In May 2015, I started an artist mother interview series"Carve Out Time for Art" which outgrew my personal website. When I realized that I didn't want to stop the interviews , I bought the domain www.carveouttimeforart.com. Recently, I transferred the interviews over to the new site. I want Carve Out Time for Art to be a site for people who need encouragement, inspiration and tips on finding time to create. Right now there are 40 interviews with artist mothers and a few artist fathers. When I have time, I want to expand this series and include more variety. On my list are retirees who have started painting later in life, full time artists, grad students, people who have careers non-art related, etc. I love this topic so much because I get so excited to see people living their dreams.
Dreams. Yes, lets talk about that oft strewn word.
I'm a self proclaimed big dreamer. Since childhood, I've consistently gone overboard brainstorming new ideas. But I've realized that dreams don't have to be extravagant to be fulfilling. Sometimes the smaller dreams are just as important. And those many small dreams may lead to newly achievable big dreams down the road.
I bet if you think back to dreams you had 10 years ago, many of them that were realized aren't even impressive to you because you take them for granted now. I do the same thing. But it's crazy when you think back. Go ahead, think for a minute and I'll wait.
Did you find one? Me too.
Aren't you feeling proud of yourself? You should. It's okay. I am.
The limiting factor of dreams is that they're not real though. Not yet. Dreams are great because of infinite possibility, and that's why the scheming at the beginning is intoxicating. It's all of the fun without any logistics, hard work, and implementation.
But man. If you do the work to get to that fulfillment stage, it feels pretty amazing.
I still think it's great to have huge mondo beyondo dreams. I will never stop running wild with an idea. But I know that it's not realistic that all of those ideas will be implemented. Only the ones that are most important if I work really hard and give up some things that are not as important.
Having a child, what I most want in my life has changed dramatically. It's not that I've given up on what I wanted before, it's that the priority and meanings of things have shifted. If anything, I was surprised by how much I needed art in my life when analyzing what I most wanted to take up precious drops in my small vessel of precious free time.
What I don't want is for people to get so deflated when they feel like it's all or nothing. Like when they see an artist on Instagram showing 2-3 pictures a day and imagining that person is living this dream life and why should they bother?
So you want to be an artist. Great. Go paint. Go create. Make it work, even if it's not what you think it needs to be. Make it work for you somehow. 5 minutes at a time if need be.
You don't have enough time? I don't think anyone does unless they're willing to sacrifice something. We all have the same 24 hours in the day. And most of those reading this blog are fortunate enough to have enough time and money to have access to wi-fi and clean drinking water.
So how do you find time?
Stop watching as much TV. Wake up earlier. Change your medium. Lower some expectations. Put a sketchbook in your purse. Ask for help. Get off Facebook. Order takeout. Draw with your kid. Look for beauty and interesting colors while sitting in traffic.
Do you know why I love Instagram? It's because every day, I see people who are living small and big dreams. They are people who say, I want more in my life. For many of the friends I've made on Instagram, that dream is creating art. It's being able to have some time to do the work. To feel inspired. Or to have no idea what you're doing and get messy and make something anyway. It's about continuing and not giving up because you cannot imagine living your life without creating something.
I think it's worth it. I know you do too.
Originally published February 2016.