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Sunday, August 23

Time

So I talked about space earlier this week, but I'm sort of curious about how much time people are able to spend on their art. It's a constant personal battle finding time to work, fighting against work responsibilities, family responsibilities, volunteer activities, and my own tendency toward inertia and wasteful computer hours. My best and most productive moments are between 10 pm and 1 am. These are the hours that are the quietest. It's time that's just my own with nobody asking me questions or wanting me to do anything, that I can just have for myself. I do sacrifice sleep time, though, and I'm worried that as I get older, I'm not going to be able to keep that up.
It is very important to me that I spend at least some time EVERY DAY making art. It keeps me grounded, centered. It validates my inner creative person who would like to be on the surface all day, every day.
So, if you're reading this, leave a comment for me. Tell me what your work habits are like. How many hours per day or days per week are you able to spend make art? What is your best time of day? Am I the only crazy artist working into the wee hours of the morn?

2 comments:

  1. My art-space and art-time are absolutely dependent on each other. When space was near and in my house, I almost never worked. Now, I have an off-site studio, and try to get there every day or at least 4 days a week for several hours, and have found myself much more productive. I get distracted easily, so I need dedicated space and time where the only thing I CAN do is be in the studio.

    And I can't work until the wee hours of the morning anymore...maybe when I don't have to be at work the next morning at 8am...

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  2. I'm most productive when I can just get up and go into my studio first thing in the morning, actually, however that doesn't always happen. If I don't go there first thing, I can be distracted by the husband, the dishes, some random emails, facebook...

    What I've been thinking about this past year since I've had so many demands on my actual time, has been how to make my work adapt to this changing schedule. I've become interested in short term projects that allow me to experiment with concepts but that I can make when I only have a hour, a half hour, or less. I don't want things to stay this way forever, but it's getting me by. In addition, it has let me discover new ideas that I'm interested in. Everything has been fairly experimental, but (at least to my standards), a bit unresolved. At the same time, I'm trying to be more spontaneous and free - it's an interesting ride!

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