The next morning

So my allnighter went well, though I don't think I can call it an allnighter. I felt the need to be cozy warm and do something else than paint around 11 o'clock, so I opened the sofa bed and started looking up artist residencies and grants. I found so many opportunities within the little time before I decide to 'rest my eyes'... It is 9 AM and I just woke up.

Yet, to be in this environment in my waking moment has inspired me to stay today, and paint some more. It is a little chilly in here ( yeah, the heating system is down), so I changed into my extra tee-shirt and my extra sweater ( a very old black turtleneck I stole from my mother; it is ugly, loose, and so unflattering, but so cozy. I just can't get rid of it. ), as well as one of my scarves ( I have millions...) and off I go for another creative morning! I guess I found a new way of stimulating my creativity: getting out and changing my ordinary schedule.

We all have our triggers for our creativity; many artist and designers will confirm this. I personaly love this series from freelance designer Marc McGuiness. It adresses time management, creative rituals, and so many other tricks to make it possible to thrive as an artist. I love how he talks about this writer who needs a specific type of pen with a specific type of paper to write novels. This got me thinking about what my ritual was; I think I don't have a defined ritual, which might be the reason these days, my creative discipline is a little shaky! I remember I use to go get coffee at a certain time everyday, and then do a little doodling, later starting on the painting. But really, that is it. Will I have to start pulling allnighters? Have a sleepover ritual?

Anyway I'll think about it. Right now, my fingers are full of the ' get-painting-you-lazy-human' ants.

Keeping it out of my comfort timezone

And here I am at the studio, painting. It is now 9 o’clock, and I’m taking a little break, so to speak. I am here since 1 o’clock in the afternoon.  And it is good.

I decide to do two things today: pull an allnighter, and test one of my boyfriend’s theories, the Survival Kit.  He says you can survive in any situation with a tooth brush and a pair of clean underwear.  Coming from a traveler, I take this for the truth. I edited his idea into the Ultimate Artist Survival Kit:  a blanket, an extra tee-shirt, an extra sweater ( oh, yeah... most artists won’t tell you, but one of the things about a studio is that, inevitably, it is cold, because, inevitably, the heating is not on yet, even if october is here), a tooth brush and paste, the ever-so-important clean undies and your studiomate’s sofa bed.

But why pull an allnighter? Usually by now I would be out and going home, where I would take a shower and go to bed, my brain being exhausted by the painting day I just had. Yet, I would be more exhausted by the thinking: where to put this color? Is the painting good enough? How will it look? I remember, in art school, when I had homework for the next day, I sometimes painted late into the night to finish it. I was not thinking, just painting, because it had to be done.  My brain got into a surrealistic state where you just pour out whatever you got, because that is all you have left. I then went to bed really early in the morning, telling myself : ‘I’ll just hand in this thing. If I get a C, I’ll be happy’. The next day, when I looked at my work, I surprised myself because the work was actually good; it was raw, simple and personal. The filters had been removed by  the fatigue and the carelessness. I want to recreate this state today; I feel I need that careless feeling paired with the action of smearing paint on a surface.

I already worked on 3 paintings, and started sketches for a friend’s poetry book.  The little blank canvases are looking at me, serenely from the floor. I have a wood panel drying flat, splashed with toxic fluorescent green paint, and a huge 6 feet by 6 feet portrait behind me.  I did the underpainting for some sculpture paintings, and gessoed some surfaces. I’ve done more today than I have in the last two weeks.  I have given myself this time, and it is handing to me some great things.

Turns out the studio under ours is having a party, and I hear the music playing as if I was there.  It is very much fun to hear oldies and paint.  Make me think I am in the right place, at the right time.