If youâre talking about more paintings than youâre making, you may have a work-habit problem.
Christmas Eve, by Carol L. Douglas |
Iâve been texting back and forth with a few friends about our plans for the coming year. These all involve metrics: how many shows, how many social media hits, sales volume, number of students, on-line vs. bricks-and-mortar sales. Artistic goals seem to play no part in this. Yet, without them, whatâs the point of being a painter?
Christmas night, by Carol L. Douglas |
I address the things I want to fix in my life when they first appear as a problem, not on an arbitrary date in Christmastide when Iâm already feeling sluggish from too much holiday. So yesterday when someone asked me about my artistic resolutions for the coming year, I was unable to answer.
Schoolbus, by Carol L. Douglas |
If thatâs you, too, donât despair. Thatâs the artistic temperament in a nutshell. When it works successfully, an artistic temperament is a great intellectual curiosity coupled with very disciplined work habits. A lot of people have that backwards: they see undisciplined work habits as a sign of being âartisticâ, and donât seem to notice the paucity of ideas in the work being churned out. Or not being churned out. If youâre talking about more paintings than youâre making, you may have a work-habit problem.
Nautilus was my last ‘serious’ painting of 2018, and even here I couldn’t get the magical realism out of my mind. |
I took last week off to spend time with my family. Youâd think that with all that spare time, our house would be immaculate, but itâs the other way around. Without routine, it rapidly disintegrated into a mess. I myself was restless and fractious. By yesterday I was anxiously drawing in my sketchbook, eager to get back into the studio. And so today, between visits to my dentist to get a tooth fixed (ah, Christmas!) and my physical therapist to work on my back, Iâll do just that. The metrics and plans will just have to wait.