overcoming temptation...
What are the temptations that take you away from making your art? Is there a moment in the day or the week where you say to yourself, "I really don't have time for this", but still do it? How do you overcome temptation and is it critical to be able to focus to be creative? My temptation right now, is watching the World Cup... I'd better go, France are playing!
Tags: being creative, staying focused
Replies to This Post
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Permalink Reply by LizW on -
Housework! I feel virtuous because it is necessary but at the same time its a way of not working! I sympathise with your comments, I am terribly undisciplined. As I am a writer I can actually mix it up and find somewhere else to work for a change and this sometimes helps.
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Permalink Reply by Nico Daswani on -
yes a change of scene can certainly help to focus the brain... or it can be distracting because you are discovering all the new stuff around you!
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Permalink Reply by cheryl gravitt on -
Hey,
LizW, this girl has NO problem ignoring housework, as a matter of fact, my problem is it piles up, especially if I'm working on some Art. Yeah, I just have books, paint, ink pens, what I ever I'm using piled all over the place, LOL, it's okay, unless my Momma comes over, then, it gets rough! ;>) She doesn't understand the , ahem, Artistic mind set, LOL! :>( :>)
Well, Nico, there's not much on tv that interests me nowadays, Dr. Phil, he's okay. Mostly nowadays I listen to music, and that doesn't interfere at all if I drawing or painting, as a matter of fact, I like having music going.
Reading can stop me cold, from doing anything, I love to read!
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Permalink Reply by Susan Kemp on
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I work from home and every room except the bedroom is a studio of a kind with work in progress. Work stations all over the place. The cats live on the dining room table and get relocated occasionally for projects or dinner with friends. Then there is the writing and translation station (computer desk), painting station (for fine art), copying station (I do huge commissioned copies of the old masters), sewing station cum drawing station (book illustrating) in the guest room. Seeing that I never miss a meal, I decided that my kitchen was a food studio, constantly in the state of work in progress. THAT was truly liberating....
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Permalink Reply by Nico Daswani on
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love the food studio idea!
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Permalink Reply by Karin Bartimole on
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Good question. I have the luxury of being able to set my own schedule, but there are times I'd love to have someone else there creating structure for my day.
Now that the weather is nice, and the garden is blooming, it calls... and calls! Hours can pass by in my garden, and not realize so many have gone by - very similar to the art making process. But with the garden, I need to keep up with it or it will overtake me, and the fun becomes chore, so finding balance is key. And if I'm not working out there, I enjoy a good book and the scenery...
Other than that, I'm with Liz - I let the *shoulds* get to me - cleaning, laundry, cooking. I can definitely use them to avoid focus, Creative laziness disguised as productive necessity!
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Beyond Words
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I have a theory that so-called creative blocks are normal parts of the creative process. Often you CANNOT get on with something until you've stopped. The longer you refuse to stop and accept you need to listen for the muse, the longer it takes to get started again. A block could the the pause that gets the project or idea on track again. Sometimes the vision you start out with, needs to be re-assessed
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Permalink Reply by Nico Daswani on
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is that your garden??? I would never get any work done if I had that outside!
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Permalink Reply by Bernadette Speach on -
To answer this question one must define temptation and/or distraction. That process, of itself, is possibly a distraction! But, perhaps, these temptations to distraction are informing the art making process. This is a bit like John Cage's notion that translates simply: all sound is possible art. Although I can remember being at a recording session of his string quartet and there were sounds of rain drops heard on the roof. He preferred that those particular sounds "not" become a part of the recording of the string quartet. There are real choices involved. We must choose which "distractions" are really just that, and which might inform the actual art itself, or the process of art making, or become a part of the art. What inspires us? What distracts us? Why am I writing this at 3 AM?
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Permalink Reply by Nico Daswani on
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how interesting, Bernadette. I guess it's all a choice, but also all about the way you look at things... My definition of a distraction might indeed be different from yours...
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Painting (doing art) is much like a diet to lose weight: You'll never reach your goal if you start dieting on Mondays. The secret is to always start dieting immediately after you have transgressed. Same with creativity: If you always want to finish the dishes and everything else that always needs to be done, you'll never get around to it. People who complain to me about not "realizing themselves" are just about always those who need to wash the dishes and establish this huge open space for me-time. Let's face it, you squeeze your "me' into the hairline cracks of your life and its constant demands and surprises. Don't miss the opportunities. And remember: The secret of getting something done, is to get back to it all the time after interruptions - not to try to avoid getting interrupted. That is a control-freak fantasy
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Permalink Reply by Varsha Nair on -
I have stopped myself from feeling guilty about lying in bed a whole day or two - reading, finishing a book. Still trying to fight the urge of spending an entire afternoon solving a crossword. But I came to the conclusion a while ago that work, art, happens as and when, more spontaneously specially if I give in to the temptations - that too is part of the process.
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