Thursday, December 20, 2007

Time

Yesterday, I was introduced to a customer of my dad's that, by all accounts, is a fan of my college. Didn't find out if she was a former student or something, but she obviously enjoys talking about art on a level the average business worker doesn't have knowledge of.

The usual questions were exchanged like what is my major and my area of concentration at this point and how soon I'll be expecting to graduate. There were even some challenging questions like what kind of concept am I going for and where does it fit in the contemporary art scene, to which I answered to the best of my social ability.

The most interesting question? She wanted to know if my views on contemporary art and who I believe is the average person going to the gallery will hinder any kind of progress in my work after I graduate. I thought about it for a moment.

When a few seconds cleared, I went with my first answer.

The contemporary views of art will always change. Their view and my idea of who is actually going to these galleries and looking at these works will not stop me from creating anything I want.

What will stop me is time. Time, in a social nature, is something that one either has too much of when there is nothing to do or too little of when there is too much to do. Finding time or making time to get projects done has always been a problem for me, more so than presentation and craft. That's the one thing that will stop me from doing work more than anything.

Case and point? Last night I was only able to get three drawings done for my box. I didn't do any last week because I was so exhausted running back and forth between work and domestic responsibilities (READS: taking care of Skippy) that finding even five minutes to draw is impossible. I'm typing this blog while I'm slopping down Ramen to sooth a sore throat I caught from my dad. That's how little time I have.

2 comments:

Robert Stone said...

Jon,

There is nothing so broad and so narrow as time. Several years ago I had an extensive email correspondence about what I called "The Literary Uses of Time." I have even been known to suggest that there is a sort of time which is a succession of places rather than events.

The other day I was thinking about an artist I met and whether he really was an artist. I said, "He said he was an artist and showed me some of his work. I gave him some money and he gave me some art, therefore, he must be an artist."

But there is more to it than that. I have always been bad dealing with time and so have a lot of people I know. But in the end the truth is that we will make time for what is truly important to us.

Robert

Anonymous said...

Time is a half-assed excuse that I use all the time to convince myself that it's okay that I'm not doing any work.

It comes down to this: in the last waking seconds of my life, I am not going to regret my lack of time as much as I'll regret not taking advantage of the time that I do have. I really don't want to look back at my life and say "I wish I'd gotten off my ass more and made things happen. Man I sure was lazy."

There are limited hours in my life. I have to make sure I take advantage of each one.