ART Vacation!!!

Have you ever gotten to that place where you were totally exasperated and ready to explode?     Well, that happened to me at work last week and I got to thinking “wow, I haven’t had a vacation since summer 2008…”  Like a lot of other artists that are striving to perfect their craft and pursue it fulltime, I work at a “day job” and work on my art when I can.    Since 40 hours of my week are devoted to my day job, my artwork often takes the back seat.   I also notice that when I’m tired, my creativity doesn’t flow the way I would like it to, compositions are weak, my line quality is poor, not to mention my attitude.   What’s an artist to do?    Take an Art Vacation!! 

Ok; this isn’t first the first Art Vacation for me, but I haven’t done this in well over a year…so I’m very excited about it!   : )    What is an Art Vacation you ask?    Well, for starters, I’ll be taking off a WHOLE week from my day job at the end of October, but I won’t be telling my family about it.     Does that sound mean?     I hope not.    I know from past experience that if I tell my family that I plan to spend a week at home doing art I’ll get calls all day long with requests to go here and there, run errands, etc.    WHAT a distraction!!    I really want and need this time to be devoted to a specific purpose: advancing my art business by expanding my inventory.   Here’s my agenda:

 • Go to the Huffines Art Trails on Sunday, 10/25, with my art buddies to see what other artists are doing, observe their setups, listen to music and eat greasy fair type food. 

 • On Monday, I’ll make sure that all of my supplies are ready to go and then I’ll review old sketches from the past 2 years and plan out 3-4 new surrealistically styled compositions that will be similar to this:

 

• On Tuesday, I’ll start working on all of the new paintings.

• By Wednesday night, the art hermit in me will be craving interaction with others, so off to the Art Love Magic Open House I’ll go.   (YAY!!!)

• Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be painting days.

• On Sunday, 11/01, I’ll “chil-lax” and reflect on my artsy fartsy week.

You see, the Art Vacation is really all about work, but it’s the kind of work that us creatives love to do.  It’s our passion and yet for a lot of us, we don’t devote as much time to it as we would really like to.  I’ve mentioned this before in previous posts that our busyness often keeps us from doing those things that we love to do.  Perhaps simplifying our lives some, turning off the tv, and focusing on our creative goals will help.  Maybe more Art Vacations are in order for all of us.      ??    

I want to encourage you to take some time in the next week to sit down and think about what your creative goals are for the next year and write them down on a BIG poster board and tape it to your wall so that you see it everyday.   Take an Art Vacation and work on these creative goals every chance you get.     When you do, you’ll be happier and the rest of us will be blessed because you have introduced more beauty into our world.

-Michelle McSpadden