lately i have been very busy creating pieces and writing for publications. i have been writing more and more. i didn't expect that when i started out. well, hell, i didn't expect any of this when i started out. i only had a dream. (This piece is entitled "romancing the writer").
i don't write in the studio, only at home. BUT, when i am home working like today, i find i am always doing double duty. i suppose anyone who works at home has the same problem and its a killer.
this is my day: i wake up, drink my coffee as i read over my emails. i have a little chat with my husband about the news (he reads to me from the newspaper sometimes) and daughter - if i catch her in time before she dashes out to school.
then, i shower, put on my work clothes - something that i can get paint on. i go downstairs and begin working. usually i am working on some continuation of a project in progress, or not. many of these creations from home are for articles which i then write about.
this is the killer, i look up from my work and SEE the dirty kitchen, dirty laundry and just "stuff" that is all over the house that needs picking up. as my paint dries, i will wash, pick, fold or vacuum. but it is never enough. never. my house overwhelms me. its my personal hell. i try not to do too much, but it makes me uncomfortable all the time.
a friend and collegue of mine (let's call her "shelly")who also works at home says that she puts on a timer for 10 minutes. she has 10 minutes to do chores, then she goes back to work. that way, she doesn't get overwhelmed by the housework and stays on task for work.
i'm going to try that. BUT 10 minutes, jeez, i don't think i will get much done. "shelly" swears by it - she says she gets more done than she thought. hmmmm.
luckily my family understands, or just stays quiet because they know they would get ration from me. but often friends don't understand that i am in here working my ass off. maybe they think i am just sitting inside my house, watching tv (which i don't ever turn on) and eating bonbons all day long. do i look like i eat bonbons? don't answer that.
aw well, it is midnight, this day is over and i am writing in my blog thinking i ought to put on the final coat of paint on my latest project so that i don't have to do it in the morning. i will take the dog out for his potty, rinse some dishes, clear up the breakfast side of the table (the other side has my projects)and finally relax with a book in bed. i really ought to vacuum, but that might get my family pissed at me.
i have to say this for having a studio - it is much easier to work. that way, you only have to focus on one thing - your art.
2 comments:
AMEN sister!!!! Our days are nearly identical, except I don't have a studio outside my home, and I don't drink coffee, and my daughters have moved out, and my husband never talks about the news, or much of anything else...but other than that nearly the same - but it took me less than a week to convert the last daughter's bedroom to my oil studio (she had the ONLY north facing window)...which gave me the inspiration to take over the first daughter's bedroom for my acrylic and collage- but wait this is not why I am writing. Have you ever heard of Flylady? www.flylady.com --if not, check her out. Her site and books and junk are all about disorganized messed up housewives and housekeeping. All in babysteps and 15 minutes at a time with encouragement, and NO guilt. If you sign up you will get a bazillion email reminders of what to do that day. I have done Flylady for years on and off - mostly on. It takes a little bit, but not much, to get going - but I find it really helpful. Since housework was used as discipline and well - abuse and torture - as I was growing up I have a real hard time with it, without Flylady I think the health department would board up my windows and condemn my house and probably institutionalize me. Which might not be all that bad - i have always harbored a secret wish to get institutionalized - sort of like Van Gogh in the movies - and friends and family would visit and bring me art supplies, and I could sit in the garden -which are always beautiful - and make art all day and night - with no responsibility. Just like in the movies. My husband thinks I am pretty nutty and probably the only person that would wish for that...but I bet you get it, don't you? (Please say yes)
Hope to see you someday soon -
nathalie
hahahahaha OHMYGOD, we really ARE sisters! i have had the very same secret wish. now my secret wish is to be in the same institution as you!
HA! and i thought i was all alone with this desire and i would never have been brave enough to have admitted it. the truth is my grandpa and his son, (my uncle) actually were institutionalized---so maybe me too! er, their ticket in was alcoholism, hmmmmm. i can do that.
i never heard of flylady. i will look her up. she's not annoying like the voice in the GPS system, is she??
actually my husband ignores me too, i think he has to because of mental distress.
or something.
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