I have mentioned to others that the amount of time I spend creating new images is probably 10% of the time I spend printing, matting, framing or generally working on the business end of being a full time artist. A woodworker I mentioned this to didn’t know how I survived emotionally not being creative more often.
After reading the blog entry of Daniel Sroka, an artist whose work I admire, I started trying the at least one-hour-of-art-a-day plan. If this works out to being true even 4 days a week, I’ll be way ahead of where I was.
The trick to it I think is to create without purpose. Allowing myself to simply explore visually as I please and not worry about what to do with any particular image I make. This will free me to be creative just for me. Who knows what will come of it, but I do sense already that when I am in the field in a position to create, I will be more well-tuned and in creative shape to do my best work.
Here’s a piece I made in our front garden after a morning dew (on chives). I find water drops endlessly fascinating and have used this garden fairy statue before as a muse. Something about her face is appealing to me. I desaturated the image and added a sepia tone. The image was made with one of my favorite lenses, the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro, handheld while sprawled out on the ground. Being that I was working in the front yard, yea, neighbors were watching.
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Beautiful photo and excellent plan. An hour a day sounds so achievable, but being a writer, I know a solid hour is hard to come by. Thanks for the reminder that creating needs to be a priority.
Thank you for the comment and visit! It’s cliche I know, but just getting started is the key. Once I grab my camera and go outdoors, I’m good for at least an hour of work.
Hi Paul, thanks for the shout-out! I think you nailed it on the head: that the whole trick to making art every day is to “create without purpose”. If I try to over think my creative time, I seize up like a badly tuned engine. So I am trying to use these short bursts of creativity as a way to loosen up the brain, and to just see what happens. So far, this week has been pretty good. Some good work, some bad, but (and this is the important part) I got to work and kept at it!
What lead me back to photography after taking a several years detour into the fiber arts, was that I needed a break from all the textile work, so I made a pact to take a photo a day no matter what. It’s been about 5 years since I started doing that, and I still pretty much stick to it. Although I may not *take* a photo daily, I create an image daily. Sometimes they are keepers, sometimes they aren’t. But for all the ones that aren’t keepers there’s learning and growth as an artist.
I’m more the opposite though – I think I need to set aside an hour a day to tackle the business end of things!