I’ve been thinking lately about bandwidth and burnout as an artist.

A few weeks ago, a friend posted on Instagram about a kind of post-event depression that sounded really familiar. She talked about the constant cycle of making, selling, and finding the next event, and the feeling that you can never really slow down. That got me thinking about how much of being an artist is actually preparing for the next thing.

In the past two weeks, I’ve written and submitted two grant applications and an article proposal, written seven blog posts for a partner, submitted work for three juries, taught three classes, designed and proposed another class and made the samples, and shipped about a dozen orders from my Etsy shops. And that’s just the stuff I remember. I also have also personal stuff going on (who doesn’t?!), laundry that needs doing, and I don’t think we’ve mowed the lawn in months. I’m sure this sounds familiar.

Most of the work I’ve been doing this week is for future work. I don’t work if I don’t make the work. There is always another application, proposal, class, project, or opportunity that needs to be imagined [read more…]

I just got done stitching a couple of handmade books this afternoon and as I walked to the kitchen to make a pot of tea, I realized I was smiling. I like making books and not just as an entertaining way to pass the time but I feel good after I’ve finished one. Books have a lot of repeating elements. There is a rhythm and order to the way you cover a board with paper and the folding and punching of signatures. The stitching method has a pattern. There have been studies that are often quoted about the way your brain responds to repetative motions like knitting as a way of reducing stress and lighting up sections of your brain that are connected to making repeated motions with your hands. No one is ever going to study bookbinding the same way, but my guess is that its the same responses and neurons that are firing.

There’s a new art marketplace that hasn’t even launched yet, but I’m part of the first wave of artists to try it out. I was the same way with Etsy. It’s always been my philosophy as an artist with any new show or program or marketplace [read more…]