Hello, all!
Back for my monthly (loose term) update. The title for today’s post came from an image one of my best friends sent to me. I made it the wallpaper on my phone because it really is those little things that build up to something amazing, which is why someone seems like an overnight success, but their success was really a decade or more in the making. For example, artist of many hats Lisa Congdon.
I have been doing little things here and there to educate myself about my craft and my field, as well as continuing to make and experiment. One of these things was going to a lecture by Lisa Congdon which was about her book Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic. The talk was wonderful, she signed my book (!), and I finally accepted two important pieces of advice.
For YEARS, I have struggled with working consistently and dedicating a time each day to making something. I like to experiment and work for eight hour stints when I can dedicate a day to it. As Lisa said, even just making something for 15 minutes each weekday keeps your artistic muscle nimble and flexible. One artist friend of hers wakes up at 5 am each day to hone her craft, which she did admit was hard at first, but then she started to look forward to having that time for her passion everyday. My goal is not to wake up at 5am everyday because that just makes me laugh about how ridiculous that would be for me, but being mindful about how I spend my day and being as productive as possible? I can do that. Lisa also said to not only schedule in your art making time, but also the other aspects of an artist’s life, from researching packaging for your art prints, to writing a grant, or to documenting your work. I was like, yasss, Lisa, those are all vital things that need my attention! So, creating blocks of time for the making of things that you need to make, that you want to make, that you would like to learn more about, are essential to being productive as an artist. And are essential to self-care.
The other takeaway from her book that also sunk in was creating bodies of work around a central theme or giving yourself an experimentation assignment to explore. One of hers was creating something using only the color blue everyday. Another artist friend of hers created a different character everyday. I haven’t decided on my experimentation assignment yet, but I am leaning towards her blue idea because the examples she showed us from that body of work were so beautiful. Maybe I should create a blue character everyday? I would like to get away from using reference images and just draw the things I like in order to develop my own visual language. And there it is. My assignment for myself. Thank you, gang! And see you next time!