New Term Art Thoughts.

(one of this week's daily drawings)

My kids are nearly all back to school. Here in California, they get a 10-week summer break, pretty long compared to the 6 weeks I used to get for summer in the UK. I think they may even be ready to get back to school and see friends. I too, am feeling that back-to-school vibe- I’m raring to get back to some consistent drawing and painting. I’m not sure I intended to take so much time off - I know I had my reasons for slowing down.

However, it seems a good time to try and return to a period of daily drawing - to try and find a way of making myself accountable to an art practice again. On travels and trips to see family, there has been lots of thinking time (I get car sick -so there is not much else I can do in cars and buses apart from staring straight ahead and pondering) and one of the things I have been wondering for myself, is maybe with school-age kids, by embracing their school schedules and holidays, I could get a sustainable creative timetable too. I do like a routine! , I like the idea of daily drawing in term time, but taking a break from that in the holidays. It is also far easier for me to be consistent if I’m in one place. One thing I have taken from this summer of attempting to get offline and slowing down, is that putting yourself under too much creative pressure can be counter-productive. There’s a reason for school holidays and vacation time! It is also so easy to get caught up in overwhelm, outside/internal expectations and comparison. I would love to say I’m clearer in my focus or direction, but I’m not! I do know I’m at least more OK with my desire to let my art unfold and to find out more about myself through creativity.

(above drawing was inspired by sketchbook work)

I want to share art again and look at a bit of art online again. I also want to keep meeting artists in real life, I know that is not that easy depending on where you live and your situation - so I am grateful for online resources too. I don’t necessarily want to get into brain-wiring here, but for those of us who don’t have the best executive functioning - modern life can be overwhelming. I hate forms and frequently lose control of my email inbox, I know that feeling of being scattered, pulled in various directions of things to do, appointments to make, never feeling on top of life admin, chores - so it is tempting to leave creativity for later. But, I’m not sure coming to it tired and at the end of the day works either. My point is to make art for yourself - even as a part-time career, or hobby - you need to be a little bit selfish - something has to give. My eldest has come around and agreed with me for once (which doesn’t happen often) - that keeping his room less cluttered, as minimal as possible does have its benefits, and keeps me off his back about tidying it. I have been trying to address this in my own brain space by unsubscribing where I can, limiting online platforms, not worrying about FOMO - it is an ongoing battle…. I do find that getting up early, and getting in the journalling /drawing first thing does help me feel better - do I do it consistently? -sadly no - but I can see the benefits of a good morning routine, and there’s something rather nice about those super quiet early mornings by myself before anyone is up.

I wanted to share this project (term time daily drawing) in case it might work for others as a good creative challenge. A year-long daily drawing project is just too demanding for me. Plus, this style of project might appeal to those like myself who need more open, amendable challenges. Not everyone has kids or keeps to a school schedule I know, - but working projects into your season, and adjusting them to your personality, I feel, means less pressure, and more chance of success. My idea is to have weekly themes/subjects which allow me variety - something I need as boredom is a surefire issue in my losing motivation. I know there are articles on how the substack notes section is social media and the risks of that, (will it go the way of Twitter/Meta ?) but, I have to say for the time being, I like notes and will try posting my daily project there. I also am not hardcore about this project idea- it is selfishly to benefit me, so if a drama comes up, I will skip or reassess.

Anyway here (Substack ) is good for now, I don’t expect platforms to stay the same, I just need to embrace enjoying a space that resonates with me while I can. Yes, the internet is oversaturated, but it is important that creative people can still share, and maybe find someone with a similar art niche, or artistic viewpoint. Art matters, writing matters- this year I have read a few memoirs by mixed race (half Asian- half white) authors and I could empathise with their perspective, I saw I was not alone in some of my feelings from childhood. I also appreciate watching some relatively small YouTubers and listening to the stories of people who realistically know they probably ain’t going to get rich, or be seen by the masses but enjoy sharing anyway. I can’t help but warm to certain artists- feelings are contagious sometimes, and I love it when you can tell when someone is truly enthused about something, or willing to laugh at themselves.

I feel we have to know that even if our art doesn’t get seen/ our articles get read, there is still value in making the work for ourselves. This piece is taking me ages to write, drawing comes naturally to me- but writing does not, however, it is worth the effort because it is making me think about my art, my practice, and my why. I’ve forgotten 90 per cent of what I learnt at med school, but I know it was valuable to do all that study and apply myself at the time, yes I deleted a lot of my Instagram and it’s deactivated, but there was value in my sharing there when I first started drawing again. I try not to get too attached to any one process, or thing- I know the joy of learning, the satisfaction of putting effort into something - stretching yourself. Sometimes putting yourself out there is a good challenge, it can push you to do more work. At the same time, I never judge others who hide their art - I get it, I have been there, and not everything is made more important or valid through sharing, sometimes we do not need feedback, especially those of us who are a little fragile in knowing what we want, maybe have had hierarchical, authoritarian backgrounds, may have been people pleasers and don’t have the confidence to say to our nearest and dearest, or the trolls; ‘stuff you’ - I want to paint that ‘ugly abstract’ or X that I know you will hate/criticize - and no I’m not interested in painting you a realistic pet portrait, or flowers in the style that you like. If you need the money from art that may be another matter, you make the work that pays ( only certain works of mine get selected by print companies and that’s fine ) but there’s always the possibility of a secret art project.

This piece has not gone the way I thought it was going to go when I started writing it, maybe my new creative challenge will also go off tangent. For the first week, I have enjoyed daily abstract art-making. I kept my brief simple, the aim was just to make an ‘ugly /bad ‘ abstract art piece every day in any sketchbook, using any materials. Keeping my expectations super low has meant it is hard to be disappointed in the results, I’m rather excited by a few of the results and might repeat this week at a later date. For the next week, I want to make a looser sketch /work from an old sketchbook drawing. I want to look more to my own work for inspiration /use but also to get looser and more explorative in my process. Maybe in some weeks, I will want to practice observational drawing, to go deeper into learning a medium. It is the dilemma of needing some limits to get me going, but not too rigid that will end up hindering my creativity, and the project becomes a chore. We will see how this goes…..

Are you feeling the pull for a new creative project? maybe you aim to finish some old projects or maybe just take a break. - whatever you are up to , I hope it is going well,

Thanks for reading

Sonia xx

Playing around with Inktense blocks