A body of work

This past week I’ve had four different people comment on how much work I have out there and how much they admire the commitment I’ve put into my body of work. And you know if something comes up that many times for me, it’s gonna end up here on the blog for sure!

Lemme start with some disclaimers. It feels uncomfortably braggy for me to have this conversation. I grew up Southern Nice and in Southern Nice you don’t draw attention to people complimenting you and you SURE don’t admit that you could have possibly enjoyed it. There’s a strong tradition of being self-deprecating both in Southern Nice and in woman’s socialization. So of course I dithered quite a bit about even writing a post about this.

I also benefit from a big ol’ slice of privilege pie. Economically. Educationally. Being able bodied. Being white in multiple art spaces catering to white women. I am able to make art because I have the time and energy not spent on other work. I point this out because I don’t ever want anyone reading my blog to assume that I think what I am able to accomplish is entirely of my own doing and that I don’t recognize that I got a head start.

With those things foregrounded, I want to unpack having a lot of work and my commitment to that work a little bit.

You have a lot of work!

Yes I do! This is what ten years of putting energy and time in the same direction look like. I started with 20 minutes a day ten years ago. Some days I still only do 20 minutes. Sometimes I miss a few days or more! But I always go back to the work. I have a lot of small work. Journals. Small art pieces. I like working big but that’s not possible for me regularly. So I concentrate on the small.

The really nice thing about small work is that it accumulates quickly. A few hours of work can get me started on multiple things when I work small. Yesterday I zoomed with a friend and we chatted for a couple of hours and I worked while we chatted. At the end of the session I had worked on six different pages in the book I’m working on right now.

My answer, always, is to keep working. Not feeling it? Work through that. Hating everything I make? Work through that. Loving it? Make even more work! Inspired? Not Inspired? Work through it all. Having a habit of returning to the work regardless of circumstances has served me well. It takes the guesswork away. Will I work today? isn’t even a question, it’s a given.

You make art and you write a blog and you make videos…

When I started I was posting an image to Twitter once a day and that was it. I wasn’t blogging about it. I wasn’t making videos. Instagram wasn’t a thing yet. But over the past ten years I’ve added all of those pieces in, one at a time and slowly. Sometimes I’ve let them go. I don’t do Twitter anymore because it’s a dumpster fire. I let go of maintaining any sort of Pinterest presence because it didn’t increase viewership of my work or create community.

I’ve added a YouTube channel and an Etsy store and I work at a slow pace to maintain both of those things. I really enjoy writing these posts, so this website gets any attention that I’m not using on art. This website is also mine and fully under my control. All of these other platforms could disappear like Twitter has and there would be nothing I could do about it. But this website is my space and I’m more than happy to share it with you.

I’ve learned over the years to try things and be fine with dropping them if they don’t serve my guiding principles. But if they are working to keep building them up as best I can as time allows.

You are really committed!

I think about Georgia O’Keeffe and her traveling to New Mexico alone in a time when people didn’t travel much and women certainly didn’t. She went to the desert to paint. And she ignored a lot of strictures placed on women at the time to do it. She’s a reminder to me that I don’t actually have to sacrifice very much to get to do what I do. But I do sacrifice time I could be doing other things. I’m acutely aware that time is my most precious commodity and I get to spend it this way.

So yes, I have a body work. I’ve dedicated a lot of time and energy to it over the course of ten years. Is that drive? Discipline? Commitment? It sure is. Often these things are socially more acceptable for men to express. Having that commitment and it being on display used to bother me. But I think about Georgia learning to drive her Ford Model A so she could explore New Mexico and paint by herself and I stop caring so much about how my desire to do this work looks to other people.

I also like to finish things. I’m a list checker and getting to fill in the little box in my bullet journal is a rush for me. So I work for that payoff. It seems inconsequential but I’ve found if I do it enough times, it just feels good.

Lastly, I leave you with this self-interview where I’m talking about the early years of my artistic journey. Since this video was made I’ve had my work in a bunch of different shows. So that little gleam in my eye when I’m talking about another show has more than been realized.

What are you dedicated to? Show me your latest work! Catch up with me on socials, email me, or go old school and leave a comment on this post to be immortalized for all of time.

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