It's that time again. Every so often I let the business aspect of running an art gallery get in the way of the reason I decided to open a gallery. The reason, of course, is to make artwork. It's completely typical to let the business get in the way and it's only a matter of time before I realize that something is missing in my life. I simply need to set aside some time for creative endeavors. My goal is to draw or paint for at least one hour a day for seven straight days. I've done this before and it's always worked out nice. I start feeling productive and less bogged down. If you find yourself uninspired or too overwhelmed with the day to day mumbo jumbo of life I recommend jumping on board and trying this out. An hour isn't much. Really. I promise. In fact, usually by the time an hour is up you'll find that you want to keep going. Also, it's good to make it one straight hour with no interruptions. Ten minutes here and ten minutes there doesn't quite cut it. Sometimes it takes a good twenty minutes just to get into the groove. And I understand that it might be hard to avoid all interruptions, but try to keep them to a minimum. Turn off your cell phone. Turn off you TV. Put on some good music and let yourself go. Draw, paint, write a song (or songs), write a poem to your beloved, walk around and take photos for an hour, whatever. Just do something creative. I'm going to stick with drawing and painting because those are two things that I feel have been missing for the past three to four weeks. Also, doing those things makes me feel good. You know, like warm and fuzzy on the inside.
Well, if you're onboard with this one hour a day goal, I wish you luck. I think you'll find it easier than it sounds and you might even inspire some others to set aside some time to do something creative.
I must confess. I'm a few days ahead of you because I started on Tuesday night. Last time I was in Los Angeles I stopped by Pearl on La Cienega, one of my favorite art stores, and found some "acrylic ink", which is something I don't recall ever coming across before. It sounded awesome, so I picked up a jar of it in blue. I've been so obsessed with black india ink the last two years and so against thick gloopy acrylic that an opaque colored ink really had me singing at the loins.
For my first hour of the daily goal I decided to try out this new ink. Here's what I came up with by the hours end.
I was hoping to finish a whole piece in one hour, but working with a brush is a little slower than a pen and I also started focusing on some finer details. Unfortunately, but also expected, the "acrylic ink" does not seem to be as opaque as one (specifically me) would hope. The plus side is that it goes on so smooth and clean that you forget it's actually an acrylic. It really does go down like ink. Hopefully, this piece won't take up my remaining five days.
Day two of my goal ended up being a four to five hour painting session, which I will post about later. And I must warn you that it's a bit scandalous.
Day three had me back at the painting with blue acrylic ink, which I think I will continue working on for day four, which is today, so be sure to check back soon.
