Make use of time, let not advantage slip;
Beauty within itself should not be wasted:
Fair flowers that are not gather’d in their prime
Rot and consume themselves in little time.
–William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
It’s the busiest and most stressful time of my painting year. I am in the midst of preparing work for my two annual solo shows and time always feels as though time comes with a premium. I learned a long time back that in order to do what needs to be done, I would have to make sacrifices with things that consumed my time. To do that, I needed to learn to say no to many things.
It wasn’t easy for me. I like to please people and saying no seemed to fly in the face of that. But I soon learned that it might be one of the most valuable tools in my artist’s toolbox.
Time is space and space is needed in order to create.
When I speak to young people who want to be artists, the two things I advise them is to learn to say no and to learn to be comfortable without people around. Maybe it’s me, but I have been surprised how many kids’ faces have sagged noticeably on hearing this advice.
I have ran the following post from 2013 several times in the past about The Power of No. It has a link to a great article that I still use to remind myself of the power in saying no. It’s worth a look.
There’s an interesting article on the website Medium by tech pioneer Kevin Ashton (best known for coining the phrase “the internet of things“) called Creative People Say No. In it he talks about how productive creatives —productive is the key word here– understand the limitations of their time here and as a result weigh every request for their time against what they might produce in that time. It immediately struck a chord with me as I have known for many years that my time as both a living human and artist are limited and that for me to ever have a chance of capturing that elusive intangible answer that goads me forward, always just a step ahead of me and just out of sight, than I have to mete out my time judiciously. We have X numbers of hours and doing something other than that which I recognize as my purpose represents a real choice.
Ashton echoes my own feelings when he writes:
Time is the raw material of creation. Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating. Creating consumes. It is all day, every day. It knows neither weekends nor vacations. It is not when we feel like it. It is habit, compulsion, obsession, vocation.
So, over the last 15 years, I have wrestled over every choice that takes time away from the studio, in most cases declining invitations to all sorts of functions and putting off travelling and vacations. Even a morning cup of coffee with friend or family requires serious debate. For a while I thought I was agoraphobic but I suspect that’s not the case. I just view my time here on Earth as extremely limited and shrinking at a constant rate with each passing day.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a painter friend a number of years ago. He had brought up the name of a well-known painter/illustrator whose work he admired who was incredibly productive. My friend bemoaned the fact that he himself wasn’t as productive and wondered how this person could do so much. In the conversation he told me about all the activities that his life held– travelling, classes, music sessions with friends, league sports, and time with his kids. I couldn’t bring myself to point out that he would have to start sacrificing something in order to be as productive as this other artist. It was obvious that his X number of hours were spent differently than the other artist, who I should point out also had a studio staff with a manager and dozens of assistants to boost his productivity.
I can’t say that my friend should have said ‘no’ to any of the things he did. He made the choices that he felt were right for him and who could argue that his kids didn’t deserve even more of his time?
I think of this conversation quite often when I am faced with a choice other than spending time in the studio. Even writing this blog entry is gnawing at me because it has exceeded the amount of time I want to spend on it this morning. That being said, I am going to stop right here and get back to that thing that I feel that I have to do.
Read the article. It’s a good essay.
Redtree Times 