Creating more time for spontaneous creation

It doesn't have to be good

Feb 07, 2024

I have been up in the Bay Area since Thursday and have a bit of a whirlwind trip, as they usually are. On Friday I interviewed with queer activist, photographer and filmmaker Jason Hanasik. Saturday I attended the opening of my show Pure Beauty, that was a pure delight. The work is made up of brightly colored wall-works by three talented and myself. It was so fun to get to see people, and check out work at the ICA and a few other local galleries. Then on Sunday, a series of fortunate mishaps and unfortunate weather disasters led me to doing an interview that is yet to air, but was kind of a big deal - details to follow if/when that goes live.

Zoom station with Freddie Mercury shrine background - thanks to Liz Bernstein for creating this feast for the eyes

All this is to say, things have been busy and so making space for brain downtime has been challenging. Typically on a weekend like this I would spend hours scrolling on Instagram as a way to block out the chaos of it all. But because I am doing Flip Phone February, I have committed to removing those types of activities and adding in other stuff that fills my brain with wonder - or at least a mild curiosity.

As a result of this intention, I read a cool essay about The Third Mind and Dadaism. I have done some sketching out in the world while waiting for food and people.

And I even ended up going to my friend Holly Coley’s ceramics studio, Pinkney Clay, to do some work on my computer while she prepped, but instead of computing, I ended up faffing around with some marbled porcelain.

I ran it through a slab roller then cut it into some weird shapes. Having had no intention at the beginning of the day to make anything in particular, it felt awkward and good to be given some material and just mush it around a little.

It was fun to feel a little rusty at these different forms of art-making that weren’t as controlled as what I usually do in my studio. I can’t say I’m super proud of anything I made but I think that misses the point - at least right now. It’s a process, not a product that I’m after. By reducing phone time and scrolling, it feels uncomfortable and a little scary to step into these new habits. I’m taking the training wheels off my current lifestyle and forcing myself to get a little more spontaneous with the hope that it will help my mind open up to new ways of working. The best-case scenario is that I won’t be able to predict what I want to make at the end of the month after having gotten more used to this reduced-stimulation lifestyle.

I would be lying if I said it doesn’t matter to me at all what I make, but I’m trying to untrain that part of me for this so that it keeps an element of freedom to it. The studio is perhaps the better place for refining and tweaking. My drawings while out in the world however are maybe not going to be nice finished products. Although I think I would benefit from using some nicer paper.

Are you doing any from-life sketching right now? I’ve noticed a few accounts on Substack that are pretty nice. Feel free to share your fave, or some images of your work.

Art Date

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