APRIL

…and the importance of just doing it

More and more often I get asked by artists who are at the beginning of their journey about “how to get there”.  A loaded question, because “there” is kind of destination that is different for everyone and “how” very much depends on your very personal view of “there”.

Whatever your definition of “there” is (you must answer it for yourself, and you can’t cheat - you will be cheating yourself) - the only thing you really need to do next is start walking toward it. Sounds easy and logical, except it’s not because it requires discipline and prioritizing and no one likes that stuff. The good news is that time is on your side. The bad news it’s also against you simultaneously. You’re the magician who tames the beast and makes it into a pet - or puts his head into its wide open mouth and gets it chewed off.

The first step to successful time-beast taming is to learn everything you can about your enemy. I’m not a morning person, for example, but from noon to six I flourish like your lawn’s most obnoxious dandelion. I plan my tasks accordingly - I leave morning for things that don’t require much thinking ( yoga, laundry, cleaning, all the things that are second nature to me by now) and reserve my most productive time for my art. It ensures that when I start work I’m at my best mental and physical ability. Believe me, this is paramount. You only got twenty four hours for limited amount of days for limited amount of months for limited amount of years to achieve your life’s work. Prioritizing and discipline will get you there.

Dear artist if there anything you’re to learn from me it’s the importance of scheduling time for “doing art”.  I don’t know your circumstances and how much time you can allocate. It may be eight hours a day four days a week - that’s my work schedule, although I tend to linger longer…I love what I do. You may have a job or other obligations and can only do one hour every night, or three hours every weekend. Write it in your calendar, set a reminder, keep it as faithfully as you would doctors appointments. These hours will add up. Three hours every weekend after a year will give you almost whole week, seven glorious twenty four hour days, of practicing your skill. It’s not a great sacrifice, and not tremendous amount of time and there won’t be much difference between you and any other person who spends one hour every night scrolling - but when year is over you will have a full sketchbook, or a rough draft of your book, or a finished painting, and they accomplished none. And you know what else you end up practicing? Self discipline.

There is also the issue of expectations. Expectations can paralyze you and keep you from starting. You see all these accomplished people in your social media feed, they grab a slab of marble and voila - David by the end of the day. If you can’t chisel a masterpiece on a first try you’re not doing it. You probably smiling right now but only slightly, because you know I’m right. It’s all or nothing in black and white set in stone and outlined in hell’s fire.

It’s incredibly hard to start something new. Clean slate is never really clean, you can see ghosts of someone’s previous successes on your virgin canvas and you don’t know if you could ever measure up.

When I was growing up my mom used to dish out helpful advice on more than regular basis. Useless to me then her favorite sayings now etched inside my eyelids in flaming letters. One of them  is “the work will show”. It means that you shouldn’t expect yourself to have every detail figured out before you start working, just start and your work will show what it wants you to do. Every art piece is an equal part of skill, luck, and synchronicity. When I look at the finished piece I sometimes catch myself thinking - did I really make this? and how? and, on the scary side - can I do it again? Turns out - yes, yes I can. If I stop overthinking and procrastinating, and just attack it with all I’ve got, I can crack it open and make it show me it’s soft underbelly, tell me what, in fact, I must do to pull it from my inner world into our collective outer.

“It is six A.M., and I am working. I am absentminded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc. It is as it must be. The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written. I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive. If I have a meeting with you at three o’clock, rejoice if I am late. Rejoice even more if I do not arrive at all.” - Mary Oliver

Have no shame. We’re all mad here.

I hope it helps. if it doesn't, I will try again. Meanwhile, you can email me asking your most burning questions…I will answer them to the best of my knowledge and ability.

XOXO Larysa