Thank you for your patience with having to wait a bit to see my musings. Returning from Germany and the collaboration and exhibition opportunities the trip engendered put me back a bit. I lacked time for reflection, one of my key ways of processing experiences and creating artwork. In addition to my 30 year career as an artist I also run a business and manage a non-profit office in Milwaukee. Time needed for creation can be eaten up by income earning work.
My thoughts these past weeks, leading into 2020 have been on time. How do I make time and space to sit with my creativity? Only when I sit with my work do I have a chance to really feel new ideas develop. It can look like me sitting and doing nothing, the greatest conundrum in art, it looks like you aren’t working when you are. If I rush to create the results are usually flat and unsatisfying. When I take time to ponder, staring at the blank paper or painting surface and hold space for surprise, I find that I create a more intense, robust, joyful, complicated work – one that connects history, humanity, and absurdity. I can create a piece that celebrates life and our human foibles, all from taking time to do “nothing” in the face of pressure to “do something.” I wonder if other artists require similar “do nothing time” to open up to creative development?