Develop Several Co-Existing Ways to Work
Journal Entry: Sunday, January 21, 2024
Above, an asemic drawing made while walking just to see what would happen.
Develop Several Co-Existing Ways to Work
Come up with several different ways to work that you can rotate between based on the circumstances of any given moment. This would be different trails of inquiry and/or works of different durations of completion. The idea here is to not get locked into a single rhythm. For instance, have certain types of work that are small, others that are large, some that are quick to finish, others that are grander or more complex in scope and commitment.
Have these different types of works in play at the same time so that you are able to maintain a wide range of capacity and able to exploit different states of mind fluidly. For instance, if you are a composer, have a symphony working but also a series of small chamber works like quartets that require a different level of complexity and scale. As a writer, having a large novel working but also a body of short stories or poems.
This will allow you to switch back and forth and not be locked into only one way of working. I have noticed in my own case that if I get locked in to only working on large scale paintings it can be difficult to transition over to small scale collages or to small scale drawings. Or if I am working on a small scale, to switch over to a large scale quickly. So, I decided that I would have works in different categories working at the same time so that when I am at an impasse in one thing, I can switch over to another without coming to a complete stop or end up having an image crisis because I have finished a cycle but have not yet developed the next idea.
I believe an artist needs to be able to keep the creative engine running at all times and not come to a complete stop. It is good to at least keep things on idle, on a low hum when conditions or circumstances are not at full speed and not have a complete blackout. It is hard to get things back up to speed from a dead start. And once the creative motor is off and cooled down. Who knows when you might crank it back up. So, even if your fire gets down to contemplative embers, it is good to keep tending it and put a new log on now and then to, as they say, keep the home fires burning.
My secret plan is to eventually make the posts in the Touchonian a book about the Creative Lifestyle for Artists. You, my favorite readers, are privy to the book in it’s formation. I would really appreciate your help by making comments, asking questions and suggesting topics I should explore and write about.
I work in a few different, but related, media. I never know where it's going to go and if I get stuck I feel better by taking a break and doing something totally different, but still creative, to move something else along. Each one informs the other and I feel better for having stretched my creative muscle differently.
My mother said (of her weavings) that the smaller ones FED the bigger work. Now I do this, too. When the big woven work feels too overwhelming to work on, or I “only have 45 minutes,” I’ll work on a smaller piece and feel the completion satisfaction that propels me to come back tomorrow (or after lunch) and work on the bigger one. Is it dopamine? The completion of a small work kicks in that “I’m a Badass” hormone.