rule of life
"Make the work now",
says. Think of the people and the places you wish you could create for. Imagine the most ambitious opportunity that in the best of circumstances and situations would one day come to you. And then, go make that work anyway.McKenna advocates for using your fantasy scenario as a prompt for your creative practice, but I think it can also be applied more broadly. This method of working can become a Rule of Life. An ordered way of living, moving, and being in the world.
For me, it's not so much a dream commission or a fantasy gig that I think of. It's a schedule. It's the rhythms and rituals that structure my days. All my core values, priorities, and intentions embodied in a routine.
I dream of being a fulltime maker because what I'm after is a life devoted to making things. Where everyday begins and ends with something created that wasn't there before. Being quietly left to my own devices in the studio to experiment and explore.
The trick is, a form of that kind of life is possible whether or not I ever attain that fulltime-dream. So why wait for it. I live it around the parts of my schedule that I can't change.
I start the day at my workbench. I make things on my breaks. Most evenings after dinner, after the kitchen's cleaned, after the laundry's been folded and put away, you'll find me on the couch harvesting magazines. Organizing source material. Arranging everything I'll need to start at my workbench the next day. It's not taxing. It's not burdensome. It's simply how I'd like to live anyway.
Think about what your life would look like, what it would be like, if your creativity was your highest priority. How would it function? How would it feel? What would you make? What would you do? Ask yourself how close you can get to that. How much of it is already within reach? And then, design the portions of your day that allow you to live that way.
P.S. - ICAD Day 23-25 - all the collages featured in this newsletter are available for purchase here.
I like this idea of starting to add in creative time into a schedule. My routine is to slowly increase that creative or simply thinking time. Now it seems like the outlier or anomaly...soon to be the norm.
Hi Duane, I can testify that this method works. I spent many years living my art life before and after work and on the weekends (when people asked what plans I had for the weekend, I always had the same answer.) But everyday, on the way to work, I dreamed about how I could devote my whole day to art. It took years and yes, retirement, but when it was time to jump, I jumped.