discomfort
Making things shouldn't be comfortable, that leads to stasis and complacency. Making is a method of learning and discovery, and learning requires tension and stretching. It requires pushing yourself and your boundaries. It requires dissent and disharmony. The resistance is a necessity.
And yet, all tension, all the time, means something will break down eventually. Maybe your work. Maybe your friends and your relationships. Maybe you.
Uneasiness and difficulty might be unavoidable, but some semblance of support and alleviation is necessary if the process is to be sustaining.
The choice, then, is not between comfort or discomfort. Its not a question of this or that, either/or, or one over the other thing. It's a matter of placement. The question is where you put them.
Your greatest freedom as a maker is deciding where the agitation and anxiety will live.
It's why habits and rituals are helpful. Its why my creative time is on a schedule. Why I show up to my work bench at the same time, at the same place, everyday.
Its why I keep my work surface clear. Why I keep my mise en place ready. Its why I keep my materials neat, and ordered, and near. Its a pillow fort built around the struggle, to cushion against the blows it gives.
I'm choosing the when and where the discomfort appears. I’m choosing how to soften the sharp edges of what it offers, while also making space for it.
P.S. Prints of the digital collages featured above are available for purchase at my new shop here.
In the coming weeks I’ll be transitioning all my work to this new shop. However, at the moment I still have collages available for purchase at my old shop here. Please bear with me through the move.
P.P.S. - ICAD - Day 318-320 - these collages are available for purchase at my new shop.
P.P.P.S - I made a couple tutorial videos for my paid subscribers showing a couple of the ways I use and create some digital assets for my work. You can find them here and here.
This is a great point, Duane: "Your greatest freedom as a maker is deciding where the agitation and anxiety will live."
There is a liberating feeling in realizing this. I've found this in my own creative endeavors of writing and Nature photography. Thanks for sharing
Interesting stuff happening in the new b&w + beige series. And very valuable advice 🙏