual work. She gets up in the morning and writes for 6 or 7 hours, then works on the business side of it in the afternoon.
I've been thinking that setting aside a few hours of art time would be a good thing to do. I think part of my reluctance is that I often work on art when I'm struck by inspiration and can't do anything but draw or paint out my idea. I end up with some nice pieces this way, but I don't create a lot of work, and most of my efforts are rather disjointed and don't fit together as a cohesive portfolio.
There's also the fear of the big blank page which also intimidates me to some extent, which is why I've stuck to small scale stuff in sketchbooks for so long. The big paper is my first step toward leaving that fear behind, and I think it's something I'm just going to have to practice getting used to.
Overall what I'm saying is that I'd like to become more disciplined and deliberate about creating art. Not that I want that rigidity to translate into the work itself, but just so that I can get in the flow of making art everyday, and get used to being creative more often. I've known this for a while, and there are plenty of things I could blame it on, but ultimately I'm here now, and I do have time, and it's high time I start setting up that structure in my day.