There Is ALWAYS Time For Art —
I get this a lot: “Gosh, I just wish I had more time to work on my photo artistry! There’s just never any time.”
If you’re telling yourself that, I’m going to suggest that what’s really happening is that you are making too big a deal out of it. You’re getting caught up in the daydream of this perfect life in which you have sweeping spans of free hours to spend with your camera and in Photoshop . . .
But real art rarely happens that way.
The madcap rush and tumble of a real artist’s life usually comes down to minutes snatched here and there combined with one or two short but *dedicated* stretches of creative focus each day.
(And for the record: if you are earnestly working at your craft and creating art every day, you ARE a real artist. So this is about you. Or should be.)
Let’s look at the two units of time I’m talking about here: The “snatched minutes” and the “dedicated stretches.”
** Snatched Minutes **
It’s hard to believe how much time you could get in on your art if you just relaxed, accepted that it didn’t all have to be so perfect, and treated your art like PLAY. Bits of fun you can have throughout the day, every day.
And this doesn’t have to mean time at Photoshop. You can be furthering your creativity and artistry in any number of ways. A minute here or there in a journal or sketchpad, a minute here or there with your camera. (This was one of the things that attracted me to add iPhoneography to my arsenal. It’s just so darn EASY, and I get to work on my art in the most unlikely places.)
But even with Photoshop, you can snatch minutes there as well. I mean, think about it: How long would it take you to open up an image, layer in three different textures, pick out some blend modes, adjust the opacity and made layer in something with a layer mask, add a Curves adjustment layer with a mask … You could do all of that and have something that looks cool and has your creativity firing on all cylinders — and all this in a quick 10-minute session. Even in 5 minutes you could get your hands into it and fall into that delicious creative state . . .
Everyone has a few minutes to jot down some ideas in a journal. Everyone can find a minute to take a photo. Everyone can slip behind Photoshop for five minutes here and there.
And those snatched minutes every day start to add up.
** Dedicated Stretches **
Of course, to create serious work, it’s going to take more time than that. But I’m going to propose three things that might change how you think about how much time you can give your art . . .
First, I believe that we ALWAYS have time for the things that really matter to us. We just have to take them more seriously, giving them priority over all of the endless bustle and bother that we let ourselves get caught up in every day. Creating art requires our attention and focus. It’s much easier to check our email (or Facebook) for the 50th time, it’s easier to blow half an hour on unnecessary text messages, it’s easier to “crash” in front of the idiot box (television is the biggest waste of time imaginable) — easier to do any number of little things that don’t really matter but end up occupying hours of our lives every day. But when you DECIDE to make your art a priority in your life, something that comes first, it’s surprising how many hours suddenly open up to you that you never quite realized were there.
Second, you will find it a hallmark of serious artists (photo artists, painters, writers, etc.) that they set aside specific times every day to work on their craft. They might get up earlier to fit it in. They might stay up later. They might take a shorter lunch. (They might even get rid of their stupid television.) But they pick out a time every day where they will be CREATING. And they stick to it. I saw this first with my grandmother, who was a lifelong award-winning painter. Even with four kids, there was a block of time every day when she was in her studio painting and that time was SET, it was locked in. Same time every day. It was sacrosanct. For you, that might start out as no more than half an hour. From 9 to 9:30 at night. Set a timer. But it’s locked in. And it needs to be there.
Third, related to both of these, it is imperative that you guard the time you spend creating and avoid distractions. If you have to get out of the house to escape meddlesome kids and a pesky spouse, then so be it. Go to the cafe, put on some headphones, and just dig in. And you must must must MUST guard against intrusions. You must take active countermeasures: Turn OFF your email. Close Facebook. Shut off your phone. Put on headphones if only to make people less likely to try to talk to you. Fact of the matter is, the world is conspiring to bother you — they’re relentless — and invariably it’s out of all proportion to what’s really relevant or important. Think of every email or text message you get as someone else trying to suck you into their agenda (or worse: their drama). You have to shut that stuff out.
When you sit down to create, that’s YOUR time. Don’t let anything interrupt it.
** Start Today **
Beginning today, start looking for all of the little moments you could be pulling out a journal or snapping some photos or fitting in a little bit of photo artistry . . .
Beginning today, make a list of all the little things that chew up your time every day and every week. What could you reduce or drop entirely? What could you delegate to someone else?
Beginning today, pick out a set time you will devote to your craft. Start with half an hour or an hour. But make it the same time, same place every day. Figure out your strategy for keeping out distractions. Tell your family that you aren’t to be disturbed during that time. If you have to, get up earlier or stay up later. If you have to, sell your TV and buy a Wacom tablet with the money. But MAKE the time and hold to it every day.
This is your life.
Create something magnificent with it.
– Sebastian
PS: The image featured in this post was a work by AWAKE artist Michele Taylor, our cover artist for Issue No. 8 of Living the Photo Artistic Life. You can visit Michele’s exceptional portfolio website by clicking here …