Some time ago I started having problems (and I have had
this type of situation occur repeatedly) with people treating
my artwork as something
low priority that I could and should be able to brush aside
and not be bothered by having to not get done. Now I understand
the reason, since as of when I wrote this I had (legally speaking)
only ever been a hobbyist and there was appearing to be a good
chance that was as far as I was going to be able to take anything.
I can't count the number of times I have heard people say
set aside time specifically to create.
First of all I can tell you right now that time is going to turn
into nothing short of a fight on your hands if you are dealing
with the wrong people or the wrong situation.
Second of all another way to handle things is this. Yes absolutely
make space in your routine, but a way I handle things is that I give
myself a quota, a deadline, and a standard.
To give an example a certain number of pictures
I would consider publishing on espdigiart.com each
week. Not that all of them will get published, many don't but the test: is are they
good enough and original enough would I consider publishing them
on espdigiart.com?
While the number of pictures per week
has varied slightly over the years that is actaully something I decided
to do as a matter of trying to make sure there was something to post
even before I started espdigiart.com,
so if anyone doesn't believe that works check out
the gallery pages.
If my quota is met in less than an hour, and the
artwork I have created
satisfies the criteria as much as if it takes me something closer to
12 hours or so. And yes I have hit both extremes.
I did at one point attempt this with writing my articles but
rapidly found myself suffering bad bought of chronic writers
block and was unable to routinely meet any kind of quota. So
anyone reading this has probably figured out there is no where
near as many articles as
there are pictures.
I was also dealing with another situation that very much negatively
impacted that had to do with being kept in fear for my life and
property and I felt like I had a fight on my hands to get anything in the way
of a creative thing done no matter what it was. In fact the only
thing worse than getting caught with a new creative project was
getting caught with an old one, so once things were shelved it was
nearly impossible (even though they were no less physically accessible)
to get them back out and do anything with them. So consequently only
after I had left that situation and been away from it for months was
I finally starting to get some of my old projects back out and
finish them up.
Which brings me to another point.
Anyone who is being kept in a situation where you can't relax into the creative
process at all even if you make time, set goals, or take any other measures that
can only help with so much. Yes it helps & if I hadn't deliberately set a goal,
or a time, then I would actually have probably never figured out this was part
of what was interfering with my creative activities. I was through the first
several years I was running espdigiart.com
and for long before that living with people who expected other things to pretty
much consume my life 24/7 and no matter what I gave them it wasn't enough so
all of my creative projects were very much negatively impacted by that
situation. That's not to say I didn't draw some
amazing pictures during that
time, I absolutely did.
Taking a stand and saying �this is my thing that has to get done� would have
never been possible if I hadn't taken those simple measures. Worse given my
then living situation I would have had to give up doing anything with it because
of that situation even before the spiritual crisis I later suffered in late
2017. Having set those things in place gave me something to point to, a measure
to tell me something about what was going on. It was actually the difference
between me continuing to post new content to espdigiart.com
up until my spiritual crisis and not being able to do any creative work
at all through a lot of that time.
In that same amount of time eventually I was kept in such fear for my safety and
even my life I actually reached a point where for several months maybe even a
year or two in that living situation I was so fearful that even in the privacy
of my bedroom where nobody would know I couldn't bring myself to pick up a
video game system and play some of my old favorites. This at the exact same
time my artwork was suffering. Those
probably weren't even the only activities that suffered for that situation so
much as they were the only ones I remember realizing it about. When I finally
realized what was going on I did say screw it and started playing video games
again at least a little because I really was sick of it and really because I
was honestly convinced it was only a matter of time before I was going to
get killed anyway.
However unlike my artwork it was that
I realized after an extended period of time of having fully stopped this
activity, and I wasn't in a position to draw a line in the sand and say no
I won't let this go past whatever point. Now drawing unfortunately if it
had gotten that bad to start with I don't know if I could have actually done
that because unlike video games I have to get in the zone to draw a good
picture and getting in the zone doesn't
mix well with wondering how long until you are about to get killed and weather
you are hoping that if you wear a shirt that shows the bruises on your arms people
will notice and ask or weather you are hoping it will never occur to them.
There is a mentality that I have heard about (I probably even once had it) that
creative activities such as art, or writing, or
other such things would be something if a person does them for a living just sort
of happen. Well spontaneous creativity does happen, and it is incredibly fun some
of the spontaneous element might be what happens during the time you already set
aside to loosen up and do your creative activity. Sometimes spontaneous creativity
is the week I go above and beyond whatever it was that I had in mind.
I'm not saying there aren't very serious hobbyists or even professionals that don't
do it that way when it comes to their art-form or other creative activities. There
might also be people who fall into an odd category where they might be following
a schedule that isn't conscious or fully conscious so it feels more spontaneous
than it actually is. What I am saying is that for many people this isn't the
end result.
While there is the classic advise that people give, make some space in your
routine, and/or set a quota and a deadline. If you set a quota and deadline
but don't have a time minimum I strongly suggest you do however have minimum
standard, you can have pictures that don't meet it all day long (been there
done that, had fun with it). That standard can be as simple as whatever you
created has to be better than whatever you did last time if you are just learning
to do whatever it is. And if you are the only one who cares about the deadline
so what? It's there for a reason. It serves a function and that function is
to help you remember to create.
By the way the level of flexibility with quota, deadline, standard rather than
just setting a time can leave a person open for a lot of the same spontaneous
creativity some people probably fantasize while still leaving a person in a
position to actually make their artwork,
or whatever creative pursuit a priority. However I finally did have to
make a space and say no I won't allow anyone to interfere on more than an
intermittent or emergency basis because of the fact that I was starting to
have problems with people assuming that level of flexibility means I don't
have to take the time and actually do the
artwork, or alternatively I don't need
to have enough time at some point prior to the deadline to actually
draw a good picture.
If you are dealing with a situation that won't allow for you to make space in
your life for your creative works, or that is causing problems even if you are
doing so then I strongly advise looking at what in your situation might be part
of the problem because it might even be a sign that something else in your life
is part of the problem and addressing it (if at all possible) when it's just
weather or not an art project is or
isn't possible to do if you take simple measures might save a lot of more
serious problems later.
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