Friday, October 28, 2011

Discipline

Being an artist is like every other job. You have to go to your "office" every day and work.

Penny Berens stitches 5 hours a day.

Penny's work (detail) is always filled with hand and machine stitching


Judith Martin spends 5 hours stitching, 3 hours in studio designing and 2 hours researching. That's a 10 hour day.

Judy Martin presents her work " Heart to Heart"

Australian artist Dijanne Cevaal dedicates 50 hours per week to her art. That includes blogging, writing articles, teaching, designing, dying and making.

part of Dijanne Cevaal's Sentinelle Series

Before I became a mother and made that my career, I was a student at the National Ballet School and later a ballet dancer in a dance company in Vienna, Austria. I know about self discipline!

Now, I am a textile artist.

I sew every day, even on weekends. I spend on average about 4 hours in my studio creating and doing, depending on my family commitment.

Blogging, taking art classes, teaching, researching other textile artists, curating, writing my book...that is all extra! I fit that in when I can.

Confession: Sometimes I work on quilts unrelated to the quilt book I am writing or projects that have nothing to do with my teaching samples or my art work!! That is the equivalent of playing computer games when your boss isn't around!

wasting time??

I have decided to put aside every Wednesday for painting and preparing fabrics and papers for future works.






My dance training will come in handy.

2 comments:

  1. i recently read an article about rising artists of all disciplines and that their biggest challenge is not marketing or writing statements as once was

    but is now actually getting them to make art. i.e. work.
    no idea how true it is but very interesting.

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  2. I work a similar sort of day too, usually at least 5 hours stitching, the rest of the day designing, thinking about or planning stitching. Some days it's harder than others, but always preferable to working for someone else.

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