I was doing some meal prep the other day when my cousin came into the kitchen. We got on the topic of keeping the soul in our work. To sum the conversation up we were basically talking about quality over quantity. He’s a touring musician, he regularly does runs all over the country, I’m talking he’ll do a 2 day jaunt down to Florida to play a 2 hour set maybe hit a show on the way back then do do a 10 show run in Rocky’s the next week. He’s all over the place living a lot of peoples dreams, but he’s also spending 90% of his time on the road cooped up in a van and he’s always fatigued. He really struggles to create a sense of normalcy when he’s home because of how all over the place his life is literally.
He seemed to hint a little toward the redundancy of driving all over the place trying to cast a wide net while simultaneously spreading himself too thin. But he did mention an alternative, He Said something to the effect of “Back in the day when we where playing local shows, we just built our following up in the area so we had a local draw. And I’m thinking what if we focused that same attention/ intention on the other surrounding big hubs. Baltimore, Philly, DC build that same following so we have people waiting for us in those cities and hit em every 3 months or so.”. In doing so I’d he insinuated he could cut down on inessential shows and mitigate fatigue. There’s got to be a point when you ask yourself “why am I doing this, driving 50 hours for 6 hours of play time, when it always comes at the cost of being in the studio, writing new material or doing the things we actually love.” there can come a point where our art is consumed by the tedious minutiae of small business where creativity and soul takes a back seat because of it. We do it because we think we have to. We do it because we’ve been told this is the only way. so here’s a question and then I’m going to pose and alternative.
At what point are we putting our thirst for fortune and fame above the soul of the art?
I had been thinking about my goals a lot lately and one of my main goals has been to stop sacrificing my routine or well being for a project that may come about. That is my golden rule, I will never uproot my life for a big project. So back to the talk about Quality over quantity.
I’m not trying to poo poo on the touring life, or the Art hustle. We all have to do it, but we don’t have to be completely be at it’s mercy. I used to throw my whole life out the window every time I got a big job. I did this Coloring book for Sheetz a few years back, I had no life for those two weeks and I was completely at their mercy. I would associate my world view with a feast or famine mentality back then. If a big job like that came about I don’t think I believed I deserved it deep down, so I’dd I desperately cling onto those opportunities like they’d never come again.
Just like the touring, I’m not down talking them at all, in fact I would say we should have reverence for every opportunity we get and we should try to bring the most positive attitude to everything we do in our practice. We truly can love it all. In fact that is what I’m proposing. We can love it all, we have to love it all if we truly want to be satisfied, but we have to take our humanity into account as we plan it all out. We’ve got to take inventory of our needs and factor them into the budget, They are just as important as the paycheck.
So I’ve been trying to make every step of my art practice as conscientious as possible. Meaning I want the whole process to be enjoyable from the moment I do the initial sketch, to the moment I get the canvas framed and bubble wrapped. I want care to seep into every aspect of what I do. This is where the inventorying comes into play. You start to notice things like “Hey I can do 4 events a month, a newsletter and a painting and still maintain focus but add a 5th event and the whole system comes crashing down” then I think to myself “well yeah but what if I cut the amount of events I do in half? I’ll book two more reputable events of double quality instead. Next thing I know I’m more well rested I had more time to doodle and I’m happier and more attentive at the shows.
This goes back to where the conversation started. We think we have to do more, but oftentimes when we do more we accomplish less. I believe it’s the path of least resistance and least reward when we just mindless cram it all in and will ourself forward. But when we step off that path, when we start thinking about what we actually want, when we start thinking about how we want our careers to feel. When we start taking mental notes after every show and every painting and we make actionable goals to make positive achievable change. We can truly make a healthy life for ourselves and make all of our aspirations actionable in a way the benefits us first and foremost.
Biggest question I’dd ask myself in consideration of committing to something
Are you able maintain a healthy routine mind, body and soul?
is there still enough time for creativity and play within your practice
Do I have to sacrifice 1. or 2. if I commit to this
if so for how long?
Am I ok with that?
This has been a longer one so I’m going to start wrapping this up. But It is imparative that we make space for play in our work. We are Artists and dreamers first and foremost. I have had this as a goal for a while and there had been a big list of deliverables I’ve been working through this year but it’s all been to build a foundation for myself where I can keep the business running smoothly and still allow time for play more than ever before. I am laying the foundation for the rest of my life, I want to play in the studio every day!
Here’s to doing the thing that brings us the most joy as much as possible
Thanks for reading
xoxox
SMH
