Finding space for 'head' work

Another old post moved into drafts for daring to look at it! Added an image and tweaked the end.

Last week I was thinking about the need for extra working hours* and hey presto, I woke up early on Friday with a stuffy nose. So after sneezing and scrabbling for tissues I just got up around 5.30 am, tip toed around the room, put on a lamp and sat down to work. PC stayed off so I had total silence to just sculpt and ponder and sculpt some more as the house gradually woke up and the sound of traffic increased outside. It was actually really nice. I should do it more often, but several late nights combined with a post - midnight bed time due to noisy family visitors made repeating it way too optimistic. I have however slept more deeply as a result so maybe I could do this on one or two days a week and see how it goes.

There’s something about being up and about when everyone else is asleep. I think the mind works in a different way without the day noise, voices and other people’s presence to distract you. When I had studio space in Devon, I would often be walking back home along the dark country roads after a long evening stint at the bench, listening to the sounds of small creatures in the hedges and watching the moon and stars over the fields. And trying to avoid walking into the nettles when there was no moon to light the way. I spent the night at my bench once, wrestling with a tricky piece while the wind howled outside and rain rattled loudly on the roof with the studio cat for company. I’m not sure that sculpture worked out in the end but I did enjoy the time I spent on it.

I learned from my time there that it was necessary to give myself days away from studio work and just take a trip somewhere; to recharge, find inspiration, clear my head and wind down a bit. You might think painting or sculpting is relaxing in itself and it is in a way, but it’s the sense of relentlessly making the next thing, working out the next idea, planning for whatever – the constant doing that can wear you down a bit.

Someone wrote that creativity only comes in the spaces between action and I think that’s right. I’m having to relearn that right now. Work can become obsessive if you’re not careful; even if it’s work you love doing. The four pieces are coming on well ahead of schedule so I’m going to just slow down a bit and make more time for the head stuff to happen. I wrote about this last week and then realised I haven’t had the time to actually put any of it into practice cos I’m always doing something.

Then again…came across a brilliant tweet from @TheStoicEmperor:

“It is fruitless to wish you had started years ago. In the future you will

wish you had started now. Don’t wish. Act”

Maybe that’s why I ended up calling this site Balance Point Sculpture. The point being, there’s a fine line between doing everything you can to make something work, and working so much you have no time or space to see how you could be doing things better. I'm still struggling to accept that. Action over contemplation is a very ingrained habit it seems.

*Since then I negotiated to drop one day from the office job and Covid resulted in my hours being condensed into two full days a week rather than four afternoons. It's a bit less money but the freedom is worth it!