I once read a quote attributed to Pierre-Auguste Renoir that said something like, “I have painted every day of my life.” I remember feeling tremendously impressed by this statement but also vaguely disconcerted for it simply sets the creativity bar, the passion bar & the industriousness bar way too high for the likes of me! Of course, I also didn’t start drawing on the walls of the family abode at age 4 like Renoir reportedly did, either. Nor would I have been rewarded with art lessons, as he supposedly was, if I had. No, I would have been rewarded with a sharp rebuke & a damp sponge. But the point is, even allowing for the fact that I came to art-making decades later in my life than Renoir did in his, I simply do not engage in it Every. Single. Day.
On the other hand, if I’m away from my easel for too long, I do begin to experience a series of escalating & unpleasant sensations (impatience, frustration, anxiety, even sadness) with their concomitant unpleasant behaviors (prickliness, pettiness, the desire to shriek at strangers.) Gone is the feeling of well-being, of centeredness, of pure joy that I get from moving pigment around or making marks.
When, for whatever reason, I simply cannot spend time in my studio on art-making, I’ve learned to get a creativity fix in other, albeit small, ways. Sometimes doing something as easy & quick as arranging a bouquet of flowers, making a batch of scones or taking some pictures of clouds can restore at least a degree of equanimity & stave off that feeling of alienation from myself for a bit.
When Tom & I are traveling, though, arranging flowers or whipping something up in the kitchen may not be options. And while travel itself is very centering when one stays in the moment, it also tends to stimulate my creative juices even more. That being the case, I manage to retain my sangfroid (& my sunny disposition) by taking lots of reference photos for future projects & by writing blogs like, “On Not Making Art.” Here’s why:
For me, reference photos are more than just records of our journeys: They are reminders that I’m an artist who is constantly on the look-out for images & that traveling is a way of widening the search.
Similarly, writing blogs about the creative process, like how to stay connected to one’s creativity so as to not take some innocent person’s head off, fulfills both my need to express myself & my need to achieve something tangible, something not-fleeting, something that can be revisited & re-experienced.
That is, at least until I’m back in my studio in front of my easel.