I have been thinking a great deal about the words of writer and artist Lynda Lehman. Lynda is a shopkeeper on Zazzle in addition to selling her art on shutterstock. You can find Lynda on Facebook at Lynda Lehman Painting and Photography. You can find Lynda's art here and the beautiful art products you see in this post are Lynda's on Zazzle.
In an interview for Creativity Portal, Lynda speaks of giving your art "enough time for the process to take on a life of its own" and says that, "it's very important to create the time and space for a real process to develop." Lynda goes on to say that "this is opposed to working so intermittently that 'process' doesn't have the opportunity to take hold and grow with its own momentum."
I think her words are absolutely true.
We all know that feeling that I call being 'in the zone'. Others have called it being 'in flow', absorbed, engaged. This is the state when little else seeps into your conscience, when your words or your art of choice subsumes all around you, consumes your eyes, ears and mind, and three hours can feel like three minutes. It is a state of high productivity and intense and joyous concentration. Once you feel it, you long for it.
For months now, I have been trying to figure out why I feel so scattered, unproductive and frankly, half- ... ummm ... -baked, with my art and writing. And reading Lynda's words, I realize that my unsettled, unfulfilled feelings stem from not having process time. Having intermittent time to devote to my arts very much describes my life at this stage.
So what's the good news here? That I can now put my finger on the issue. And can now let up on myself for not doing, being, all that I want creatively. Perhaps this stage of my life, where I must work a full time plus job in an unrelated field as well as be the one person responsible for running a household is simply not a time when I can have process time. Perhaps it is enough for now to know the issue, do the best I can and look forward to a time when I do have process time.
Lynda's words have helped me tremendously and I hope they help you, too. You can find Lynda's words on her blog, Peripheral Vision: inner sights and a listing of her articles for Creativity Portal here.
Kara, I think you've hit the nail on the head. Of course, with running a household and a heavy workload, you are going to feel both scattered and unfulfilled. Women are juggling so much responsibility in their lives these days, and it IS difficult to become wholly engaged in anything besides the everyday stuff.
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel any better, I have only committed or been able to commit to my own art process since about 2004. So that makes it about 8 years now....And I'm a lot older than you!
I'm glad my words helped you put it in perspective. Your time will surely come. I hope your art dreams will all come true, and you will experience all the joy you deserve.
I'm so glad we "met!" Thank you for the lovely post!! ;)
Kara just a beautiful blog post. I am familiar with Lynda's work, her words and her giving spirit and it was a lovely blog post, maybe other's will also find Lynda's work through your words and best wishes with your own beautiful photography!
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful post!! Just great - I learned more about Lynda - whose work I love!! I enjoyed reading what Lynda said (and you wrote - thank you!!) and going and looking at her other work I hadn't see.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
~ Diane Clancy
http://DianeClancy.com/blog