True Confessions. What artists really do when you’re not looking!

Welcome to Blog Carnival, where you, the reader, gets to wander around inside the brains of an international collective of artists. Please watch your step, its slippery in here.

Each month a random selection from over 300 artists around the world give their perspective on a common theme related to living life as an artist. If you have ever wondered what it is like to live life as an artist, or been curious how the creative life compares in different parts of the world…read on.

This month we’re talking about “Favorite things to do in the studio”.  We’ll assume for a moment that sex and drugs is probably not what they had in mind when they brought this up. So, moving on, what DO we really, really, like to do in the studio?

Many people, particularly non-artists types (you know who you are), look at the creative life and think of it as unfettered playtime. "You sit around and make shit up"…and they are right…sometimes. Most of the time however it is nothing like that at all. Its deadlines, and pressure to come up with designs that meet specific, often multiple objectives related to concept, style, production methodology and salability.  Surprise! Artists think about such things in addition to engaging in the hard work of creating stuff that your kid could probably make better.

But all that silly romantic business stuff is likely not what drew us all to being artists. We confess, it’s the fun of sitting around and making shit up.  You discover truth in doing this. Truth about yourself, truth about your work, truth about the world you and your work exist in. It is a magical process, and we don’t know of a single artist who gets to engage in this activity of pure creation as much as they would like. 

Of course, we are talking about that aspect of creation that is unfettered and independent from all worldly concerns. Which leads to a related human experience of being completely absorbed and focused on a single task. We don’t mean, “intently paying attention to what you are doing”, we mean time stops and the external world fades completely away focus. The artist literally gets lost in the work. THIS is what artists really like to do in the studio. It is certainly what we like to do in the studio, and it is a luxury when we can give ourselves permission to do this. Did we mention that artists tend to be a very disciplined lot, despite our disheveled public image.

Not coincidentally, psychologists have studied the common traits of truly happy people. Ten things that happy people have in common is the ability and practice of singular focus on a task to the exclusion of all distractions whether they be internal or external. Does all this mean that artists are happier?  Who knows? Ask one…or click on the links to see what other artists have to say.