Work (update)

It’s been a month since I wrote something other than a “daily” blog, which you may have noticed have also not been consistently daily. When I started this new-ish job a year ago, I spoke with several of you irl and acknowledged this “doer” role I was taking on was going to necessitate some discipline, which would be good for my practice. What I didn’t anticipate at the time was that discipline itself is work.

I know it seems like I’m off topic (work) already, but I’m not referring to discipline about staying on top of deadlines and making sure I schedule studio time. I have never struggled with that part of life (schedule management). Well, at least not since I realized in my college years I need a calendar to stay organized in order to fully utilize my natural, first-born-child’s instinctual superpower to be responsible. When I said “this will take discipline” I meant “I can do this, using tools I have practiced; and I trust the results will be a reward.” Also and, I am pretty sure I acknowledged (and still do) that prioritization is a form of discipline.

The “work” I’m referring to is effort, and, again, not the effort to make myself do a thing or things. It’s the effort it takes to remember and focus on an outcome in a situation where you are not an expert. I have shared with my children many times that no one can get good at anything if they aren’t willing to work at it. The universe has remembered and asked if one of us is willing to hold its beverage.

I have been working- including writing, if not prose- on things other than my blog. Every artist reading this knows being visible as an artist requires work. Call it to “momentum” or “brand building” or (insert another phrase), the limited resource of space does not present itself without effort. Said differently, if- and I do mean if- you see my **work** in an exhibit in the next 12 months, solo or otherwise, you can be certain more than one venue told me “no” for the same proposal. The same goes for literally anything that happens in an under-funded, over-subscribed ecosystem like the Arts. Publications, initiatives, even loosely (or very) organized collectives that provide a mix of professional and emotional support- none of these exist without work. Yes I’m in or building one of each atm. If you’re out there building capacity, too- you are seen and keep ballin’ out!!!

I’ve also said here, publicly, for accountability, I want to level up my writing game this year. In that spirit, **I’ve been working** on an article submission to a publication- my first attempt at the same. It has been an eye-opening experience to work with an (amazing, kind and gracious) editor and realize how much work it takes to be a publish-able writer. Yes I intentionally didn’t say good- good is a whole other level of work. The (self) editing piece in particular has taken so much focus and effort.

I also had a moment at work (read: teh jerb) this week where I found an effort to avoid a meeting with an email- we’ve probably all heard “this meeting could have been an email.” Many people use “ironically” wrong, so I’ll pedantically point that out to assuage my embarrassment that, after putting in a non-trivial amount of work to avoid a meeting, I in fact needed a meeting, because of the email. Fortunately the universe gave me grace and allowed me to realize, in the context of my non-job work, that there was work that I could have done- editing!- that would have (a) allowed me to grow my written communication and (b) would have been more likely to accomplish the goal (of making a meeting unnecessary because email).

So, this is why I chose to revisit an earlier blog- one I did about work, which seems apropos- and, as I’ve started to do with my blogs about artists, edit some prior, prose writing of my own. Below is a post I wrote in August of ’23 after returning from sabbatical in which I played around with the many definitions of the word “work.”

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So I’m back at work. Work has many definitions, one of which, which applies here, is an “activity that a person engages in regularly to earn a livelihood.”

My work (job) is more than that for me. In the context of having a sabbatical and experiencing a care-free, easily enjoyable life, I found, interestingly, that I still feel that way. I find I want to feel the excitement about my profession in the way it did for the decade+ when I didn’t make art work. There’s a lot of work left to do around decarbonization and electrification- work worth doing. And that doesn’t mean I want my practice to go on the back burner again. I just noticed “hey, my attitude about this large portion of my time is different.”

Correlated, but not causal- there is, currently, less work in my studio as a result of less work taking place. While this is relative to the sabbatical I just completed the issue is time, specifically, using some of this limited resource. Going back to definitions of “work” that first sentence uses two other, distinct definitions of the many aspects of work. The first- physical works of art- are “something produced by the exercise of creative talent or expenditure of creative effort : artistic production.” The second usage refers to an “activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something.” (see also, gettin’ sh%t done).

You know what? I’m just fine with this sitch. Really. So what if I don’t reserve and then use energy to head into the studio? I also don’t have an upcoming solo exhibit or a gallery haranguing me for inventory. Why force myself to make things because… yeah, I can’t finish the sentence. Isn’t work that bursts out due to a creative fire better, or at least more authentic? Maybe I mean easier, too. I’m still working on projects to build community, and ideas for shows (as well as the list of venues to which I’ll pitch them). I’m also in the beginning stage of my very first “strategic plan” for the next five years (note with update: I still maintain this activity, with three- and twelve-month goals along with a 5 year plan broken into yearly milestones).

I like things that work- this time, I’m using the definition “produce a desired effect or result“. I don’t think I’m alone, as an artist, in holding that sentiment. It can hold different specific import for any of us- I’ve realized/remembered, for example, that there are simple strategies to plan out studio sessions that can harness my creativity in a way that works to generate more work with less work. Selecting a single word as a theme to focus my writing “works”; doing a bunch of paintings over sabbatical just to see what “works” works; and writing this blog to keep myself accountable to keep writing more, works.

What works for you?